Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is an award-winning scholar of fashion and media whose research explores the historical relationship between Hollywood and the fashion industry. She focuses on how the American film industry has shaped the globalization of fashion by facilitating the circulation of cultural and economic capital. Her work investigates how institutional practices—such as public relations, advertising, and marketing—construct narratives that influence consumer behavior and extend Hollywood’s cultural reach.

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Her research is situated at the intersection where fashion, celebrity, and corporate strategy converge, offering insight into how entertainment industries operate as engines of branding and soft power. Through archival inquiry and transdisciplinary analysis, she examines how institutional discourse travels into popular culture, shaping social trends and reinforcing the United States’ position as a global leader in consumer culture during the 20th century.

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Castaldo Lundén has been the recipient of several prestigious research grants and fellowships, including the Fulbright Scholars Grant (2023–2024), the Swedish–American Foundation’s Grant (2023–2025), and the American-Scandinavian Foundation Research Fellowship (2024–2025).

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Her most recent book, Fashion on the Red Carpet: A History of the Oscars, Fashion, and Globalization (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), traces the transformation of the Academy Awards’ red carpet from a ceremonial tradition into a powerful fashion media event. The book shows how collaborations between Hollywood and fashion institutions—driven by PR campaigns and media coverage—helped institutionalize the red carpet as a platform for global fashion discourse.

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In 2024, Castaldo Lundén was awarded the Rettig Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities for her research on the fashion industry, the impact of film as a medium, and her contributions to cultural and social analysis. The Academy described her scholarship as “fundamental to the subject’s identity” and praised its “wealth of perspective and insight” into the possibilities of fashion studies. (Kungl. Vitterhetsakademin 2024)

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