Eyes, sight and the senses on film and in fashion: crossmodal correspondences and sensorial empathy between Lars von Trier's Dancer in the dark (2000) and Johan Ku's "Selma" collection s/s (2014)

Sensory studies have emerged at the turn of the twenty-first century as a significant influence upon the arts, humanities and the social sciences. Study of the senses naturally tends towards the interdisciplinary because such studies provide a point of convergence between a broad range of scientific and socio-cultural research. Fashion theory is a subject area that is inherently concerned with issues of sensorial response. This article explores the concepts of sensorial empathy and crossmodal correspondences – whereby one form of sensory experience generates (or corresponds with) a response in another sense – through a case study of the relationship between film and fashion. In particular, this article analyses Johan Ku's "Selma" fashion collection for Spring/Summer 2014, which was inspired by the character of Selma (as portrayed by Björk) in Lars von Trier’s 2000 film Dancer in the Dark. The article suggests that the filmic experience (of watching and hearing) evokes certain textural and sensorial responses that Ku thematically and conceptually transforms into physical and tactile designs as the basis for his "Selma" fashion collection