Lecture notes from February 6, 2008
Though I didn't find any connection with the actual content of the lecture and the title given to it previously, I made some notes to think further.
We discussed two articles about the Fashion Studies methodology - one by Alexandra Palmer "New Directions: Fashion History Studies and Research in North America and England" and the other by Roland Barthes "The Photographic Message". There are several ways how to approach fashion, moreover there are several sociological problems to study in and within fashion field.
One of the most respected Fashion Studies scholar Elizabeth Wilson (wrote a fabulous book "Adorned in dreams"), whose lectures I have also been very lucky to hear, comes from the 1970's feminist studies while these times feminism and fashion were considered as something that definitely do not go together. But Wilson, being a feminist, became interested in fashion, mainly fashion matters in everyday issues, not high fashion.
Fashion studies in general have grown out of Victorian times' descriptions. During 1980's when the bestseller novels were read, there were fashion issues present everywhere; for instance women's questions in work field, sweatshop labor etc. Fashion was considered as an extremely materialistic approach.
Coming back to Barthes and his theories on fashion, we must admit that Barhes was actually not interested in reality, or clothes as material things. He is a semiologist interested in the science of signs.
While discussing the articles, we came to the idea of fashion as a suppressor, as a social factor that makes some people feel bad. Fashion can be seen as an ideological tool. This is the way Barthes sees fashion too.
Fashion is always mediated. Could it even exist when it wasn't mediated?
Palmer in turn approaches fashion from a couture perspective claiming that couture is a myth. She studies high fashion worn in Canada.
As I also described in my other blog, we then made a short semiological analysis on a fashion photograph where Vivienne Westwood impersonates Margaret Thacher. It is a cover story of old British magazine Tatler. Many interesting things came up when talking about Westwood. We concentrated a lot on punk. Both Westwood and Thacher have been or at least expressed punk style in their outlooks in history. Punks in 1980's hated American mass-culture. Their aim was to make everyone angry. Everyone. Also they believed in anticonsumerism. Westwood is always been a rebel designer. In 1982 she was the first designer ever who brought trainers on to a catwalk. She has this child-like charm and laughter over certain social issues. But the thing that most people don't know is that she strongly fights against street-culture as such, the street fashion or mainstream fashion - she even has this saying "Nothing good comes from the streets.".
One other expression against fashion/dress industry as an oppressor was 1970's bra-burning event. Is fashion really that oppressive?
I mean, subcultures are sub-cultures because they are always fighting against something mainstream, for instance consumer capitalism. But always, always sub-cultures end up reaching to the main street, back to mass-consuming. Even if only as a short trend, but still. Sub-cultures are like sources for the mainstream cultural industries to collect ideas and sell them.
The last thing that came up was the question of represented body. Analysing one design of Westwood that remained of torso Peter McNeil explained what is behind that. 1990's was globally a decade of coming out of the closet for homosexuals, therefore the issues of HIV/AIDS also became public. And as known, HIV/AIDS eats the body, therefore bodybuilding and pumping the muscles became enormously popular within this crowd in 90's - shiny tanned pumped up bodies. It was big fashion. Now it is totally out again.
Latter idea actually remains me some of the previous false-imaginations of perfect bodies. For example in Estonia, many people don't even know from where this trend originates from, therefore in certain circles it is still popular and respectful to pump up yourself. Without knowing that in 90's gay-culture and fashion system it was strongly related to these killing deseases and a way to protect oneself from signs of death.
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