The Language of Fashion

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.

Contents
Preface
Part I. Clothing History
1. History and Sociology of Clothing. Some Methodological Observations
2. Language and Clothing
3. Towards A Sociology of Dress
Part II. Systems and Structures
4. Blue is in Fashion This Year
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 Jean Duvignaud and Henri Lefebvre)
9. Fashion and the Social Sciences (interview)
10. On The Fashion System (interview)
Part III. Fashion Debates and Interpretations
11. The Contest between Chanel and Courrges. Refereed by a Philosopher
12. A Case of Cultural Criticism
13. Showing How Rhetoric Works
Clothes, Fashion and System in the writings of Roland Barthes: Something out of Nothing by Andy Stafford
Editors Note and Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Glossary of Names
Index