"Dimensions and proportions transcend the prisms of our measurements."
Like a whisper in an ocean, like a feather in a storm, a dress of deduction finds its character in a prism of retail abstraction.
— Mr. Lundy
In Fabric is a 2018 British horror film. It is written and directed by Peter Strickland, who created Berberian Sound Studio (2012) and The Duke Of Burgundy (2014). It stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, and Gwendoline Christie. In Fabric premiered in 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was originally released in the United Kingdom on 28 June 2019 by Curzon Artificial Eye and in the United States on 6 December 2019 by A24.
Sheila Woodchapel is a recently divorced woman who lives with her son. She visits a mysterious department store called Dentley and Soper's and purchases a red dress for her upcoming date. The department store clerk is a woman named Miss Luckmoore, who maintains an unusual and unsettling demeanor. Soon it becomes clear that the dress is not a normal article of clothing and seems to have a mind of its own. Similarly, the department store staff that sold the dress seems to be concealing inscrutable secrets of their own.
In Fabric contains examples of:
- The '70s: The film is considered an homage to 1970s Italian horror films, and has a decidedly '70s aesthetic, despite being set in 1993.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The dress is not only capable of adjusting itself to fit any wearer but is also capable of movement.
- Anyone Can Die: Sheila, the initial protagonist, dies over halfway through the film. A new protagonist then takes her place.
- Arc Number: 36, the size of the dress. Three sixes also hints at its possible infernal origins.
- Artifact of Doom: The Dress.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: A dress in this case.
- Bad Date: With the charisma-free Adonis.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Invoked. Reg tries on the red dress on his stag night and, though he doesn't do it again, it leaves an apparently permanent mark on his sanity and his life almost immediately falls apart.
- Drone of Dread: The film's score (by Cavern of Anti-Matter) has a lot of long, trancelike electronic pieces.
- Empty Shell: After the Dress brings its wearer's demise, the wearer (or their soul) becomes trapped in the department store basement, forever vacantly and hypnotically sewing new red dresses.
- Eldritch Location: The Dentley and Soper's dumbwaiter appears to be a direct portal to hell.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: A dog out for a walk in the park attacks Sheila when she's wearing the dress.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Looking at the Waingel's Bank "19 Concepts of Transactioneering" motivational poster reveals a torrent of Meaningless Meaningful Words including "Meaningful Bankruptcy" and Strategic Eye Contact".
- Gothic Horror: The aesthetic of the film evokes 1970s Gothic Horror films. The garb of the department store staff highlights a more Victorian Gothic aesthetic.
- Henpecked Husband: Babs and Reg aren't even married yet, but she still pesters and nags him relentlessly while he's a nearly silent pushover.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Bank manager weirdos Stash and Clive seemingly do everything together, be it espousing their bizarre management philosophies or "looking for hot babes to go double-dating with".
- Humanoid Abomination: The creatures that inhabit the store look human but are at the very least otherworldly. Miss Luckmoore carries herself like a mannequin and, when she removes her wig, looks like one too.
- Kitschy Local Commercial: Dentley and Soper's department store airs a kitschy yet unnerving commercial in the local area. The commercial also appears to have a hypnotic effect on the viewer.
- Mad Oracle: Mr. Lundy. In an interview, Strickland says that Mr. Lundy's role is that of an oracle, giving advice to the Dentley and Soper's staff, but still remaining beholden to their desires.
- Mysterious Employer: Sheila's bosses, Stash and Clive, are apparently high-ranking managers of Waingel's Bank. They are preoccupied with a vague concept they call "the Waingels Wavelength.” This concept may mean more than just being a good bank-teller, given the eerie framing of the concept.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Miss Luckmoore gets uncomfortably touchy-feely with many of the customers.
- Not the First Victim: When trying to return the dress, Sheila learns that the woman who modeled the dress in the catalogue was run down and hit by a car.
- Paranormal Mundane Item: The red dress. It's seemingly daemonically possessed and binds the souls of the people it has killed.
- Red Is Violent: The dress is red and causes the death of its inhabitants.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The department store staff members speak in this way. The owners of the local bank, Stash and Clive, also do to a lesser extent.
- Techno Babble: When Reg talks about washing machines, he goes into a trance-like state, describing machine parts that may or may not be real ("...The agitator hub seems to be intact along with the transmission shaft, but the plungers are no longer fitting into the wigwags...).
- The Voiceless: Reg Speaks' intimidating boss, Cottrell, who also seemingly wears a permanent Death Glare.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: During Reg's stag do.
- The Weird Sisters: The female staff of Dentley and Soper's evokes this trope. In an interview Strickland notes that he did not want to be too specific but still evoke the aesthetic of witches and vampires.
