Book excerpt: In Fashion, Media, Promotion: the new black magicFashion is linked to its communication networks - involving thereader in the process of selling Fashion in the global marketplace.Fashion's ingenuity in adapting to new means of promotion fordigital and print media, websites, advertising, cinema, music andtelevision, is celebrated. Hollywood's role in shaping Fashion's influence is assessedthrough Audrey Hepburn's persuasive iconography and the impact ofthe most watched movie of the 20th century: Gone with theWind. Exceptional designers Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, ReiKawakubo, Mary Quant, Elsa Schiaparelli, Vivienne Westwood areconsidered, together with extraordinary innovators Paul Smith,Vidal Sassoon, Lynne Franks. Roland Barthes' Fashion System andMythologies are viewed as cultural and promotional texts,with revealing insights into the technologies which bring Fashionto mass audiences. Marketing and branding successes are reviewed and Fashion'scontinuing narrative is illustrated with luminous colourimages.