SIGNS IN FASHION

We communicate through signs. Words, facial expressions, billboard images, street signs, certain sounds or colours are signs.

Clothes, jewels, accessories are signs.

A sign, by definition, is a bifacial entity formed of signified and signifier. The signified is the represented concept, the signifier is the material medium of representation.

Clothing can be used as a symbol (for instance, gilt accessories, or a lamè bodice, can be symbols of wealth, a black sheath dress of elegance, a pair of extravagant skyscraper sandals of eccentricity and transgression), as an icon (a disguise is an icon of what we would wish to look like... If I dress up as a cat at carnival, my clothes become the icon of a cat) or as an index (I wear stray socks, and unless this is not my style, it indicates that I’m careless).

Clothing can be used as a symbol: a black sheath dress of elegance

A few fundamental elements must be considered:

• Signs in fashion are transient and are generated by a group of individuals who voluntarily develop a code.
• Signifieds and signifiers in clothing are subject to sudden changes, due to the choice of the few and in a fleeting time span.
• Signs in fashion are unstable, strong in the twinkle of an eye, weak moments after.

It appears clear by now that communicating through fashion is a complex art, unlike what many people think.

Results depend only on professional skills.