Session one - Dressed to Kill

Cultural texts shaped by society around them – not neutral, can reflect:

• Popular Trends
• Political ideology
• Moral codes – behaviour
• Representation (social)
• Class and status – success and failure
• Fears and concerns

 
Clothing is a cultural text
Semiotics? The study of signs
Anything conveying meaning is a sign (words and images)
 
The function of clothes:

• Comfort (practical)
• Disguise – play with identity

 
Symbolic encoding – clothing is a designed artefact – deploying colour.
 
Black – neutral, symbolizes authority, mourning, death, doom, misfortune.
Used in movies and tv to represent something.
 
Personal expression:

• Engagement
• Expressive qualities (personality)
• Relationships
• Dressing as pleasure

 
Clothing is a form of empowerment.
Postmodernism
 
Denim jeans – casual, socially acceptable, unisex
Style shows the type of person
Cut across social and cultural boundaries
 
Jean cycle
1870s – 1930s
Function over form

1. Functional garment Developed to be tough and durable
Popularised by American rural working class
Levi Strauss
 
2. Nostalgic totem
Reinvented fashion icon
‘All American blue jeans’
Western frontier (mythologized)

3. Adopted by youth subculture 1950s -70s
Intersexuality – can appear in a different context
Anti-fashion or authentic

4. The lifestyle accessory 1980s – present
Power to the brand – ‘designer jeans’ as status
Concept (form) over function
Ideology advertising tends to stress brand identity
Outsourcing – the industrial process is hidden
 
Sensory experiences?
Haptic, practical, security in anonymity, personal narrative