Greta Gerwig

This is the first book to consider Gerwig as a writer-director. It argues that her three feature films to date—Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019) and Barbie (2023)—engage with debates about feminism and femininity through cinematic aesthetics. Her films are linked by heightened attention to material culture—through costume, production and set design. They meticulously recreate imagined worlds that resonate with viewers in the present for what they have to say about identity and relationships in contemporary culture, particularly how our lives, especially those of women, are fashioned through clothing, décor and architecture. They feature women who rebel by fashioning independent lives as fabricators—those who shape their worlds rather than being shaped by them. Considered together, Gerwig’s three features form a developing oeuvre tracing the contours of feminist refashioning.