The Femme Fatale in Modern Day Fashion

THE FEMME FATALE IN MODERN DAY FASHION

[pic 1]

     By

Jiawei Shi

            Kitseng Lei

         Natasha Soegito

         Contemporary Fashion Design

Module : Fashion Ethnography

Lecturer : Aleksandra Olenska

2016

CONTENTS

TITLE………..………………………………………………………………………….1

CONTENTS………...…………………………………………………………………..2

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………....3

  CHAPTER I : DEFINITION……………………………………………………………4

  CHAPTER II : HISTORY

1. Biblical…………..……………………………………………………………..5
2. Ancient World…………………………………………………………...……..5
3. Medieval Europe ………...………………………………………...…………..6
4. 19th Century Literature……………..…………………………………………..6
5. Hollywood……………………….…………………………………………..7-8
6. Today’s Femme Fatale………………....……………………………………8-9

  CHAPTER III : PEOPLE

1. Marlene Dietrich …………….………………………………………...……10
2. Madonna………………………………………………………….....…...10-11
3. Dita Von Teese…………......………………………………………...……..11

  CHAPTER IV : MOVIES

1. L.A. Confidential…………….………………………………………...……12
2. Basic Instinct……….………………………………………………....……..13
3.  The Big Sleep………….........……………………………………...………..13

  CHAPTER V : BRANDS

1. Agent Provocateur ………….………………………………………...…...14
2. Alexandre Vauthier …………………………………………….....…........14
3. Christian Louboutin…………......………….………………………...……..15
4. Jean Paul Gaultier………………………………………………..………….15
5. Versace…………………………………………………………...………….16

  CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..17

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………...…………………………………...18

INTRODUCTION

This essay is an exploration of femme fatale in modern day fashion and femme fatale itself, which is often reconstructed in fragments of cultural expressions of the century. She is a powerful and manipulative, using her ambition, beauty, charm, and sexuality to get what they want in life. The figures of femme fatales have been a consistent staple of the culture surrounding the notions of femininity. Femme fatale could be in various forms, but supposedly pose a threat to a patriarchal system. The femme fatale has not failed to capture the imaginations of literature, film and modern day fashion. As cultures shift and ideas change, femme fatale got rid of the stigma they had and they can even be made into Hollywood stars or celebrities to form fashion trends.

CHAPTER I : DEFINITION

While the French phrase Femme Fatale literally means deadly woman, it also represents male sexual fantasies and fears as well as the sexual empowerement. But criminologists, psychologists, and sociologists have quite various definitions when it comes to femme fatale. Psychologists from University of Liverpool once defined femme fatale as “Women who are often sexually coercive and not surprisingly narcissistic with their inflated self-importance, deep need for admiration, and lack of empathy are statistically associated with persistent sexual persuasion, coercion, and aggression.” On the other side, Jungian psychology defined it as an archetypal figure that represents the lowest manifestation of the anima in the unconscious contents of the male psyche. In addition, sociologists defined the role of the femme fatale can be interpreted as embodying female independence and rebellion against traditional female gender roles. Criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, 1893, might have a wider space of speculation of femme fatale, which is “Women’s evil tendencies are more numerous and more varied than men’s, but usually these remain latent. When awakened and excited, however, these evil tendencies lead to proportionately worse results.” A cross-cultural survey of 78 cultures stated a possibly related cause to this fatalism, “Many women seem fatal when there is an impression that they does not belong to anyone. But she is the most attractive when is in the company of a man who is wrongly convinced that she is his.”

CHAPTER II : HISTORY

1. Biblical

• Eve

Eve has been known to be the one who brought the fall of humankind and in turn introduced sin and death into the world by tempting Adam with her beauty and sexuality to eat the forbidden fruit.

But American iconic actress and femme fatale, Mae West argued, “No good girls gone wrong, only bad girls found out”. If you consider that Eve’s sin was to ‘eat from the Tree of Knowledge’, The Good Girl standard then would be about passivity, obedience, lack of curiosity about flora and fauna, (including speaking snakes) and a general disinterest in knowledge, would surely make being ‘a good girl’ a near impossibility.