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Amanda is completing a PhD and her thesis, "Dress Rehearsal: Actresses, Theatre and the Dissemination of Fashion in Australia, 1890-1930", explores how the theatricality of fashion, or fashion on-stage, shaped notions of glamour which influenced fashion consumption during the late 19th century/early 20th century. Amanda's interest in the amalgamation of performer, performance and fashion expands both the historical and contemporary context of the relationship between actresses/actors and fashionable dress. Her article, "A Fashionable Production: Advertising and Consumer Culture on the Australian Stage", was published in the Journal of Australian Studies (2000). Amanda is currently working as a senior research assistant (UQ).
This paper argues there is a direct correlation between the theatre experience of the mid-nineteenth century and the dynamics of fashion spectatorship mobilized at Hollywood 'Red Carpet' events such as the Academy Awards. The aim of this analysis is to explicate the theatrical precedent for this form of fashion performance and to identify a historical context for the fashion spectatorship and viewing experience of the Academy Awards Ceremony. We need only consider how the 'Oscars' have come to represent a gala fashion event, as much as a film award night, to see that this paper is concerned with the origins of this fashion performance phenomenon.
This paper shows how the staging of Hollywood's gala night involves the trafficking of (fashion) ideas in an overtly hybrid environment which - in this global age - determines spectatorship is no longer limited to those present 'in-house' at the awards venue. By defining this Hollywood forum as a 'fashion show' I explore the present day context of display for 'Star Style' - a term which amalgamates performer, performance and fashion. Recognized globally as contemporary fashion icons, Australians Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett will provide examples of how the actress is contextualized by the global media as a 'red carpet' fashion performer.
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