The role of fashion - Essay Example

?Today the role of fashion is more than covering or protecting of our bodies. Most people believe that fashion is a tool for expressing their identity and personality. In the article, Fashion as Communication: A semiotic analysis on Sex and the City, by Katarina Kuruc, she claims that “fashion is intertwined with various social structures such as religion, gender, politics, class constructions, etc.,” and it occurs when humans create the opportunity to make messages and meanings in these various social formations (Kurc, 2008, 198).Therefore, fashion could be regarded as a non-verbal communication system that represents and expresses who we are as individuals. The non-verbal communication is based on semiotics. Actions create and suggest the meaning, value, and characteristics within a culture. According to Saussure, there are two distinctive levels of the meaning of fashion. One is a denotative and the other is a connotative meaning. The denotative meaning is also called a principle meaning. Using this perspective, clothes is defined as the protection of our body. However, this level of understanding does not reveal the clothing’s fundamental function in a culture. At the connotative level, fashion is interpreted at a secondary level significant and important within a social and cultural convention. Semiotics plays an important role in visual rhetoric. The signs or codes are transferred from actual conversations (based on intuitive understand developed within the culture). These signs or codes are transferred into actual conversations based on these intuitive understanding that developed within a culture. Society is influential in establishing an individual’s identity through social constructs. What people wear and how we are wearing clothes should not affect the decision and preferences we have. Rather, it should become the basis for constructing the individual’s understanding of a belief within the society. Our choice of clothes, then, is not affected by a decision or a choice made by the individual. Rather, it depends on how he understands and believes in what the society dictates. Fashion, then, identifies and constructs one’s identity by using semiotics that developed within a culture. Fashion can also behave as a tool for non-verbal communication in different ways. This includes fashion’s role of suggesting one’s expression, political view, or social status or role. But even if fashion is not used as a definer of social role or expression, it is significant in the expression of one’s personality. These meanings are based on connotation level rather than denotation meaning. The power of semiotics is evident in the study of fashion and youth. This leads us to understand how fashion affects the personality and character of an individual, and vice versa. Even though everyone has the freedom to choose his own style, people tend to judge other people by these preferences. It is not unusual for someone to suspect another person sporting a Mohawk hairstyle or tattoo, and wearing ripped jeans, to be troublesome or delinquent. In the article, Hiding in the Light: Youth Surveillance and Display by Dick Hebdige, one’s appearance can put the young ones under suspicion of a crime. Hebdige asserts, “Pictures of punks and mods and skinheads, for instance are commonly regarded, even amongst many documentary practitioners, as unproblematic or as distractions from the real issues: visually interesting but ideologically suspect”(Hebdige, 19). This proves that even if the individual is using his fashion as a necessity of man, for the purpose of covering his body, the connotative meaning of his clothing disregards the denotative meaning. One’s clothing and appearance can be changed completely by social expectations and assumptions. Let’s use another example. Two people dress up in different styles. The first one has a punk style and the other has a formal and businesslike look. Because of his appearance and style, the punk would receive grave stares as people suspect him doing criminal acts. Because of his crisp appearance, the businessman would not receive the same assumptions from other people. This can be attributed to our society. Social context classifies tattoos or punk style with crime and delinquency. Whether or not the punk committed a criminal act, it doesn’t matter for most of the public since our society has reinforced and publicized the association of this style to crime. This proves that appearance can be misguided but they are still considered as indicators of social roles and status. Another example of understanding the semiotics of fashion is through the trademark. Trademarks are considered stylish and in fashion. Trademarks and brands connote wealth and high fashion. Let’s take the presentation we had in class as an example. There are two watches, one by Fossil and the other one by MichealKors. They have the same specifications and they were manufactured from the same factories. This means they have the same quality and, technically, has the same value. But look at the market and you will see that the price of the watches is $200 apart. And when people buy the more expensive brand, the person is actually purchasing the connotative meaning of the watch, which is a status symbol, rather than the denotative meaning, which is to tell time. In the article Semiotics, Fashion an Cognition by Mathias Jackobson, he says that semiotics may also assert the power of sign system in fashion, such as an indicator of social class. He says, “fashion and clothing is merely a symbol of a strict hierarchical system, and the only communicative value attributed to the system is that of social status. Thus, by wearing the right clothes, the upper class could show others how superior they were” (Jackobson 2008, 5). The example of MichelKors and the Fossil watch proves that fashion has nothing to do with the quality of product itself but with the symbolic representation of the object. Thus, our perception of the individual is affected by the clothes and accessories her wears. Clearly, fashion identifies and structures our understanding of personality and social status by using semiotics attributed in a culture. Semiotics are meanings, which are communicated in our society through social interaction. Fashion is one aspect of the society which shows us significantly how the connotative meaning is taken more into consideration than the denotative meaning. Although people are free to choose their fashion style, we are still bound by social expectations, through connotative meaning. Even if fashion is meant to become our freedom to express our individuality and creativity, it is still influenced by social connotation. Fashion is an effective non-verbal communication tool that indicates and represents ourselves based on semiotics. Today fashion has more function than just covering our body but it also guides us to understanding our society through timelines and events. . http://193.146.160.29/gtb/sod/usu/$UBUG/repositorio/10301779_Kuruc.pdf http://www.mtproductions.dk/mathias/artikler/fashionSemioticsAndCognition.pdf Read More