Malavita chic: Fashion and fandom in the Italian crime series

Abstract

This article analyses how fashion in the Italian crime series Suburra and Gomorrah is a significant facet of how these programmes’ visual and narrative discourses work upon audiences to communicate a privileged vision of the criminal subcultures they represent. Clothing and style are crucial to the series through the narrative dimension, in which costuming reveals character development and symbolizes shifts in plot and theme, as well by articulating the characters’ adherence to and deviation from their cultural milieu. Moreover, by presenting an ethnography of criminal subcultures as articulated through dress, these series have engendered a complex network of fashion fandom, raising significant questions about viewer identification and the reification of mob wear within mainstream culture. This in-depth analysis of the role of fashion in Suburra and Gomorrah aims to deepen our understanding of how these series constitute a significant intervention on the interplay of fashion and identity in Italy today.