The Capitol and RMIT University present an exclusive online event for fashion victims, film fetishists and anyone with a haunting affection for department stores. The triple bill includes an online screening of Peter Strickland’s seductive, consumerist satire, In Fabric (2018), followed by a live conversation between the director and film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on Saturday 12 September, and a public masterclass on Monday 14 September, when Strickland and In Fabric costume designer Jo Thompson (This is England, Little Birds) will deep-dive into the topics of fashion victims, desire, bodies and consumption with Dr Ricarda Bigolin, Associate Dean of Fashion and Textiles Design at RMIT. All events will screen at thecapitol.tv.
With In Fabric, acclaimed British filmmaker Peter Strickland — writer-director behind sadomasochistic romance The Duke of Burgundy (2014) and the unnerving giallo-homage Berberian Sound Studio (2012) — delivers a seductively frightening, darkly humorous tale. The film follows a lonely woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who visits a bewitched London department store. Amongst the gothic strangeness there, she finds a perfectly-fitting, artery-red gown which in time unleashes a malevolent curse on all who wear it.
Shot by Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (True History of the Kelly Gang, Lady Macbeth), and featuring a seductively unsettling score by Tim Gane (Stereolab, Cavern of Anti-Matter), In Fabric also stars Fatma Mohamed, Gwendoline Christie, Julian Barratt, Steve Oram, Hayley Squires and Leo Bill. It is Strickland’s most twisted and brilliantly original vision yet.
“As both high fashion thriller and bizarre fairytale, In Fabric cuts a very funny, and very vivid satire of sartorial desire. I’m thrilled to welcome The Capitol’s audiences to our ‘online stage’ for this spectacularly unhinged film event. The film invites us into a particularly lurid sensory experience, and for those of us who are at home right now, it offers an antidote to the click-and-collect transactions of our lives. I can’t wait to unpack it all with Peter, Jo, Alexandra and Ricarda,” The Capitol’s Creative Producer, Ghita Loebenstein commented.
The screening, conversation and masterclass take place virtually at thecapitol.tv.