The semiotic production of meanings in a show of style: cultural and creative languages

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26563/dobras.i37.1422

Keywords:

Cultural Production, Fashion semiotics, Fashion shows, Gucci, Runway

Abstract

The study of fashion allows us to understand culture and different forms of individual expression. The literature review we carried out indicates that there are several perspectives in which fashion and its objects can be analysed, which gives it a dynamic character. Regarding its relationship with semiotics, the literature review emphasizes the analysis of brands, advertisements, and fashion photographs. This underlines the gap in studies of other types of cultural production, such as fashion shows. By understanding fashion shows, we can decode new dynamics in the fashion system, as they are rich in meaning and represent the culture where brands are inserted. The main objective of this research is to understand the patterns of meaning represented in unified fashion shows. The research was carried out through a methodological script based mainly on the Barthesean approach. For that, we resorted to a semiotic analysis in a case study context composed by the unified Gucci fashion shows. The analytical script underlined the existence of specific elements of the runway narratives that are essential for understanding the brand’s DNA. We can also understand that the elements of a unified runway show do not remove the potential of the message in brand narratives. By exploring these articulations, we were able to see the location(s) of meaning in specific signs in the fashion shows, highlighting its role as a cultural signifier.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

BARNARD, Malcolm. Fashion as Communication. London: Routledge, 2002.

BARRY, Ben. Enclothed Knowledge: The Fashion Show as a Methods for Dissemination in Arts-Informed Research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, n. 18, v. 3, art. 2, 2017. Available in: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs- 18.3.2837.

BARTHES, Roland. Rhetoric of the Image. In Image – Music – Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.

BARTHES, Roland. The Fashion System. London: University of California Press, 1983.

BARTHES, Roland. The language of Fashion. London: Bloomsburry, 2004.

BARTHES, Roland. Elementos de Semiologia (I. Blickstein, Trad.). São Paulo: Editora Cultrix, 2006.

BAUDRILLARD, Jean. Symbolic Exchange and Death. London: SAGE, 1993.

BERGUER, Arthur. Media and Communication Research Methods: An introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. UK: SAGE Publications, 2000.

BERGUER, Arthur. Media Analysis Techniques. UK: SAGE Publications, 2005.

BERGUER, Arthur. The Objects of Affection: Semiotic and Consumer Culture. USA: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230109902_2

BEZEMER, Jeff. & COWAN, Kate. Exploring reading in social semiotics: theory and methods. Education, pp. 3-13, 2020. DOI: 10.1080/03004279.2020.1824706 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2020.1824706

BLACK, Sandy; ENTWISTLE, Joanne; DE LA HAYE, Amy; ROCAMORA, Agnès; ROOT, Regina; THOMAS, Helen. The Handbook of Fashion Studies. UK: Bloomsbury, 2018.

BOWLES, Hamish. Inside the Wild World of Gucci’s Alessandro Michele. 15, April. 2019. Available at https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-alessandro-michele-interview-may-2019-issue. (Accessed on 08/04/2020).

Business of Fashion. Gucci or Balenciaga: Which Was the Hottest Fashion Brand in 2017?. 2018 Busines of Fashion: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sponsoredfeature/the- hottest-brands-in-2017-gucci-vs-balenciaga. (Accessed in 10/04/2020).

CHANDLER, Daniel. Semiotics the basics. UK: Taylor and Francis, 2017.

CRANE, Diana. Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing. USA: University of Chicago Press, 2000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226924830.001.0001

CRANE, Diana. & BOVONE, Laura. Approaches to material culture: The sociology of fashion and clothing. Poetics, n. 34. pp. 319-333, 2006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2006.10.002

DAVIS, Fred. Fashion, Culture and Identity. USA: Chicago Press, 1992. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226167954.001.0001

ECO, Umberto. Semiótica, Filosofia e Linguagem. São Paulo: Ática, 1991.

ENTWISTLE, Joanne. Fashion and the Fleshy Body: Dress as Embodied Practice. Fashion Theory. v. 3, n. 3., pp. 323-347, 2000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2752/136270400778995471

ENTWISTLE, J. The aesthetic economy of fashion: markets and value in clothing and modelling. Oxford: Berg, 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2752/9780857854148

ENTWISTLE, J. The Fashioned Body 15 Years On: Contemporary Fashion Thinking. Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry. v. 8, n. 1, pp.15-21, 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2016.1147693 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2016.1147693

ENTWISTLE, J., Frankling, C., Lee, N. & Walsh, A. Fashion Diversity. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture. v. 32, n. 2. pp. 309-323, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1567065

EVANS, Caroline. The Enchanted Spectacle. Fashion Theory. v. 5, n. 3, pp. 271-310, 2001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2752/136270401778960865

FIDALGO, António. & GRADIM, Anabela. Manual de Semiótica. Portugal: Universidade da Beira Interior, 2005.

FREIRE, Anido. When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis. Journal of Business Research, v. 67, n. 12, pp. 2666-2675, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.04.004

HALL, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. UK: SAGE and The Open University, 1997.

HESSELBEIN, Chris. Walking the Catwalk: From Dressed Body to Dressed Embodiment. Fashion Theory. pp. 1-27, 2019. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2019.1634412 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1634412

KAISER, Susan. Fashion and Cultural Studies. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.

KUSTERS, Annelies. Introduction: the semiotic repertoire: assemblages and evaluation of resources. International Journal of Multilingualism, v. 21, n. 2-3, pp. 133-150, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2021.1898616 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2021.1898616

LIPOVETSKY, Gilles. O Império do Efémero — A moda e o seu destino nas sociedades modernas. Lisboa: Publicações Dom Quixote, 1987.

Lipovetsky, G. Os Tempos Hipermodernos. Portugal: Edições 70, 2004.

Lyst. The Lyst Index Q2 2019, 2019. https://www.lyst.com/data/the-lyst- index/q219/. (Accessed on 10/04/2020).

MCCRACKEN, Grant. Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods. Journal of Consumer Research. v.13, n. 1, pp. 71-84, 1986. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/209048

MCNAIL, Lisa. Fashion and women’s self-concept: a typology for self- fashioning using clothing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An international Journal, v. 38, n. 7, pp. 850-868, 2018.

MIRANDA, Ana Paula; GARCIA, Carol; MELLO, Sérgio. A Moda como Elemento de Comunicação: Uma forma de Expressão e Integração na Sociedade Moderna. XXII Congresso Brasileiro em Ciências da Comunicação, 1999. Available at http://www.portcom.intercom.

org.br/.

MOLLERUP, Per. Marks of Excellence. New York: Phaidon Press Limited, 2007.

OLIVEIRA, Fernando. Brand Identity and Visual Culture. In Communicating Visually (Ed. D. Raposo). UK: Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2018.

OSWALD, Laura. Marketing Semiotics: signs, strategies, and brand value. UK: Oxford University Press, 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199566495.001.0001

SANT’ANNA, Maria Rúbia. Teoria da Moda: Imagem, Sociedade e Consumo. Brasil: Estação das Letras, 2009.

SAUSSURE, Ferdinand. Curso de Linguística Geral. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1961.

SEGRAN, Elizabeth. Meet the Man Who made Millenials Fall In Love With Gucci. Fast Company, 3, may. 2018. (Accessed on 21/12/2019).

SIMMEL, George. Fashion. International Quarterley. v. 1, n. 22. pp. 130-155, 1904.

SUDJIC, Deyan. A Linguagem das Coisas. Reino Unido: Penguin Books, 2010.

TUNGATE, Mark. Fashion brands: Branding style from Armani to Zara. London: Kogan Page, 2005.

TURNER, Terence. The Social Skin. Journal of Ethnographic Theory. v. 2, n. 2. Pp. 486-504, 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau2.2.026

VAN LEEUNWEN, Theo. Multimodality. In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (Eds. D.Tannen, H. Hamilton, and D. Schiffrin). UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584194.ch21

VARLEY, Rosemary; RONCHA, Ana; RADCLYFFE-THOMAS, Natascha; GEE, Liz. Fashion Management: A strategic approach. London: Red Globe Press, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50819-5

WILLIAMS, Raymond. The Long Revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1961. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/will93760

YOTKA, Steff. What Is the Future of the Fashion Show?. Vogue. 4, February. 2020. Available in https://www.vogue.com/article/what-is-the-future-of-the-fashion-show (Accessed on 20/12/2019).

https://nospacejustaplace.gucci.com/ (Accessed on 18/10/2019).

https://cpp-luxury.com/gucci-an-exhibition-in-seoul-entitled-no-space-just-a-placeeterotopia/ (Accessed on 20/12/2019).

https://www.gucci.com/pt/en_gb/st/stories/article/guccifest-episode-1 (Accessed on 29/09/2019).

https://www.gucci.com/pt/en_gb/st/stories/runway/article/fall-winter-fashion-show-2017-18-details-w (Accessed on 21/12/2020).

https://www.gucci.com/pt/en_gb/st/stories/runway/article/fall-winter-fashion-show-2017-18-details-w (Accessed on 18/11/2019).

https://www.gucci.com/us/en/st/stories/runway/article/spring-summer-2019-details

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoHuZe1HtBs/ (Accessed on 08/09/2019).

https://www.publico.pt/2023/01/30/impar/noticia/gucci-nomeia-sarno-directorcriativo-tarefa-reavivar-marca-2036833 (Accessed on 11/02/2023).

https://www.vogue.pt/alessandro-michele-abandona-a-direcao-criativa-da-gucci (Accessed on 11/02/2023).

https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-alessandro-michele-interview-may-2019-issue

https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-alessandro-michele-interview-may-2019-issue (Accessed on 21/12/2019).

https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-unify-mens-womens-runway-show (Accessed on 21/12/2019).

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2017-ready-to-wear/gucci (Accessed on 21/01/2020).

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2021-ready-to-wear/Gucci (Accessed on 21/11/2019).

https://www.vogue.pt/utopian-fantasy-da-gucci (Accessed on 21/12/2019).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNxpOthmvbI&t=52s (Accessed on 21/12/2019).

https://youtu.be/AXOfw9x-hVw(Accessed on 21/12/2019).

https://youtu.be/IoHY-f_bh44 (Accessed on 12/11/2019).

https://youtu.be/K3_kN6VjAXg(Accessed on 21/12/2019).

https://youtu.be/rTiziX53Czc (Accessed on 12/12/2019).

https://youtu.be/uTmrV8JnntY (Accessed on 12/12/2019).

https://youtu.be/ydWM9nxtn3c (Accessed on 12/12/2019).

Published

2023-03-24

How to Cite

CANTÚ, W. A.; PINHEIRO GOMES, N. The semiotic production of meanings in a show of style: cultural and creative languages. dObra[s] – revista da Associação Brasileira de Estudos de Pesquisas em Moda, [S. l.], n. 37, p. 205–227, 2023. DOI: 10.26563/dobras.i37.1422. Disponível em: https://dobras.emnuvens.com.br/dobras/article/view/1422. Acesso em: 22 jul. 2024.

Issue

Section

Articles