Download Part II Intro

Part II Intro
Fashion Theory
Gaining prominence
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Museum exhibitions
Social awareness…ecological implications
Globalization
Academia
Theory
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Conceptual network of propositions that
explain observable phenomenon
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No comprehensive: variety of disciplinary
perspectives
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Understand/explain/predict fashion change
Directional Flows
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Veblen Theory of the Leisure Class
1899, economist/sociologist
Conspicuous Consumption
Simmel: trickle-down theory
Field: trickle-up, status float (civil rights/
diversity)
King: trickle-across, simultaneous adoption
Models of Cyclical Change
Historical Continuity
 Shifting Erogenous Zones, Laver (extremes)
 Pendulum Swing (extremes)
 Recurring Wave/Dynamic, Kroeber, etc.
 Historicism (retro/vintage)
ORIGINS: Darwin The Origin of Species
 Hierarchical evolutionary development codes value
of dress and appearance
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Structuralism
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Systematically analyze relationships, discover &
interpret meaning
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Collective Selection, Blumer
Taste Change, Lang (desire novelty-conformity)
Semiotics, Barthes (decode images/relations)
Marketing system/meaning-making, McCracken
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Symbolic Interaction, Blumer/Kaiser
ambiguity—negotiation—meaning
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Role Theory--expectations
Lang & Lang 6
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Foisted upon the mass,
or mass change of taste?
ie. The New Look (describe)
publicity/resistance
change in mass taste
Fashion as a collective
phenomenon (not media)
Barthes 7
(a leather belt, with a rose stuck in it, worn above the waist, on a soft shetland
dress)
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3 “garments”: real, image, written
3 structures: technol, iconic, verbal
3 shifters: real to image (techno to iconic)
real to language (techno to verbal)
image to language (iconic to verbal)
Fashion Magazines, simultaneous yet
distinct messages
McCracken Fashion System
3 ways/types-meaning transfer
 Cultural world to consumer goods (like advertising)
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New cultural meanings (invented by…)
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New style associated w/established cult category
opinion leaders/conventional social elite
Radical Reform of meaning
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Western society-constant change; marginal groups
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Claude Levi-Strauss, western/“Hot societies” demand
(accept/encourage) radical change
McCracken contd.
2 “agents” for meaning transfer
 Designers
 Fashion journalists (social observers)
Gatekeepers: observe, decide
Viewer/Possessor: depended on-act of association,
transfer of meaning (ads & fash system
self-definition, social communication
Fashion System: my shirt, shoes or…
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Directional flow (fashion adoption)
Cyclical change (fashion adoption)
Structuralism
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Mass taste
Language
Meaning transfer
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Gender symbolism/distinction*