1 Introduction
Diana Crane
Fashion is a complex, multifaceted subject that has been studied in many academic fields. Scholars from disciplines in the humanities and in the medical and social sciences are interested in similar issues related to the phenomenon of fashion, but they approach them in different ways and rarely communicate their conclusions to their counterparts in other fields. The goal of this volume is to show that our understanding of fashion can be enhanced by juxtaposing perspectives from several disciplines, including communication, cultural studies, medicine, philosophy, psychiatry, psychology and sociology. These chapters suggest that a few scholars, both classical and contemporaryâsuch as Georg Simmel, Gilles Lipovetsky and Jean Baudrillardâhave provided theoretical frameworks that constitute a basis for research by scholars working in very different fields.
Propelled by increasingly intrusive media, fashion is very visible in contemporary society and has both positive and negative effects. Definitions of fashion focus on four concepts that refer to various aspects of its manifestation. The simplest type of definition is that fashion is a form of material culture related to bodily decoration. Laura Bovone, a sociologist, links fashion to a major aspect of contemporary societies, the use of consumer objects and choices to communicate oneâs perceptions of oneâs place in society. In her chapter âFashion, Identity and Social Actorsâ, she says that âthe concept of fashion needs to be inextricably linked to the concept of consumption.â
A second type of definition focuses on fashion as a signifier. Here the emphasis is on fashion as a kind of language in which clothing styles function as signifiers. Clusters of norms and codes constitute recognizable styles at any specific time. These norms and codes are continually being revised and modified, usually in relatively minor ways, but from time to time substantial changes occur. The meanings of some items of clothing are stable and singular, like the manâs suit, while the meanings of other items are constantly changing and may at times be ambiguous, as in the cases of the blue jean and the T-shirt. Fashions are often confused with fads. The term fad refers to specific items which become very popular for a few weeks or months and then disappear.
A third type of definition views fashion as a system of business organizations in which fashion is created, communicated and distributed to consumers. The public performs an important role in the dissemination of fashion. Dissemination formerly occurred largely through imitation from elites to non-elites. Now, role models include celebrities from popular culture and members of minority subcultures.
A fourth type of definition identifies the hypothetical effects of fashion, such as the reinforcement of social differentiation, the expression of aspirations for social mobility and the resolution of anxieties regarding social identity. One indication that fashion is not a trivial and ephemeral phenomenon is the way in which fashionable clothing and accessories are and have been used to express and shape personal and social identities.
The study of fashion is complicated by the fact that fashion is continually changing, not just in its substantive content but also in its relationship to social institutions and the public. Ann Margaret Brach, an engineer, concludes that the essential characteristic of the content of fashion is continual change. In her chapter âIdentity and Intersubjectivityâ, she says: âThe matter or content of fashion must change for fashion to exist at all.â Alejandro Nestor GarcĂa MartĂnez, a sociologist and a philosopher, argues that the instability inherent in fashion differentiates fashion from style. Style refers to behaviour that is relatively stable. Several of the authors in this volume take the position that in order to understand the nature of fashion today, it is necessary to examine how its role in Western societies has evolved in the past two hundred years. The characteristics and impact of fashion have changed as the nature of society has evolved from premodern to modern and from modern to postmodern. Major changes in clothing styles are generally indicators of important shifts in social relations and levels of social tension. The processes of diffusion and the effects of fashion differ in different types of societies.
In premodern and modern societies, members of the upper class and later the bourgeoisie used fashion to indicate their social position or the position to which they aspired. Identification with social class influenced the way individuals perceived their identities and their relationships with their social environments. According to Simmel (1957 [1904]), fashion was a major tool in the quest for social distinction. In postmodern societies, fashionable styles reflect the complexity of the ways people perceive their connections with one another. Different styles have different publics; there is no agreement about a fashion ideal that represents contemporary culture. Lipovetsky (1987) perceives this so-called âempire of fashionâ as liberating for the individual who obtains the capacity for self-expression. By contrast, Baudrillard (1970) views the individual as being trapped in a consumer society where fashion, along with other cultural goods, is useless and ultimately meaningless.
The authors in this volume explore different aspects of the connections between fashion, identity and self-image. Laura Bovone provides a useful definition of identity. She distinguishes between personal identity (what makes an individual unique) and social identity (what makes an individual similar to others in her social group). How has fashion been used to express these two types of identity? How have these connections evolved over time and in various circumstances?
Ana Marta GonzĂĄlez, a philosopher, examines the views of classical thinkers of the Enlightenment and romanticismâincluding Kant, Rousseau and Schillerâwho, in her opinion, still define the intellectual background of our world and hence of fashion. GonzĂĄlezâs question is: How did classical thinkers shape the ways we perceive ourselves and others and hence our proclivity towards fashion? She notes the affinity between Simmelâs conception of fashion as âa principle of social distinction and assimilationâ and Kantâs recognition that the individual relies on fashion to facilitate assimilation with others in her social environment or, alternatively, to distinguish herself from others. She explains how philosophers, prior to Simmel, conceptualized the relationship between the individual and public space in which fashion unfolded. She agrees with Bauman (1996) that the problem of identity takes different forms in modern and postmodern societies. In modern societies, individuals used fashion to construct unique selves, but, in postmodern societies, they prefer to avoid commitment to a specific identity, so as to remain free to experiment with alternative identities.
GonzĂĄlez argues that the conclusions of Lipovetsky and Baudrillard concerning the reasons for the importance of fashion in postmodern societies are exaggerated. Lipovetsky overemphasizes the level of hyperindividualism that supposedly elevates the role of fashion while Baudrillard overstates the extent to which the individual lacks a coherent sense of self that could provide a basis for selecting among fashions and consumer goods. GonzĂĄlez challenges the theory of the âminimal postmodern selfâ, which supposedly shifts from one identity to another, on the grounds that traditional identities, as defined by classical philosophers, are not entirely irrelevant in contemporary society.
GarcĂa MartĂnez provides an alternative explanation for the importance of fashion in contemporary societies. Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias (1994), he argues that the prominence of fashion has resulted from a general civilizing process in Western societies which has gradually spread from elites to other social classes. This process has produced structural transformations, which have led to greater social differentiation, and changes in individual personality, such as an increase in individualism and in the desire for social distinction. As a result of increased social differentiation, there is greater diversity in peopleâs tastes and, in turn, enormous variation in choices offered by the fashion system. An abundance of new and ephemeral fads and fashions are created and adopted by members of youth and minority subcultures. These changes have led to an increase in the visibility of fashion as a phenomenon but have also resulted in a decline in shared codes of sartorial meaning across different social groups.
Laura Bovone and Colin Campbell (the latter is also a sociologist) attempt to clarify the relationship between fashion and identity in contemporary societies. For Bovone, fashionable clothes are consumer objects. The consumer, not the worker, is the most important actor in modern society. Clothing and personal appearance in general are important indicators of other peopleâs behaviour. More than any other type of consumer object, fashion expresses our social identity because it provides, according to Bovoneâs chapter, âFashion, Identity and Social Actorsâ, âopportunities to place ourselves socially via situated practice, to communicate to the outer world our belonging or exclusion, or even our ambivalence and instabilityâ. Rather than seeing fashion as a meaningless but oppressive phenomenon, as does Baudrillard, Bovone emphasizes the role of fashion in providing aesthetic choices that enable the consumer either to conform or to rebel, to assimilate or to subvert the dominant culture.
Campbell, like GarcĂa MartĂnez, attempts to explain the significance of fashion in contemporary society. He attributes the appeal of fashion partly to what he calls self-illusory hedonism or daydreaming that leads to an âinsatiable desire for noveltyâ. In his chapter, âThe Modern Western Fashion Pattern, its Functions and Relationship to Identityâ, he states that âthe essential activity of modern consumption is not the actual selection, purchase, or use of products so much as the imaginative pleasure-seeking to which the product image lends itself.â He also attributes the importance of fashion to its role in providing an aesthetic standard of judgment for consumer goods. Fashion expresses personal identity in the sense that the style of the products that individuals purchase, use and display âsays something about who they areâ and serves as an indication of their social identity along with other aspects of their lives. However, Campbell does not agree that individuals select or create new personal identities through their choice of consumer goods, including fashion, with the possible exception of members of minority subcultures. Instead, he concludes that, for most people, the connection between fashion and personal identity in the modern world takes the form of âdiscovering their true identity by a process of monitoring their responses to the various styles that are brought to their attention ... as a part of a process of coming to realize âwho they really areââ.
Brach is critical of the role of fashion in contemporary society. For her, the freedom for self-expression that some observers have associated with postmodern societies is illusory. The increasing domination of fashion as an economic system imposes a specific type of identity on consumers through the mass media. Images transmitted through the media encourage continual experimentation with fashion but do not lead to self-discovery or to a stable personal identity. Maria Teresa Russo, a medical anthropologist, is also critical of contemporary fashion, specifically the way in which fashions generated by business organizations in search of profit undermine the individualâs capacity to develop a personal style. She points to the role of the fashion brand, which expresses an impersonal lifestyle and turns the individual into a âwalking advertisementâ. Although fashion is used in different ways by different social groups, the fashion system is particularly oriented toward the tastes and interests of youthful consumers, some of whom become obsessed with certain aspects of fashion. Russo argues that young people in contemporary society are susceptible to the dictates of fashion because their identities are based on âappearing rather than beingâ. Fashions are not chosen in order to express their personal outlook. Instead, young people use fashion to conform to ideas about personal appearance that emanate from the media.
Efrat TseĂ«lon examines the issue of fashion and identity in a different way by showing that clothing research and sartorial reality produce quite different indications of the meanings of clothing. She argues that fashion researchers have concentrated on âpockets of homogeneityâ with regards to clothing rules and their meanings while academic researchers have emphasized that sartorial meaning is âcontextual, complex, contingent and negotiated within a contextâ. Both types of researchers suggest that the meanings of clothing and of fashionable clothing can be compared to a language. Through empirical research, TseĂ«lon tested the idea that âclothes and personal appearance are means of non-verbal communication used to exchange personal and social information.â By studying whether and how well peers were able to interpret the meanings that individuals intended to communicate through their clothing, she found that the messages conveyed by ordinary peopleâs wardrobes were much more ambiguous and less stereotypical than previous research on fashion has indicated. She concludes that the reality of wearing clothes is âfragmented, random, fluid and idiosyncratic... no clear code is followed by allâ.
The three authors in the volume who are specialists in the medical and behavioural sciences are particularly concerned with the negative effects of fashion on adolescents. MarĂa Elena LarraĂn, a psychologist, examines the connections between fashion and the process of identity formation in adolescence. Some adolescents become excessively concerned about their bodies and about their appearance generally. Their anxieties about themselves are reflected in exaggerated levels of attention to their clothing.
Francesco Cecere, a physician, and Raphael M. Bonelli, a psychiatrist, discuss the role of fashion and the media in the generation of pathological behaviour in the form of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders. Although thinness as an ideal is widely disseminated by the fashion media, Cecere finds that the medical literature on eating disorders pays little attention to fashion. He suggests that this neglect is unfortunate since studies of the media have found that the media play an important role in generating and perpetuating eating disorders. For example, even brief exposure to music videos showing images of very thin women increases the level of dissatisfaction with their bodies among adolescents. Bonelli is disturbed by the alarming impact of fashion magazines on the level of satisfaction of women with their bodies. Although psychological problems are the determining factors in eating disorders, the fashion media play a major role in the internalization of the ideal of thinness among adolescent women. Cecere argues that public health services that are attempting to develop strategies for preventing eating disorders need to involve media and fashion professionals and make use of the kinds of language and images that occur in the media in order to attract the attention of their target population.
Bonelli argues that fashion has both positive and negative aspects. In spite of having negative effects on some social groups, an interest in fashion and personal appearance is a sign of mental health. Psychiatrists are able to infer changes in mood from changes in their patientsâ clothing. He says that observation of the outfit is part of the diagnostic method. Psychiatrists consider that both an exaggerated interest in fashion and a complete disinterest in fashion are unhealthy. Bonelli also observes that fashion is an important influence on a personâs lifestyle, a set of behaviours that influence mental and physical health. The study of lifestyle is an important topic in public health medicine.
As the authors in this volume show, fashion is not simply a matter of seasonal changes in clothing styles. Closely allied with the mass media, the fashion system influences the ways in which we perceive and use our bodies; it also affects our conceptions of our personal and social identities, although members of some social groups are more likely to be affected by fashion than others. LarraĂn, in her chapter âAdolescence: Identity, Fashion and Narcissismâ, stresses that âfashion is a complex phenomenon that cannot be explained by a single theory.â Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach, such as has been used in this volume, provides a variety of perspectives that contribute to our understanding of the phenomenon and suggests new directions that future studies should take.
References
Baudrillard, J. (1970), La société de consommation, Paris: Denoël.
Bauman, Z. (1996), âFrom Pilgrim to Touristâor a Short History of Identityâ, in S. Hall and P. du Gay (eds), Questions of Cultural Identity, London: Sage.
Elias, N. (1994), The Civilizing Process, Oxford: Blackwell.
Lipovetsky, G. (1987), Lâempire de lâĂ©phĂ©mĂšre, Paris: Gallimard.
Simmel, G. (1957 [1904]), âFashionâ, American Journal of Sociology, 62 (May): 541â58.
Part I Fashion and Identity 2 The Modern Western Fashion Pattern, its Functions and Relationship to Identity
Colin Campbell
I begin this chapter by tackling the question of why fashion has become such a significant feature of modern industrial societies, or, to put it another way, what crucial function or functions could fashion be said to be fulfilling in the contemporary developed world? There are, I believe, two related answers to this question. But first, before outlining these, it is wise to define the terms used. In contemporary discourse we tend to refer to a fashion to mean the prevailing style, while to talk of the fashion is usually to mean that which is the latest or most approved; unfortunately, however, the term fashion is also sometimes used as if it were simply a synonym for custom, or indeed for any practice that is currently popular and widespread. Now, not only do I wish to reject these latter meanings, but I would also like to use the term to refer to a distinctive institutionâthat is to say, to a widespread, established, persistent and valued pattern of conduct, one thatâfollowing McKendrick, Brewer and Plumb (1982)âI shall refer to (with a slight modification) as the âmodern Western fashion patternâ.1 The significance of using this term is to emphasize how the modern phenomenon of fashion is very different from that which preceded it (see also Polhemus and Proctor 1978; Wilson 1985). Indeed, what we have come to know as âfashionââwhat I am calling the âmodern Western fashion patternââonly really came into existence in the eighteenth century, and what distinguishes it from that which preceded it is the exceptionally rapid pace of change that occurs in the prevailing or dominant style or styles. Of course, even in traditional societies fashions changed over time. However, this change was never rapid and often occurred at such a slow pace that it was not actually discernible to its members, who as a consequence frequently believed styles to be unchanging. What happened in the eighteenth century in Western Europe marked a dramatic break with this pattern of slow and gradual change. The critical events appear to have occurred in England in the reign of George II and were followed by what has been termed a âfashion frenzyâ early in the reign of George III. At this time, instead of changes occurring gradually, they were occurring frequentlyâeffectively annually in the case of ladiesâ clothes, as each year the new fashion doll came across the channel from France. Thus, in 1753 for example purple was the âinâ colour for ladiesâ dresses, while in 1757 the fashion was for white linen with a pink pattern; in 1776 the fashionable colour was âcolor de Noisetteâ...