Textiles on Film

This week’s review analyzes the ways textiles in film “create characters, advance the visual story, and narrate action, while also acting as a catalyst for provoking cultural critique.”

Posted on March 3, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

Textiles on Film

Peterson, Becky. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024
200p bibl index, 9781350026551 $100.00, 9781350026568

Textiles on Film book cover.

Drawing from film studies and textiles, particularly dress/fashion and interior design, Textiles on Film uses critical theory to explore the interrelationships, common language, and mutual influences of these two art media. To think through the representation of materiality and the body on film, Peterson (independent scholar) uses an intersectional lens. She applies historical context and theory to women’s work and labor, the representation of race and class, the expression of gender, and desire and morality. Case studies in each chapter use a range of films—from silent to contemporary productions and from avant-garde to mainstream Hollywood—to illustrate how textiles help create characters, advance the visual story, and narrate action, while also acting as a catalyst for provoking cultural critique. The book focuses on the visual and tactile sensory experiences of film viewing and how they elicit strong emotion. The notes and bibliography are excellent, providing a rich resource for further reading and viewing. While the book works well as a whole, individual chapters could be used as stand-alone units. This book is an excellent addition to film studies as well as costume, fashion, and interior design programs.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.
Reviewer: L. L. Kriner, Berea College
Subject: Humanities – Performing Arts – Film
Choice Issue: Oct 2024

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