X International Fashion Conference “Fashion on the Move: Rethinking Design” , Pamplona, Spain,, 2016
The view of fashion as a system of signification, first introduced in the important work of Rolan... more The view of fashion as a system of signification, first introduced in the important work of Roland Barthes The Fashion System (1967), has been dominant since the development of Fashion Studies. But today, the concept of fashion as a homogenous system with a particular core has become problematic. It appears that the rhetoric of contemporary fashion is more " sophisticated " than in Barthes' system. If he described fashion as tyrannical machine, which converts its unmotivated signs into a natural fact, contemporary fashion has " content " besides the rhetorical mode. Moreover, not only has the system of fashion dramatically changed, but scholarly work on fashion has shifted from the regime of representation to embodiment. Postmodern culture is preoccupied with differences, and a number of theorists even solemnize about the crisis of the concept of sign. Turning away from semiotics, Fashion Studies has been enriched by notions of materiality, flexible identity and performance. Theorists claim that our relationship with garments has become more personal. At the same time, the individual aspect is still deeply bound up with collective narratives. Although an exact equivalence of the signifier with the signified is not possible in the system of fashion, it evidently does not exist without codes. This article addresses the legacy of Barthes' Fashion System, discusses challenges for semiotics of fashion in the 21st century and estimates limits and possibilities of a systemic approach to contemporary fashion.
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Papers by Daria Mikerina
Roland Barthes' methodology has been applied to analyse the material. His landmark The Fashion System (1967) laid out the structural analysis of written clothing as described in magazines and remains the only large-scale study of the representation of fashion. Barthes defined fashion as something opposite to " natural " , constructed by a narrow instance of a fashion group and reproduced every year anew. A developing paradigm, termed here post-prê t-a ̀-porter, is instead characterised by a rejection of trends, a focus on the " relevant " sides of garments and a deceleration of cycles. The paper analyses verbal structures of clothes as presented in magazines that promote " real fashion " and discusses the changes in vocabulary and references compared to the prê t-a ̀-porter era in which Barthes wrote.
The paper argues that signs in contemporary fashion are not fully arbitrary and that they are motivated to a higher degree than in Barthes' system. In the representation of post-prê t-a ̀-porter fashion the shift from the symbolic function of fashion to its aesthetic function is distinctive. In deprioritising the demand for newness, biannual magazines restore the real signs of utility.
The article begins a discussion about shifts in representation of fashion in the context of the emerging cultural trend of celebrating " slow lifestyles " .
Roland Barthes' methodology has been applied to analyse the material. His landmark The Fashion System (1967) laid out the structural analysis of written clothing as described in magazines and remains the only large-scale study of the representation of fashion. Barthes defined fashion as something opposite to " natural " , constructed by a narrow instance of a fashion group and reproduced every year anew. A developing paradigm, termed here post-prê t-a ̀-porter, is instead characterised by a rejection of trends, a focus on the " relevant " sides of garments and a deceleration of cycles. The paper analyses verbal structures of clothes as presented in magazines that promote " real fashion " and discusses the changes in vocabulary and references compared to the prê t-a ̀-porter era in which Barthes wrote.
The paper argues that signs in contemporary fashion are not fully arbitrary and that they are motivated to a higher degree than in Barthes' system. In the representation of post-prê t-a ̀-porter fashion the shift from the symbolic function of fashion to its aesthetic function is distinctive. In deprioritising the demand for newness, biannual magazines restore the real signs of utility.
The article begins a discussion about shifts in representation of fashion in the context of the emerging cultural trend of celebrating " slow lifestyles " .