RUNNING HEAD: Fashion as a Language 1

Fashion as a Language, Pt. II

Sarah J. Teal

Grand Valley State University

Fashion is something that is all around us every single day whether at the

grocery store, at the mall, or even on campus. Clothing communicates to us just like

many other symbols in society do. Naturally, we make judgments on people based

on how they are dressed, particularly when making first impressions on them.

Roland Barthes’ The World of Wrestling applies linguistic concepts to something we

would normally consider as existing outside of a language. It is built upon the

premise that not only do words, symbols, or icons contain meaning, but that other

cultural phenomena can become structured like a language and therefore generate

meaning itself. The way of fashion is just one cultural phenomenon that can be

structured like a language.

Regarding the way one chooses to dress, many different elements come to

function as signs, and are meaningful and communicative. These elements include,

but are not limited to the style of clothing one chooses to wear, how they choose to

wear it, how much clothing they own, how expensive their clothing is, and what

brands they choose to buy. As you will see, all of these things communicate

differently but ultimately tie together to form one meaning varying from individual

to individual.

Many people all over the world use clothing as a way to express themselves

and oftentimes clothing is reflective on one’s personality or attitude. The style of

clothing one chooses to wear shows a particular message to those who are making

judgments on what they are like. For example, you are likely to judge much
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differently the girl who gets “done-up” every day, wearing dresses paired with

coordinating high heels and jewelry on a regular basis than the girl who wears

sweats and tennis shoes every day. These two different styles send completely

different messages about what the girl is like as a person. You could conclude that

the girl who dresses more athletic on a daily basis is very much into sports and

ultimately a “tom-boy” who really does not care about being fashionable, whilst the

girl who wears high-heels and dresses often obviously cares about what she looks

like. There are many other different clothing styles including those such as “gothic,

“emo”, and “preppy”, that according to society, all contain their own set of attitudes

and personality traits that one who dresses in such ways portrays. In addition to the

style of clothing someone is wearing, whether they are following a particular trend

at the moment or not also says something about their personality. Those who follow

trends may be more prone to being a follower of other things in life, whereas

somebody who strives to be more unique in the way they dress, may follow their

own path in life. The types of clothing someone wears can also show their position

in society. For instance, if you were to look in somebody’s closet and see a lot of

business suits you could conclude that they are a professional and have a career.

The way in which somebody chooses to wear their clothing also says a lot

about them to other people as well. You could compare the way in which someone

wears their clothing to their sense of self and this ultimately gives you an idea of
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what they may be like. For example, whether one buttons the top buttons of their

shirt may subconscious communicate that they are conservative or deliberate, while

leaving a few buttons open may communicate that they are more liberal as a person.

Whether somebody tucks in their shirt or not can also portray a certain idea of what

they are like in the same way as buttoning one’s shirt. If one’s clothes are

mismatched, this may communicate that they are oblivious, or just do not care; this

could be as shallow as they just don’t care about what they’re wearing, or you could

look deeper and ultimately conclude that they are generally a careless person.

How much clothing somebody owns speaks about them as well, as owning a

lot of clothing also signifies that one really cares about what they look like. For

some, being seen in the same outfit twice is absolutely unacceptable, which shows

that they care how others perceive them. Others, however, do not care as much and

will wear the same things over and over because they merely don’t care so much

about how others see them, but just want to be comfortable and wear just the few

things they like. The amount of clothing somebody owns can also show their status

in society. If somebody owns a lot of clothing they must have the means to fund all of

it, whereas somebody who does not own a lot of clothing may only be able to afford

the little amount of clothing that they have.

The cost of the clothing that people own also says a lot about them. It can

give you a clue about how they live, while if they have money to buy expensive

clothing then most people will probably conclude that they have money for a lot of
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other expensive things. This correlates with the brands that they tend to shop for.

Brands like “Seven for all Mankind” manufacture jeans that sell for $200 and up for

one pair, while Hollister sells jeans for sometimes $40 a pair. This is clearly a

significant difference in price, and those of lower status would have to opt for the

more inexpensive jeans rather than going for the higher priced, and jeans deemed

more fashionable. The cost of one’s clothing can also show how much they care

about fashion. If one does not care about fashion or is just overall more

conservative, even if they have the money, they probably are not going to buy the

$200 pair of jeans. Additionally, many people can recognize higher priced clothing

items and particular brands, so when someone is wearing them, people notice.

Wearing these clothing brands is a way of showing off for some people.

There are many denotations and connotations that can be contrived from

clothing style. The way people wear their clothing, what clothing they actually wear,

the brands they wear etc., are all denotations. The connotations are what people

perceive based on all of the aspects I have already described. This language of

clothing is completely universal, and accessible to everyone all over the world.

Fashion is something that everyone can relate to, and applies to everybody since

everybody wears clothes; it is all just a matter of what style of clothing they wear,

how they choose to wear it, and all of the other mentioned elements. The clothing

people wear says something about them whether they are conscious of it or not, but

what it means varies from person to person based on how they interpret clothing.
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An author can be defined as one who gives existence to something. So,

regarding fashion, we as the people in society wearing clothing, and judging others

based on what they are wearing, author these elements that I have described. In his

essay titled What is an author?, Michel Foucault reminds us of the risks of keeping

the author's name in mind during analysis of the reading, as doing so could affect

the value or meaning that we take from what we have read. I think there is some

truth to this depending on what you are reading, however in some circumstances it

is important to keep in mind who authored what you are reading. If you already

know some background information about them and other ideas they have, you may

or may not want to believe what they’re writing. This idea of not keeping the

author’s name in mind can apply to fashion, as I think you actually should keep in

mind who is wearing the clothing before you pass a negative judgment them.

Overall, this supports that we shouldn’t solely judge someone based on what they

are wearing without knowing them first. This can also apply to the purchasing

behavior of people; you should buy an article of clothing because you like it, not just

because it is a certain brand.

A few of the meaningful and communicative elements I have talked about are

the style of clothing one chooses to wear, how they choose to wear it, how much

clothing they own, how expensive their clothing is, and what brands they choose to

buy. In How to Do Things with Words, J.L. Austin distinguishes between constative
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and performative utterances; constative statements tell something, while

performative statements do something. The phrase, “actions speak louder than

words”, rings true here, in that performative statements are much more powerful

than constative statements.

Ultimately, fashion can serve as a performative statement if we refer to it in

the context of language. All of the elements of fashion that I have described

communicate different things, and accomplish different things. When someone puts

certain clothing on, they are automatically making a certain statement whether they

mean to or not so the clothing is actually doing something and acting as a symbol.

Foucault considers the notion of icons and symbols and suggests how they do

and do not point to a referent, which is the actual object referred to. Fashion, as the

symbol, does point to the person as fashion in this context is speaking for how the

person is or what they are like as a person.

As Slavoj Žižek believes, ideology is the construction of our reality, it plays a role in

every aspect of life. The idea of fashion is no different; for the people who partake in

fashion, which really is everyone, ideology varies from group to group; there are those

who are very “fashionable”, who will have a certain set of ideas about clothing, while

there are those who are not stylish and have a different set of ideas than the stylish

ones.

Ideology can be defined as the unquestioned beliefs that are rooted in the

concepts we inherit from language. This shapes the values and social practices
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regarding fashion. Fashion is something that has always been around, and has

constantly been evolving, like language. So like language, there are certain parts of

fashion that we don’t question and just go with.

When I wrote about Ž ižek, I stated that I believe our thought can be "outside"

of the concepts with which we must think, or outside of the ideologies that we are

familiar with. Thinking “outside” of these concepts is part of coming up with new ideas

in life, and thinking "outside of the box." If no one thought "outside" of the concepts

with which we must think, then we would never make any kind of progress. With that

said, we should sometimes be "outside" of ideology for the same reason. Like Ž ižek

believes, ideology is the construction of our reality, the set of largely unquestioned

beliefs we inherit. If we only stay inside of those then we wouldn't keep coming up with

more questions and trying to find out more into what we believe. This also applies to

fashion. Fashion wouldn’t keep advancing if we never explored deeper and tried to

make changes.