Help,Fashion information

[El chico León]

Hi yall,
Im kinda new on the forum, but i need your help.

Im making an article about "Fashion phylosophy" (thats why i put the topic here), and im searching other authors like Gilles Lipovestky or Roland Barthes.

phylosophy or sociology authors that talk about fashion, it will help for me

Thanks form mexico

[Faust]

Do you have a more specific subject? That might help.

[Alesha]

What exacly is the theme of the article?

Fashion Phylosophy is rather a wide area. In fact I believe if you plan to cover it fully you are doomed to epic fail.

As for authors I'd recomend:

Jean Baudrillard - for transhumanist role of fashion in modern world and effect is has on society and individuals
Thorstein Veblen - in case you bother with status aspect of fashion
If your interested in symbolism and symeotic value of fashion, get a sociology degree than try writing the article.

All in all I recomend to focus on a specific aspect of Fashion Phylosophy. When I was a student I wrote a paper on "History of Fashion and its effect on human society". After two years of work I abandoned it becouse I understood how much time it will take me to finish it, time I did not have. There is endless store of fashion knowledge in socilogy, history and phylosophic works. And just exploring it requires a lifetime. The only person I know who is expert on it is Alexandr Vasiliev, russian fashion historian. Perhaps forward him an email, he's fairly open to talk to people when he has time.

[El chico León]

In fact im focus in "fashion systems as semiotic structures" , i know that Jean Baudrillard explains fashion, but thats why i put as example Lipovetsky.

The principle of the article is "not the consumers aproach in fashion" and more "interpretation of fashion signs", beacuse i think that form this point we can establish the diference between fashion system and look.

[Alesha]

How deep your willing to go?

If you plan for something mind blowing try mixing Jacques Derrida's dissmination, with focusing analysis on fashion rather than text. The result will be most curious.

But a warning, it will be increadible mental workout.

[Faust]

In fact im focus in "fashion systems as semiotic structures" , i know that Jean Baudrillard explains fashion, but thats why i put as example Lipovetsky.

The principle of the article is "not the consumers aproach in fashion" and more "interpretation of fashion signs", beacuse i think that form this point we can establish the diference between fashion system and look.

Then I suppose you should read The Fashion System by Roland Barthes. Disclaimer: I have not read it, but it should be right up your alley. Also check out Fashion at the Edge by Caroline Evans and Fashion Zeitgeist by Barbara Vinken. In general, take a look at Berg Publishers fashion books. Good luck.

[galia]

I tried to read the fashion system, and it was not what I expected. It is about the language used to refer to context in outfit descriptions and/or advertising

it is not about the semiotics of garments themselves, which was what I expected and was interested in, so I gave up about 100 pages in

[Faust]

yes, that's what i understood it to be out. still might tackle it one day.

[Alesha]

I tried to read the fashion system, and it was not what I expected. It is about the language used to refer to context in outfit descriptions and/or advertising

it is not about the semiotics of garments themselves, which was what I expected and was interested in, so I gave up about 100 pages in

Lets face it -> the way we percieve world is based on language and if you try to analyse the semiotics of anything (not just fashion) you will have to be analysing language as it is where the semiotic constructs exist.

There is no symbol without words to describe it. Quite naturally symbolism of clothing if analysed as semiotic system has to be first put into text, and than text has to be analysed for patterns. The narrative for clothing is perhaps more important than clothing themselves in fashion.

Example with Raf Simons -> Everyone and their grandmother is talking on SZ that Raf lost it :) Eventually this becomes a de-facto knowledge.

As I said, its a pandora's box that seems easy to tackle but you get bogged down in symeotics quickly and eventually your head will explode.

[galia]

Well obviously, but the analysis was also very specific to certain publications at a certain time, and I was looking for something more general about the language of fashion as a reflection of individuality or society as the case may be, possibly through history or at any rate showing the mechanisms of its evolution in general. It was probably just too technical for me, I'm pretty lazy

However, if you know of a book that fits my description, I'd be very interested to read it

[todestrieb]

Georg Simmel, "Fashion"

[El chico León]

Hey thanks a lot for all of your resources,

Just to explain a little:

One day i was talking with a teacher on my college and he said: "Fashion is special, because in part is a posmodern characteristic, its superficial (in baudrillard sense), but at the same time when its used as a sign in our societies and to help people to identify themselves,fashion have a deep sense (as a language)"

In fact fashion have the postmodern attributes but also have a profundity when its part of a social language.

so with that idea i make my article, but to explain the two parts you need to make a separation between look (the system of identify, superficial) and fashion system (the global language, and signs in the fashion).

so thats why i needed your help
the authors & books that you have posted are very usefull and i want to thanks that

Thanks a lot

pd. Sorry if my english and drafting is too bad.

pd2. we need to make a topic to discuss a little bit more of this cuz this is gettin more interesting. ha ha ha