The entertainment industry and the world of fashion have been intertwined for hundreds, if not thousands of years. However, what probably started as dressing for the theater has become intertwining fortunes where entertainment drives fashion and fashion drives entertainment. Television shows, movies and music are no longer just outlets for creativity, they have become outlets for fashion, to such an extent that fashion, in some cases, has become the engine of the “creativity” of entertainment.
Obviously, one of the great stepping stones in the evolution of this semi-symbiotic relationship was the advent of the star. Hitting the red carpet at award ceremonies, theater opening nights and movie premieres in the latest couture gowns and bespoke designer suits meant that stars from all areas of the fashion industry entertainment have become conduits for the delivery of the latest fashions to the media. .
It would be a significant oversight to assume that this implies that the stars and their latter days, less than saintly, celebrities, are merely mannequins and models for the best-selling design house, although this is partly the case. The reality is that the relationship is much more complex than this, depending on the relative value of the star or celebrity. A-list stars and free-spirited celebrities may be in a position to choose their own fashion, directly influencing what is popular in stores and on fashion runways.
Now, more than ever, stars and celebrities in the world of entertainment are even going so far as to design their own clothing ranges, which has an even more direct influence on fashion. Both singers and actresses have their own clothing ranges, but less obvious areas like rap and rock music have also succumbed to the temptation of fashion design. Both 50 Cent and Liam Gallagher have clothing collections on sale right now, and while they’re not necessarily that great, they obviously have some influence on consumer clothing choices.
However, fashion and entertainment have gone even beyond the interconnection of talent, they have moved more and more towards the interaction of content. America’s Next Top Model, for example, is practically a direct collaboration between the worlds of television and fashion to offer content based on entertainment. The show turns stars and celebrities into fashion models and turns the modeling process into entertainment.
Another type of example of content interaction can be seen in Sex and the City, in which the love, devotion and work of the characters for the fashion industry is one of the main axes of the plots of series and movies. . The stars of show business and now movies have become synonymous with the fashion world, promoting their own particular fashion tastes and acting as an endorsement for interest in the fashion world in general. Many other shows and movies have followed suit with this interconnectedness, including Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada, which was originally a book.
Even the lives of famous figures in the fashion industry are used as inspiration for creative content like movies, books, and TV shows. Coco Chanel’s life, for example, has now been transformed into several major films, including two starring Amélie’s Audrey Tautou.
While the world of entertainment and the fashion industry are still two separate entities unto themselves, with many sprawling disciplines, they have definitely become more and more aligned, interconnected, and interdependent. It’s hard to know how this relationship will evolve over time with such a close relationship already in place, but one thing is for sure: they are forever bound through ties of fortune, mutual respect, and shared interest.
