Fashioning the Nation: Costume and Identity in British Cinema

This work explores the history of costume in British film, from the 1920s to the 1990s. It shows how period costume romances, such as “Caravan”, “Madonna of the Seven Moons” and “So Long at the Fair” featured sensual designs which caused a scandal in a postwar society overly concerned with restraint and it explains the cultural implications of this scandal. Cook charts the way these films engage with Europe, with costume providing a way for the characters to cross borders and achieve personal freedom and, in turn, inviting audiences to imagine themselves as European.

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