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The book highlights how the signs of fashion showcase stories, hybridations, forms of feeling, from the classics of fashion in cinema, to fashion as cultural tradition in the global world, to digital media. Based on a strong socio-semiotic method (Barthes, The Language of Fashion is the main reference), the book crosses some of the main aspects of the contemporary culture of the clothed body: from time and space, to gender, to fashion as cultural translation, to the narratives included in the media convergence of our age. According to Jurji Lotman, fashion introduces the dynamic principle into seemingly inert spheres of the everyday. Fashion’s unexpected function of overturning received meaning is conveyed through its collocation within the dynamic storehouse of what Lotman calls the “sphere of the unpredictable.” In this horizon, the concept of fashion as a worldly system of sense (Benjamin) generates different “worlds” through its signs.
Luxury has been both celebrated and condemned throughout history right up to the present day. This groundbreaking text examines luxury and its relationship with desire, status, consumption and economic value, exploring why luxury remains prominent even in the context of a global recession. Using approaches from cultural studies, semiotic research and aesthetics, Luxury presents a wide range of case studies including urban space and new technologies, travel, interior design, cars, fashion ads and jewellery to explore what luxury represents, and why, in the contemporary world. The book will be essential reading for students and scholars across a range of fashion studies, cultural studies and sociology, and anyone interested in the power and allure of luxury today.
Dress is everywhere imbued with symbols that reflect different meanings in different contexts. This compelling book convincingly demonstrates how clothing is analogous to a working language and is similarly underpinned by deeper meanings and philosop hies. From tattoos and mini-skirts, to skin decoration, makeup and hair, Calefato unpicks the multiple functions of modern dress. Exploring intriguing commonalities - for example, between tattooed Egyptian mummies of 2000 BC and modern subcultural st yles - Calefato considers the psychological, cultural, spiritual and symbolic significances at play in what she aptly labels 'body cartography'. What we wear is a vehicle for the (often contentious) expression of politics, gender and identity, placin g clothing at the root of a complex set of messages, many of which are paradoxical. Clothing may, for example, liberate through the pleasures of masquerade and at the same time 'cage' or control the body. The Clothed Body shows how semiotics can prov ide a convincing template for understanding dress in a wide range of contexts and will be essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of what we wear.
This engaging and cutting-edge text presents a wide-ranging examination of luxury in the contemporary world from luxury fashion adverts to luxury holidays.
Art and fashion have long gone hand in hand, but it was during the modernist period that fashion first gained equal value to – and took on the same aesthetic ideals as – painting, film, photography, dance, and literature. Combining high and low art forms, modernism turned fashion designers into artists and vice versa. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars across a range of disciplines, this vibrant volume explores the history and significance of the relationship between modernism and fashion and examines how the intimate connection between these fields remains evident today, with contemporary designers relating their work to art and artists problematizing fashion in their works. With chapters on a variety topics ranging from Russian constructionism and clothing to tango and fashion in the early 20th century, Fashion and Modernism is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion, dress history, and art history alike. Contributors: Patrizia Calefato, Caroline Evans, Ulrich Lehmann, Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Alessandra Vaccari, Olga Vainshtein, Sven-Olov Wallenstein
The book, conceptualized and promoted by Pitti Immagine, contains a striking selection of images and texts with different, detailed and complementary approaches to the theme by scholars, writers and journalists.
What do tattooed Egyptian mummies of 2000 BC have in common with modern sub-cultural styles? From mini-skirts to skin decoration, make-up to hair, dress is imbued with symbols that reflect different meanings in different contexts. Calefato picks apart the multiple functions of modern dress, considering the psychological, cultural, spiritual and symbolic significances at play. What we wear is a vehicle for the (often contentious) expression of politics, gender and identity and therefore clothing is at the root of a complex set of messages, many paradoxical. Clothing may, for example, liberate through the pleasures of masquerade and at the same time "cage" or control the body. The Clothed Body shows how semiotics can provide a convincing template for understanding dress in a wide range of contexts.
Independent fashion brand Bianca e Blu by Monica Bolzoni is celebrated in this extensive visual survey, spanning the best years of Italian fashion design. Described as "one of the greatest artistic personalities of this century" by Vogue Italia, Monica Bolzoni's designs anticipated many of the concepts of today's fashion, such as modularity and tailoring. Structured as an ABC book, this volume reflects the multiple facets of Bianca e Blu through a wealth of visual material from the company's archives: drawings, vintage images, fabrics, accessories, fashion stories, artworks, film stills, and stage images, accompanied by critical texts, press cuttings, and interviews. Master's students from ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne have conversed with Bianca e Blu Archives, producing new fashion stories and a fresh graphic identity for the brand.
This collection of essays brings together many separate but related issues which form the focus of contemporary research into the history of dress. Historically, in Britain at least, investigations of dress were primarily informed by historical and empirical protocols, although the symbolic meaning of dress was explored by anthroplogists and sociologists, who tended to concentrate on either non-Western cultures or British or Western sub-cultures. In recent years these approaches have moved closer together partly as a result of the impact of feminism.
This is an innovative work that provides a broad introduction to the complex literature in the fields of fashion studies, and dress and fashion history. The book connects a diverse range of approaches and incorporates non-Western literature within better-known studies from Europe and North America.