The Language of Fashion

by Roland Barthes

Overview

Roland Barthes was one of the most widely influential thinkers of the 20th Century and his immensely popular and readable writings have covered topics ranging from wrestling to photography. The semiotic power of fashion and clothing were of perennial interest to Barthes and The Language of Fashion - now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series - collects some of his most important writings on these topics. Barthes' essays here range from the history of clothing to the cultural importance of Coco Chanel, from Hippy style in Morocco to the figure of the dandy, from colour in fashion to the power of jewellery. Barthes' acute analysis and constant questioning make this book an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the cultural power of fashion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472505422
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/19/2013
Series:	Bloomsbury Revelations
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a major French writer, literary theorist and critic of French culture and society.

Table of Contents

Preface
I. Clothing History
1. History and Sociology of Clothing: Some Methodological Observations
2. Language andClothing
3. Towards a Sociology of Dress
II. Systems and Structures
4. 'Blue is In Fashion This Year': A Note on Research into Signifying Units in Fashion Clothing
5. From Gemstones to Jewellery
6. Dandyism and Fashion
7. [An Early Preface to] The Fashion System
8. Fashion, a Strategy of Desire: Round-table Discussion with Roland Barthes, Jean Duvignaud and Henri Lefebvre
9. Fashion and the Social Sciences(interview)
10. On The Fashion System
III.Fashion Debates and Interpretations
11. The Contest Between Chanel andCourreges, Refereed by a Philosopher
12. A Case of Cultural Criticism
13.Showing How Rhetoric Works
Afterword: Clothes, Fashion and System in the Writings of Roland Barthes: 'Something Out of Nothing', Andy Stafford
Editor's Note and Acknowledgements
Bibliography \Glossary of Names
Index.

Editorial Reviews

No one can claim that translating Barthes is easy. Nor is it easy to assemble, as Stafford and Carter have done, such a chronologically revealing series of essays, to footnote their French sources and explain the citations in them so fully, to provide a glossary of writers to help explain the evolution of Barthes's thought, and to frame the whole with a theoretically acute history of twentieth-century social theory, dress history, and his assessment by friends and foes. The Language of Fashion is paradoxically (as Barthes would say) reader-friendly but also respectful of the difficulties of his thought, an excellent advanced introduction to his writing on la mode.” —Ann Rosalind Jones, H-France Review

From the Publisher

As part of his edgy 1960s cultural criticism, French sociologist Barthes wrote extensively on fashion, culminating in The Fashion System. British academics Stafford and Michael Carter have assembled a smattering of the early interdisciplinary essays that haven't been translated before, originally published in publications as diverse as Revue Fran aise de Sociologie and Marie Claire. The essays reveal the chronological development of Barthes's thinking, from 1957 to 1969, which essentially aimed to apply Saussure's semiology to clothing forms to show how "the signifying function of dress makes it a total social object." In the early "History and Sociology of Clothing," for example, Barthes equates the Saussurian linguistics distinctions "langue" and "parole" to fashion; that is, "langue" is dress, while "parole" is the act of getting dressed. "Language and Clothing" delves into fashion history, extracting the nugget that men's current anti-dandyist style derives from the austerity of Quaker dress. "From Gemstones to Jewellery" is one of the few essays for lay readers, as is a consideration of classic versus modern style entitled "The Contest Between Chanel and Courr ges." There's a lot of padding and explication in this slender volume, necessary to navigate Barthes's fairly difficult system. (Apr. 5) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This volume includes several previously untranslated essays on fashion by legendary philosopher and critic Barthes (The Fashion System) as well as transcriptions of two rare interviews. The scholarly essays are divided into three sections dealing with clothing history, systems and structures, and fashion debates and interpretations. Originally published in French, the essays appeared in such periodicals as Annales, Marie Claire, and Communication. In general, Barthes's writings here fall into structuralist/poststructuralist and semiotic categories and have a strong sociological slant (i.e., you won't find essays about what not to wear next winter). Included is an excellent afterword by Stafford (French studies, Univ. of Leeds) that will prove helpful to any readers unfamiliar with Barthes's previous work on the subject. Naturally, the content is most useful alongside Barthes's other works (particularly The Fashion System) and will be practical to anyone needing further resources on Barthes. Recommended for academic libraries only.-Jason Moore, Madison Cty. Lib. Syst., MS Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

[T]he content is most useful alongside Barthes's other works (particularly The Fashion System) and will be practical to anyone needing further resources on Barthes. Recommended for academic libraries only.

Jason Moore

One is able to hear the voice of a sensitive and sensible critic who was alive to the symbolic vitality of the world.

New York Times