Consciousness, capitalism and costume in Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness (2023).

This article analyzes the role of costume design by Sophie Krunegård in Ruben Östlund's 2023 film *Triangle of Sadness*, using Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s psychoanalytic framework to explore how clothing reflects the relationship between beauty, fashion, and ideology within late capitalism. The film is divided into three acts—CARL AND YAYA, THE YACHT, and THE ISLAND—corresponding to Žižek’s tripartite structure of the superego, ego, and id, respectively, illustrating shifts in social hierarchy and human desire as characters move from capitalist order to survival-driven anarchy. Costumes and bodily presentation reveal repressed attitudes toward money, status, and power, highlighting how fashion operates as a symbolic system that both sustains and exposes ideological contradictions. Ultimately, the film critiques the persistence of capitalist values even amid social collapse, with costume serving as a key medium through which these dynamics are communicated.