Open AccessFashion-forward killer: Villanelle, costuming and queer style in Killing Eve
Author(s) -
Sarah Gilligan,
Jackie Collins
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
film, fashion and consumption
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.103
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2044-2831
pISSN - 2044-2823
DOI - 10.1386/ffc_00030_1
Subject(s) - queer , art , femininity , aesthetics , mainstream , style (visual arts) , representation (politics) , lesbian , transgender , identity (music) , visual arts , gender studies , sociology , philosophy , theology , politics , political science , law
Costuming within the BBC television drama series Killing Eve (2018–) functions as a spectacular dressing-up box to support the representation of Villanelle (Jodie Comer) as the glamorous globe-trotting assassin. This article will argue that Villanelle’s fashion-forward wardrobe offers a multifarious representation of contemporary queer styling. Her costuming is characterized by gender fluidity and a play with the dominant codes and signifiers of lesbian style and identity. Villanelle’s looks move beyond the stereotyped constraints of the butch-femme binary to construct a polymorphous representation of femininity with broad cross-over appeal. In offering a striking silhouette that draws attention away from the material body onto costuming, Villanelle’s representation highlights the fluidity of gendered and sexual identities. Her costuming may appear to reduce Villanelle to a series of surface appearances, yet these iterations result in a significant queer representation on mainstream contemporary television.