Global Fandom Jamboree: Antonella Mascio (Italy)

For several years now, my research work, based on a qualitative methodology, has focused on the study of TV series and fan-audiences, mostly Italian ones. I am interested in understanding the inner workings of the storytelling in the TV series which attract and engage fan-audiences.

In specific, I focus on two themes: Fashion and Nostalgia.

-       About Fashion

In Italy, as in the rest of the world, tv series have become one of the most important focuses of discourse among audiences and even the media: in newspapers and magazines, they hold a constant, and in many cases relevant, place, where outfits play a growing significant role alongside plots and characters. For sometimes now, fashion has established a close relationship with media, but recently its role seems to have undergone a change, in audiovisuals and specifically in fiction products. 

Today the wardrobe of characters plays an important role in the storytelling construction: clothes, accessories, footwear not only take part in the definition of the protagonists’ identity, but they seem to have become full-fledged spaces of discourse, capable of moving audiences towards reflections involving also the cultural meanings linked to dressing styles (for example Sex and the City, HBO 1998-2004, or Gossip Girl, CW 2007-2012). In many cases, in effect, alongside the main plot, clothing produces a specific undercurrent through which the change in status of an individual character is shown, alongside their belonging to specific social classes (as in Élite, Netflix 2018-; or in Baby, Netflix 2018-2020), their search for specific groups, or youth subcultures to join in (as in Riverdale, The CW 2017-). Audiences are increasingly more interested in the style depicted in the TV series. In particular, fans use Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages, but also videoclips as Youtube tutorial to show how to dress to look like the characters. The appreciation, which is shown for one specific wardrobe, instead of another, tells us something about the preferences in taste in diverse cultural contexts. 

Therefore, the meaning and value of clothing do not stop at the aesthetic dimension of the audiovisual products, but refer to the social order (Goffman 1951), their status, the dissemination of trends, the adherence (or lack of it) to recognized canons. It is now clear that in fictions, both those set in the present time, and the period dramas, the use of suitable wardrobes strengthens the overall narrative layout, and activates engagement effects in audiences. Fashion thus participate in the (fictional) representation of social dynamics: TV series are showing us to what extent clothes “make the man” and how class differences are stressed (Simmel, 1895) to the point of making us think about their importance in the processes of change, working as the key for the interpretation of society (Blumer, 1969; Edwards, 2011).

The complexity of a tv series has therefore something to do with the possibility of participating in the text by audiences. My analyses of Italian audiences have stressed how much – for some tv series – some groups of fans are de facto also fashion fans. Online, these fans stage their double level of knowledge, by using screen shots of the episodes to talk about the outfits, recognize the brands being used, and show their skills and knowledge. They adopt “investigative” (Mittell 2015) approaches because they follow the narrative lines spoken by the language of clothing, thus creating significant links between the fictional universe of the TV series and the real world of their everyday life. 

This type of operations by fans is detached from the classic cosplay activity. Instead it shows the strong engagement with the TV series and favourite characters. In other words, the character’s strength is evoked by fans also through the outfits appearing on screen, becoming– in grassroots production – full-fledged symbols of recognition. Therefore, fans want to adopt outfits similar to those worn by their favourite characters – or by characters working as reference models – in order to establish a strong connection with the TV series and embody the positive values seen in the character. All of this is preeminently seen in the female fanbase, taking up the styles which can be identified as power dressing to adapt them to their individual needs (as in characters like Claire Underwood in House of Cards, Netflix 203-2018, or Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder, ABC Studios 2014-2020, or again, with a completely different style, Saga Norén in Bron/Broen, Nimbus Film, Filmlance International 2011–2018). The inspirational female models produce in audiences the desire of identification - or aspiration – which is at times met through the appropriation of specific outfits, or more in general a dressing style. The fashion depicted in TV series thus becomes a tool through which audiences convey not only their attachment to a specific character, but also their relationship with genre roles.

It should also be added that the outfits of some characters have gained a great visibility precisely thanks to the fans’ activities, especially in digital settings. The identification of the outfit, the underlying brand recognition, the proposal of something similar – perhaps cheaper – to be purchased and worn, the publication of one’s own images showing outfits inspired by characters (performative practices) – together with the creation of memes – are the most evident operations. The dissemination of these grassroots contents engenders the connection also among the very same fans who create and participate in social forums and pages, where outfits become the discussion topics linked to the TV series. 

Of course even fashion houses are getting interested in this form of engagement taking place between the fans and the narrative text through the outfits; and, increasingly, they are putting forward clothing lines linked to specific series; from Mad Men (AMC 2007-2015), to Stranger Things (Netflix 2016-), or Sex Education (Netflix 2019-), to mention just a few. Fashion itself is also exploiting seriality for the direct promotion of its products (such as GucciFest, by Gus Van Sant and the related fandom).

Clothes are also used by fan-audiences in a political ways as well. The case of The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu 2017-) highlights this aspect: the series and its symbolic clothes (red robes and white bonnets) have become a tool of protest and strong connection between the plot and the off screen world.

-       About Nostalgia

The topic of nostalgia is now present in many Tv series, including those included in the genre of teen drama (like Stranger Things, but also Sex Education), as well as those in the genre of period drama (from Downton Abbey to The Americans, FX 2013-2018, or Chernoby,l HBO 2019). Nostalgia then becomes a device inside the text, capable of fostering an intense link between the text itself and its viewers. As Niemeyer and Wentz wrote “nostalgia is a powerful way to create this bond” (Niemeyer & Wentz, 2014, p. 129) and also “nostalgia as having a specific function for media, where the evoking of nostalgic emotions, the symbolic charge of things, aims at turning those things into desirable commodities.” (p.133). 

In particular, the teen dramas inspired by the past draw from a sort of deposit of cultural – and mostly medial –scenarios, by bringing on the screen a priori value-laden products (passional, cognitive, cultural, social) which refer back to the nostalgic discourse of some viewers’ generations. We are seeing then an overlapping of sense-laden levels: these are objects which are inscribed with the values of the past, in view of their coming from a specific historical period. These objects are also provided with meanings linked to their place in the story, and therefore connected with their presence in the TV series. In this way objects are provided with multiple possibility of meaning; the fan-audience is thus assigning them a value, on the basis of their experiences and skills. 

In these cases, the study of fan-audiences highlights the presence of several generational groups interested in the same TV series, which interpret the text – and build engagement paths– in very different ways: some may find the ‘flavour’ of their adolescence, while others appreciate the ‘freshness’ of a story set in the past. 

The way through which audiences relate with these texts and the cultural practices activated by them, raises new questions: for example, how is the classification of genre useful to differentiate the various TV series? Is a revisitation of these categories necessary? What other categories are put in question by the use that fans make of the TV series?

According to the type of research, the steps of my work include as a first step the analysis of the TV series text. I use qualitative-type tools, in particular the methodology of reference is from sociology and semiotics. The link between the TV series and its audiences goes through different theme features, regarding each individual story. I am interested in investigating the narrative mechanisms of the series and the way they attract different categories of “model audience” (Eco 1979). In this research framework, the fandom phenomena become forces which act starting from the texts in order to propagate – through the fans’ activity – in the different medial spaces, mostly online. 

The results coming from the analysis of the text become for me important points for the organization of the analysis of the fan-audiences. For this second step as well I adopt qualitative methods, mostly online ethnographies and interviews.

References

Blumer, H. (1969), Fashion: from class differentation to collective selection, «The Sociological Quarterly», vol. 10, n. 3, pp. 275–291. 

Eco, U. 1979, Lector in fabula, Bompiani, Milano. 

Edwards, T. (2011), Fashion in Focus. Concepts, Practices and Politics, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon.

Goffman E. (1951), Symbols of Class Status, «The British journal of Sociology», vol. .2, n° 4 (Dec.), pp. 294-304. 

Jenkins, H. (2006), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press, New York. 

Mittell, J. (2015), Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, New York University Press, New York – London.

Niemeyer, K., Wentz, D. (2014), “Nostalgia Is Not What It Used to Be: Serial Nostalgia and Nostalgic Television Series”, in Niemeyer Katharina (ed. by) Media and Nostalgia. Yearning for the Past, Present and Future, pp. 129-138, Palgrave Macmillian, New York.

Simmel G. (1895), “Zur Psychologie der Mode. Soziologische Studie”, Die Zeit, Wiener Wochensrift für Politik, Volkswirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Kunst (trad. it. La moda, Editori Riuniti, Roma).

Antonella Mascio (antonella.mascio@unibo.it) is Associate Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy. Her research interests focus on digital media, fashion communication, audience studies, nostalgia and celebrity culture.