From Commodity to Costume

Abstract

As scholarly interest in consumption has risen, little attention has been paid to productive consumption, or the acquisition and use of commodities within production processes. Since the shift toward neo-liberal economic policies in India in the early 1990s, commoditized, branded clothing has multiplied in the marketplace, and is increasingly featured in films. Selecting and inserting these clothes into film costume production draws on some of the same discriminations that producers employ in their guise as consumers. Dress designers’ fluency with brands and fashion solidifies their professional standing but costume production is a field of social practice that includes many actors who do not share the same dispositions toward consumption as designers. This leads to professional differentiation in the field that can be tied to proficiency in consumption practices. Commodities may be just as effective as indices of differentiation in production as they are in the more familiar domain of consumption.