The Language of Fashion

by Roland Barthes, Andy Stafford (Translator), Michael Carter (Editor)

Roland Barthes, widely regarded as one of the most subtle and perceptive critics of the 20th Century, was particularly fascinated by fashion and clothing. The Language of Fashion brings together all Barthes' untranslated writings on fashion.The Language of Fashion presents a set of remarkable essays, revealing the breadth and insight of Barthes' long engagement with the history of clothes. The essays range from closely argued essays laying down the foundations for a structural and semiological analysis of clothing to a critical analysis of the significance of gemstones and jewellery, from an exploration of how the contrasting styles of Courrges and Chanel replayed the clash between ancient and modern to a discussion of the meaning of hippy style in Morocco, and from the nature of desire to the role of the dandy and colour in fashion.Constantly questioning, always changing, Barthes' ideas about clothes and fashion remain to provoke another generation of readers seeking to understand not only the culture of fashion but the fashion of culture.

Genres: Fashion, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Art, Semiotics, France

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2006

About the author

Roland Barthes of France applied semiology, the study of signs and symbols, to literary and social criticism.

Ideas of Roland Gérard Barthes, a theorist, philosopher, and linguist, explored a diverse range of fields. He influenced the development of schools of theory, including design, anthropology, and poststructuralism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_...

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, I need to point out that Roland Barthes' "The Fashion System" is not "The Language of Fashion." There seems to be confusion regarding these two titles - they are separate books. "The Language of Fashion" is a collection of essays regarding clothing/fashion and how to "read" clothing with respect to culture and dandyism, among other categories. "The Fashion System" is basically a book length study of the same subject matter.

"The Language of Fashion" are mostly magazine pieces or essays before he wrote the mega-book - and for me, much easier read. The language gets a little academic - and I think it is Barthes most difficult work to read - but still, this book is pretty much an amazing work. Basically Barthes studied fashion literature / text from French iconic magazines - and he re-reads or analyzes the text, in how clothing is different from fashion and of course style.

The afterword is quite long and that is written by the book's translator Andy Stafford. Basically he critiques Barthes writing for these essays as well as "The Fashion System," and notes various critics who commented on Barthes' work. Overall a very interesting book. I happen to love Barthes work as a critic-at-large, but some of his more intense - language wise - is a tough read at times. Still, a must for the Barthes fan, and I'm happy that I dwell into these pages.

[Maki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reflection on the role of fashion in the society and their interconnections. My favourite essay from this book is "From Gemstone to Jewellery". The best way to describe this book is to provide few excerpts:

"System is completely different from gestalt; it is essentially defined by normative links which justify, oblige, prohibit, tolerate, in a word control the arrangement of garments on a concrete wearer who is identified in their social and historical place: it is a value."

"Dress is, in the fullest sense, a ´social model´, a more or less standardized picture of expected collective behaviour; and it is essentially at this level that it has meaning."

"So why in our world has the gemstone been associated so constantly with a woman, her powers and her evil spells? It is because the husband very quickly delegated to his wife the job of showing off his own wealth (certain sociologists use this to explain the origins of fashion): the wife provides poetic proof of the wealth and power of the husband."

"The superiority of status, which for democratic reasons could no longer be advertised, was hidden and sublimated beneath a new value: taste, or better still, as the word is appropriately ambiguous, distinction."

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of ‘The Language of Fashion’ whilst experiencing insomnia and found it suitably calming while I was feeling terrible. Bathes’ writing rewards careful reading, rather than my usual headlong rush through the pages. At one point I found a fifteen line sentence, which was frankly excessive, but for the most part the book was readable for someone with an extremely erratic background in theory. As it is an anthology rather than one piece of contiguous writing, Barthes’ views evolve and therefore the book is tricky to summarise. His main theme is how fashion is akin to a language and can be analysed as such.

I found the variations upon this fascinating and thought-provoking, especially when comparing the state of fashion when he was writing (1950s to 1970s) with today. Barthes comments that fashion magazines ‘[change] an arbitrary link into a natural property or technical affinity, in short providing fashion creations with the guarantee of being eternal or empirically necessary’. In short, they impose specific meanings on garments and combinations thereof. The aim is of course to encourage the regular purchase of more clothes to keep up with changing fashions. This got me thinking about how my personal exposure to fashion has changed. Ten years ago I regularly bought fashion magazines, whereas now I never do so. Magazines were, and to an extent still are, the gatekeepers of fashion language. These days, I get my fashion imagery from Tumblr, where images are separated from formal fashion language and arbitrary time sensitivity. (Does anyone care whether they are reblogging a nice outfit from ‘this season’ or years ago?) Tumblr seems to have its own fashion languages, though, in the more slangy, fragmented, and pastiche form of ‘aesthetic’. Social media like Tumblr encourages the formulation of personal aesthetics, which re-purpose elements of fashion language to impose new meanings that tend to include some level of parody. There are still elements of regular change and collectivity, though, just on a chaotic and non-seasonal basis of personal reinvention and trying out new elements as they circulate (flower crowns, for example).

Thus Barthes’ work seems still to have relevant applications today, although no doubt many commentators since have embroidered upon and critiqued him endlessly. As a non-expert, I appreciated finding a more systematic way to think about a subject that deeply interests me. As well as his semiotic approach, I would pick out as notable Barthes’ critique of ‘hippy’ fashion in chapter 12. This short piece comments that the hippy look is intended as ‘an exact mirror image of the American way of life’. Outside this context of the rich US, however, ‘poverty turns the hippy’s choice into a copy, a caricature of economic alienation, and this copy of poverty, though sported only lightly, becomes in fact distinctly irresponsible’. As a result, ‘[the] critique of culture [...] is cut off from its political argument’. This is a very compelling point that still feels important today, since ‘bohemian’ clothing and pre-distressed garments continue this problematic tendency. Indeed, today the political argument has been completely stripped out as countercultural forms of fashion have been fully commoditised by the global fashion industry. This doesn’t mean that such clothing no longer carries meanings, just that these have changed significantly.

‘The Language of Fashion’ has definitely inspired me to read further into fashion theory, although the translator and editors are ambivalent about Barthes’ longer work The Fashion System. Apparently it’s a lot denser!

[Fahima Jaffar]

سلسلة مقالاتٍ حاول فيها رولان بارت تأصيل منهجٍ لمقاربة "الموضة" كنظام علامات، ذي تراكيب ومفرداتٍ خاصة، على نهجِ اللغويّات التركيبية. وهو في محاولته هذه ينفي عن الموضة ادّعاءها الإبداع والفوضى، ويؤكد خضوعها لنظامٍ تزامني synchronic - متمثلًا في علاقة القطع ببعضها على الجسد الواحد وفي الزمان الواحد- ولا تزامنيّ diachronic - في دورة عمر طول التنورة التي تعود لنقطة البداية كل خمسين عامًا مثلًا.

للأمانة كانت القراءة التاريخية السريعة لظهور الموضة الحديثة وعلاقتها بنظام اقتصادي واجتماعي حديث أشدّ ما لفتني في الكتاب. نُشر الكتاب في ستينيات القرن الماضي، في لحظة تاريخية تختلف كثيرًا عن عالمنا اليوم، ونظام رأسماليّ عالمي أشد توغلًا وحركة وتغيّرا، الأمر الذي قد يجعل نظام العلامة الذي حاول بارت القبضَ عليه قبل أكثر من نصف قرن أشدّ تفلتًا.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

If fashion is a language without content, as Barthes suggests, then we must accept the fact that the cultural flux which determines changes in fashion must be structured not by language-systems, but according to what must be the deep-seated archetypal structures that govern human consciousness. Barthes gives much food for thought in this short book which is comprised of extracts from his body writings most concerned with fashion but are not featured in his massive, imponderable tome, The Fashion System. A question that surfaces in the text, which appears repeatedly in the secondary literature appended to this author is, "Is Roland Barthes a philosopher or not?" It appears to me that the writings of this author mark him as a superior cultural critic, but one who is too concerned with the social superstructure to be labelled a philosopher and, simultaneously, too theory-driven to be praised for the purely literary aspects of his work. Perhaps his mother never encouraged him to go out and play with the neighborhood children and, as a consequence, he developed a lifelong penchant for the political doldrums of the middle classes, and was averse to take actions that would contribute to the disequilibrium of the praxis of the status quo. You be the judge. Three stars.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting frameworks for considering and analysing fashion and fashion history - especially 'Blue is in Fashion This Year' and 'From Gemstones to Jewellery' - but Barthes' comments on fashion and dress from cultures outside of Europe are... perhaps not quite as well thought out.

I'm not going to lay out a full essay here arguing my perspective (though I have in the past and I could again if threatened) but the example given that 'ancient Chinese society' was a society without fashion (all of it? When? Which dynasty?) and that '[the] absence of fashion corresponded to the totally stagnant nature of society.' Without miring myself elbow deep in the centuries old European perception of China as a stagnant culture, I don't think much more needs to be said to demonstrate how sweeping of a statement that is.
We will not speak of what was written about Japanese kimono lest I burst some important blood vessel.

The essays in this volume are incredibly useful and thought-provoking for the study of fashion history, but probably take with a pinch of salt for any culture outside of the West.

[Ernest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best read as a companion piece to his seminal text The Fashion System , this collection of essays by Barthes surrounding topics like symbolism in gemstones, the self-defeatism of dandyism and hippy culture and attempts to chronicle both Fashion (capital F) and articles of clothing is accompanied by well-intentioned, often helpful annotations as well as a conclusion that illuminates not just the content of individual essays, but also situates these essays within the discourse of critical theory. Though competing (sometimes complementary) systems of structuralism and semiology are both explored and used to great effect to attempt to explain the system of Fashion as well as how it in itself is a language, one can clearly note Barthes' shift away from an exhaustive explanation of Fashion (a clearly impossible undertaking) to attempting to see if, and how, Fashion is itself a language.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. I started this book due to writing an essay on Punk clothing in the GDR. I’ve never really thought of clothes as having such meaning, being a system of communication but it entirely makes sense. A good book.

[Sandra Rodríguez]

Understanding fashion from the point of view of semiotic its a different way to realize the importance of garments.

[what-ifsamalgam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll probably need a couple of weeks to process it all

[Teddy Reiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic history and analysis of the economic sources behind fashion, class, and style. Want to find more like this

[Minā · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a great deal from Barthes, particularly about the history of clothing and the fashion system.

[Luiza Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as hard to read as the fashion system, yet just as complex. A bit outdated, but extremely interesting

[Leo46 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The closest thing you’ll get to a (post-)structuralist analysis of fashion, this is by far a more accessible read than the pedantic opus that is The Fashion System. Instead of pure semiotics, here we see a diverse array of essays where Barthes will directly consider sociological aspects of fashion in relation to economics, libidinal, and psycho-social behaviors. There’s no single thesis for the book, of course, but there is generally a surprising amount of charitability given to the phenomenon of fashion or dressing in particular as indicative and illustrative of an epoch and its social manifestations. Fashion is not simply a dictate of capital but an art form that is just unfortunately in the position of being-able-to-be-commodified the fastest out of all art forms.

[Amanda Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

'The message is decoded only by experience'

This was a language dense, but interesting read on clothing history and systems within fashion. I was most interested in his explanation of there being multiple meanings for fashion items, A dress can mean day/night/sexy/conservative/budget/expensive etc, we know these meanings from the details, the fit, the tailoring, colour and so on. All these meanings we just know, because we are socially constructed to know. We are told through the media and friends/family/co-workers what is appropriate for what occasion. There in lies our attributed, collectively agreed meanings for that item.

[Jan]

WARNING. I'v read The Fashion System and thought The Language of Fashion was just an updated version of it (Barthes uses the terms langue and system interexchangably, and language seems to me like a nicer term). ERROR; they're two different books or rather The Fashion System is a book and The Language of Fashion seems to be a collection of essays. Sigh. As if Barthes wasn't confusing enough. Brilliant, but also French.

[k · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only liked "From Gemstones to Jewellery", one chapter/essay in the book.

[Sanjay Varma]

It turns out that I didn't care.