MEDIA CONVERGENCE, FASHION, AND TV SERIES

The chapter aims at exploring the fashion discourse in the convergence culture context (Jenkins 2006), considering television series as a specific focus. In a contemporary communication environment, fashion style shows new possibilities in digital media (fashion blogs, Facebook, Instagram) both for the connections with audiences (from typical mass media relationships – i.e. one to many – to social networks relationships), and for the use of media formats (from commercials and fashion films, to web sites, memes and gifs). Fashion has long enjoyed a close relationship with mass media. Its role seems to have recently changed in audiovisuals and particularly in fiction products. The current media situation concerns mainly a change of boundaries in textual matters which is above all evident when narratives are related to the contemporary moment. In this new context, dressing issues are no longer only related to clothing: fashion is increasingly included inside stories. It sometimes appears as the main subject of narration.