Fashion Criticism 101: The Language of Fashion.

Today we are studying the unspoken language of the clothing we wear, through a framework of understanding called Semiotics.

Roland Barthes - The Language of Fashion

Developed my French philosopher Roland Barthes, this theory is a first step for any budding fashion critic who wants to switch up their love of fashion, or even their expertise of the industry, and switch into that critical sense and begin to think about what the clothes we wear mean, and how that meaning has developed.

To put it much too simply, this is an introduction to fashion criticism after all, semiotics is the study of signs. Not literal signs but anything which could be a sign of something - an image, a word, an object - they could all be considered a sign, because they can all communicate meaning or even go as far as creating their own myths.

So in a fashion example, a pair of Dr Martens could be a sign because aside from its literal meaning it likely carries connotations and signifies much more than being a black pair of boots.

The Fashion Discourse

Barthes applied the existing concept of semiotics onto fashion, revealing the ‘discourse’ that the whole industry is built upon. Fashion magazines (and now influencers) churn out imagery and words which far overshadow the garments themselves, creating their meaning, driving desire and shaping the connotations of every item we wear. When studies as a language we can quickly start to pick out the biases within fashion symbols, the way that applied connotations and meanings ensure fashion upholds social ideologies, reinforces things like gender and class, and even signal power. It’s an industry with such well constructed signs that it actually makes us think the current status quo of fashion (whether binaries, overconsumption or ‘us and them’) is the ‘right’ way, and the way it’s always been - thats the mythology created by the signs.

In short fashion items become signs that communicate our social codes - and understanding that, is understanding the semiotics of fashion.

Driving Desire

Bearing this in mind, the artificiality and abritrary nature of fashion becomes very clear - especially in light of the developments in mass production, hype, social media influence etc. that has occurred since Barthes writings the desires that drive us to buy new clothes, aren’t really driven by clothes at all.

Unpacking the signs that really push us to buy also consequently unpacks the need for society to constantly make new, buy new, and sink into our throwaway culture.

Dividing up the semiotics of fashion Barthes categorised signs as technical (in this case the garment), iconic (the image) and verbal (eg. Fashion writing), and mapped the way that real clothing is heavily controlled by the way that the media represents it, since the signs portraying the clothing are what create its meaning, drive desire for and consumption of it, and create the unspoken connotations or cultural myths around it.

As you can imagine this is a key framework and mental shift to reframe your fashion writing work beyond the surface level, to actually become a critic.

Reading List:

Roland Barthes wrote frequently on literature, and on French society - but for your studies we have two key recommendations to read, because he also two books dedicated to the study of fashion as a language: The Fashion System and The Language of Fashion (which is a collection of essays, not really a book he dedicated to fashion.) He was actually one of the first academics to think about fashion back in 1967 so us critics and theorists owe him a nod, no matter where our research takes us.

(We found a free online copy of The Fashion System here for you!)