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  • BA1 CLASS READINGS AND VISUALS
    • BA1 CLASS READINGS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS >
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION (THE REGULATION OF FASHION) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION (THE HISTORICAL ONE)
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - CONSUMER CULTURE (BEAU BRUMMELL) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION (THE PERSONAL ONE)
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - TRICKLE-DOWN/BUBBLE-(TRICKLE)-UP (JEANS) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION (THE EASY ONE)
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - GENDER AND SEXUALITY (STILETTOS) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION (THE SEXY ONE)
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    • BA1 CLASS VISUALS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY >
      • BA1 CLASS VISUALS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION (THE REGULATION OF FASHION)
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      • BA1 CLASS VISUALS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - TRICKLE-DOWN/BUBBLE-(TRICKLE)-UP (JEANS)
      • BA1 CLASS VISUALS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - SEMIOTICS (STILETTOS)
      • BA1 CLASS VISUALS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - SEMIOTICS (TIES)
    • BA1 CLASS READINGS - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS >
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE - THE FABRIC OF EXISTENCE (TEXTILES IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE - THE TIES THAT BIND (SOCIAL MEANINGS) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE - CLOTH AND TEMPORAL POWER (MONEY, TRADE, STATUS AND CONTROL) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE - CLOTH AS COMMUNICATION (MEANING, MESSAGES AND BEAUTY) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE - TEXTILES AND THE SPIRIT (SACRED, SPIRITUAL AND HEALING SIGNIFICANCE) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
  • BA2 CLASS READINGS AND VISUALS
    • BA2 CLASS READINGS - FASHION IN SOCIETY GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS >
      • BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY - VEILING GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY - THE SECOND HAND MARKET GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY - FEMINISM AND FASHION GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY - HOMOSEXUAL FASHION GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY - JAPANESE STREET FASHION GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY - FASHION IN INDIA GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
    • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - FASHION IN SOCIETY >
      • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - FASHION IN SOCIETY - THE SECONDHAND MARKET
      • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - FASHION IN SOCIETY - JAPANESE STREET FASHION
      • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - FASHION IN SOCIETY - INDIAN FASHION
    • BA2 CLASS READINGS - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS >
      • BA2 CLASS READING - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - WEAVING AS POLITICAL SYMBOL (YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS ONE) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - THE SUBVERSIVE STITCH GROUP SEMNAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - GANDHI AND KHADI CLOTH GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - THE FEMALE TRADITION OF TEXTILES GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
      • BA2 CLASS READING - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - KNITTING AS ART GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION
    • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY >
      • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - WEAVING AS POLITICAL SYMBOL
      • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - THE FEMALE TRADITION OF TEXTILES
      • BA2 CLASS VISUALS - TEXTILES IN SOCIETY - THE SUBVERSIVE STITCH
  • BA3 CLASS READINGS
    • BA3 CLASS READING - THE FIVE STAGES OF REFLECTIVE WRITING
  • THEORY READINGS AND VISUALS (GENERAL REFERENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR RESEARCH)
    • THEORY READING - WHY STUDY FASHION?
    • THEORY READING - WHAT IS A THEORY?
    • THEORY READING - INTRODUCTION TO BA1 FASHION THEORY
    • THEORY READING - FASHION CYCLES (CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION, TRICKLE-DOWN/UP/ACROSS)
    • THEORY READING CLASS VISUALS - FASHION CYCYES (CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION, TRICKLE-DOWN/UP/ACROSS)
    • THEORY READING - KEY TERMS IN FASHION THEORY
    • THEORY READING - TEXTILE METAPHORS
  • FICTION READINGS (FOR WHEN YOU ARE BORED)
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    • FICTION READING - ANITA BROOKNER'S 'PROVIDENCE'
    • FICTION READING - RUMER GODDEN'S 'BLACK NARCISSUS'
    • FICTION READING - THE BROTHERS GRIMMS' 'HOW SOME CHILDREN PLAYED AT SLAUGHTERING'
    • FICTION READING - THOMAS HARDY'S 'JUDE THE OBSCURE' - THE PIG SLAUGHTERING (NOT FOR VEGETARIANS OR THE FAINTHEARTED)
    • FICTION READING - THE BROTHERS GRIMMS' 'RUMPELSTILTSKIN'
    • FICTION READING - GREEK MYTHOLOGY'S 'THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR'
    • FICTION READING - GREEK MYTHOLOGY'S 'PROKNE AND PHILOMELA'
    • FICTION READING - DAWN FRENCH'S 'A TINY BIT MARVELLOUS'
  • MATHS READINGS (FOR WHEN YOU ARE REALLY BORED)
    • MATHS READING - PI (FOR GEEKS)
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    • MATHS READING - WHY WE NEED PYTHAGORAS (WHAT DOES LILY ALLEN KNOW?) ​
    • MATHS READING - FORMULA FOR WORKING OUT AGATHA CHRISTIE WHODUNNIT (I THOUGHT THIS WAS AN APRIL FOOL)
    • MATHS READING - ORDER AND PATTERN AS THE BASIS OF EVERYTHING (ARTY) ​
    • MATHS READING - WRITER SHIRLEY CONRAN'S MATHS EBOOK FOR GIRLS (I FAILED MATHS TWICE)
    • MATHS READING - RELATIVITY VERSUS QUANTUM MECHANICS (I ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD SOME OF THIS)
    • MATHS READING - WHY WE SHOULD ALL LEARN COMPUTER CODING (VERY LONG... IF YOU MANAGE TO GET TO THE END OF IT I WILL BUY YOU A DRINK)
    • MATHS READING - DO WE REALLY NEED MATHS? (SAYS IT ALL)
    • MATHS READING - THE 'BEAUTY' OF EINSTEIN (I LOST THE WILL TO LIVE)
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  • ARE YOU STRESSED?
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    • ARE YOU STRESSED? - MANAGING STRESS
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  • TO DO
  • REFERENCES
  • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES PROGRAMME - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES PROJECT BRIEF - GLOBAL FASHION AND TEXTILE MANUFACTURING REPORT 2014-15
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES CLASS - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL - INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES CLASS - THE ALTERNATIVE PROJECT BRIEF
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES CLASS - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL - PEST AND CSR
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES CLASS - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL - ETHICS AND DISSERTATION
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    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES CLASS READING - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL - ENVIRONMENTAL
    • BA2 BUSINESS STUDIES CLASS READING - GLOBAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL - ETHICAL
  • THE REFERENCING TEST
  BCOT BA Textiles for Fashion
Historical and Theoretical Studies theory classes and readings.

BA1 VISUALS - INTRODUCTION TO FASHION THEORY - SEMIOTICS (TIES) 


KEY TERMS

None. 

This is 'the difficult one in terms of semiotics' but is otherwise easy to understand..?


Therefore

FASHION THEORY - SEMIOTICS


Semiology of fashion

The meaning of the formal properties and signs of garment decorations. (Craik, 2009, p.335).

... fashion is not just a covering for the body but a means of communicating about the body and can thus be considered a symbolic system where clothes and the rules that govern how they can be worn can be seen as a type of language or set of signs.

The theorist most strongly associated with this approach is Roland Barthes, who wrote the now-classic book 'The Fashion System' (1984). Barthes was influenced by the theory of structuralism in postwar French anthropology and linguistics, which examined social phenomena as a set of interrelated components making up a complex whole. In the case of fashion, this meant examining the garments and elements of an outfit or a look that composed a vocabulary and a grammar ...

Fashion, he argues, is the product of the social relations and activities that are involved in putting an outfit together. Fashion is actualised through the way the garments are worn. Barthes makes a distinction between three kinds of garments -  the real garment, the represented garment, and the used garment - corresponding to the processes of production, distribution, and consumption. (Craik, 2009, pp.109-10).
FASHION AS COMMUNICATION

... fashion is not just a covering for the body but a means of communicating about the body and can thus be considered a symbolic system where clothes and the rules that govern how they can be worn can be seen as a type of language or set of signs. (Craik, 2009, pp.109-10).

Picture
Alison Lurie's The Language of Clothes (first published 1981) book cover 2000 


http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Language-Clothes-Alison-Lurie/dp/0805062440



For thousands of years human beings have communicted with one another first in the language of dress. Long before I am near enough to talk to you on the street, in a meeting, or at a party, you announce your sex, age and class to me through what you are waring - and very possibly give me important information (or misinformation) as to your occupation, origin, personality, opinions, tastes, sexual dsires and current mood. I may not be able to put what I observe into words, but I register the information unconsciously; and you simultaneously do the same for me. By the time we meet and converse we have already spoken to each other in an older and more universal tongue. (Lurie, 1981 [1992] p.3).


Picture
Sexist shirt 2014


http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/14/rosetta-comet-dr-matt-taylor-apology-sexist-shirt

Picture
Zuckerberg in grey t-shirt 2014


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/10/obama-zuckerberg-us-president-facebook-founder


FASHION AS VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR


Today, as semiotics becomes fashionable, sociologists tell us that fashion too is a language of signs, a nonverbal system of communication ...

None of these theorists, however, have gone on to remark what seems obvious: that if clothing is a language, it must have a vocabulary and a grammar like othe languages. Of course, as with human speech, there is not a single language of dress, but many: some (like Dutch and German) closely related and others (like Basque) almost unique. And within every language of clothes there are many different dialects and accents, some almost unintelligible to members of the mainstream culture. (Lurie, 1981, pp.3-4).



Picture
Multicultural Christmas jumper 2014 (made by the Leicester-based British Christmas Jumpers)


http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/nov/24/the-ultimate-christmas-jumper-that-has-a-real-message-of-peace-and-joy


THE REAL GARMENT, THE REPRESENTED GARMENT AND THE USED GARMENT - PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION

Picture

The real garment i.e. production (fashion industry)


Saville Row 2014


http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/nov/14/savile-row-tailoring-foreign-buyout-threat-hong-kong


Picture
The represented garment i.e. distribution (florals promoted on the catwalk and in fashion journalism)


Florals for men 2014


http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/apr/25/floral-prints-male-fashion-sales-figures


Picture
The used garment i.e. consumption (turbans as cool in contemporary Sikh culture)


The Singh Project 2014


http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2014/nov/02/singh-project-turbans-became-cool


KEY POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

1. The tie as the only male garment allowing personal expression...

2. Beau Brummell...

3. Ties in 20 (21) C designers' collections...

4. Ties as a code (signifier) for male sexuality...

5. Ties as a symbol for male sexual organs...



1. The tie as the only male garment allowing personal expression...

Is the tie the only male garment that allows a man to express a softer expressive essence or harsh collective identity? (Craik and Peoples in Craik, 2009, p.122).

Picture
Topman Christmas 2014

http://www.topman.com/en/tmuk/category/clothing-140502/home




2. Beau Brummell...

In post-revolutionary France there was almost a mania for the cravat, which spread across the English Channel and was epitomised by Beau Brummell's elaboration of the cravat and his invention of his own knot. (Craik and Peoples in Craik, 2009, p.122).

Picture
Beau Brumell in cravat used in Gilette advert


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Brummell


3. Ties in 20 (21) C designers' collections...

Twentieth-century ties were largely fads that only superficially altered the classic tie. Permitted changes in tie fashions included fads in fabric design (e.g., regimental stripes, plain, floral, or patterned). Ties can also vary in width and length. Despite this limited range of possibilities, ties have become a staple of most designers' collections and of licensing arrangements, as they offer an affordable trophy that signifies the qualities attributed to the designer and aspired to be the wearer of the tie. (Craik and Peoples in Craik, 2009, p.123).

Picture
Paul Smith navy and white diagonal stripe tie 2014

http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/uk-en/shop/mens/accessories/ties/men-s-navy-and-white-diagonal-stripe-classic-silk-tie.html


4. Ties as a code (signifier) for male sexuality...

From this history, it becomes clear that there is a clear symbolic register attached to the tie; it can be a sign of normative masculinity, authority and discipline, and sexual prowess and proclivities. For example, traditionally, so-called confirmed bachelors (code for homosexuals) and men of 'artistic persuasion' wore bow ties or cravats rather than a tie, which connoted heterosexuality ... (Craik and Peoples in Craik, 2009, p.123).

 A preview of a BA2 group seminar reading

Accessories, such as red ties or suede shoes, were used to allow these gay men to recognise one another without drawing the attention of the uninitiated. (Cole in Welters and Lillethun, 2011, p.218).


Picture
Red ties as dress code for homosexuals 1930s-50s

http://www.homohistory.com/2012/08/the-red-tie-in-gay-new-york.html



5. Ties as a symbol for male sexual organs...
Freud regarded ties as a symbol of the phallus, and Flugel regarded all items of clothing as mechanisms for denoting sexuality. Joanne Finkelstein (1994:2204) suggests that the tie links the two symbols of male virility - namely, the male larynx and the male genitalia - thus turning a seemingly innocent and conventional habit of dress into a neon advertisement of male sexual prowess. In this sense the tie is the male equivalent of stiletto heels as the vestmental sign par excellence of sexuality ... (Craik and Peoples, 2009, pp.122-23).


Is there a connection between talking and sex?


This is the most shocking quote I will ever give you (it has not made Quote of the Week...)

'The more a girl talks, the more she'll ****. Their mouths and their *****,' Matt theorised, are connected by this long nerve down there spines.' (Updike, 2004 [2006] p.316).

REFERENCES


Cole, S. in Welters, L. and Lillethun, A. (eds.) (2011) The fashion reader. 2nd end. Oxford: Berg.


Craik. J. and Peoples. S. in Craik, J. (2009) Fashion - the key concepts. Oxford: Berg.

Lurie, A. (1981) The language of clothes. Reprint. London: Bloomsbury. 1992.



Updike, J. (2004) Villages. Reprint. London: Penguin: 2006.

See also...

Picture
http-//www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/nov/11/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-mark-zuckerbergs-grey-t-shirts

Picture
http-//www.singhproject.com

Picture
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2014/nov/24/insider-chic-the-fashion-label-created-behind-bars

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