Semiotica 2015; 207: 303–325

Marianna Boero*
The language of fashion in postmodern
society: A social semiotic perspective
DOI 10.1515/sem-2015-0037

Abstract: This article analyzes the language of fashion in postmodern society

with the hypothesis that fashion trends mutate when social trends change, in a
relationship of reciprocal construction that we can define as social semiotics.
The analytic approach ranges from social semiotics to the fashion theory field. If
social semiotics focuses on the study of signs, spaces, and language mutations
in the system of social discourses, fashion theory provides a perspective com-
bining lifestyles, worldviews, personal meanings, and social values about cus-
tom: indeed, in fashion we simultaneously observe participation in collective
trends and the expression of individuality.

Keywords: semiotics of fashion, social semiotics, fashion language, postmodern

trends, fashion theory, social media

1 Introduction
This article explores the field of fashion with an analysis of some ways in which
postmodern trends (see Fabris 2003, 2008) can be expressed, the hypothesis
being that fashion trends mutate when social trends change, in a relationship of
reciprocal construction that we define as social semiotics (see Landowski 1989).
It is divided into five parts, surveying some of the key themes in the study of
fashion. Parts one to three provide an overview of (i) studies and research on
fashion as a sign system, (ii) linguistic strategies of fashion as a specific and
technical language, (iii) postmodern contaminations between fashion language
and other social languages. Part four shows the kaleidoscopic trends of fusion,
holism, and creativity, ranging across fashion, cosmetics, food, and furnishing
fields. These are the basis of consumption experiences and fashion marketing
plans, discussed in part five. Our analytic approach ranges from social semiotics
to fashion theory field. If social semiotics focuses on the study of signs, spaces,
and language mutations in the system of social discourse, fashion theory pro-
vides a perspective combining lifestyles, worldviews, personal meanings, and

*Corresponding author: Marianna Boero, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy, E-mail:

mariannaboero@libero.it

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304 Marianna Boero

social values about custom: indeed, in fashion we observe simultaneously the

participation in collective trends and the expression of individuality.

2 Fashion as a language
People communicate primarily with each other through the language of clothes
and the statement that clothing is a language is not new. In Une Fille d’Eve (1839),
Balzac observed that a dress for a woman was the manifestation of inner thoughts,
a language, a symbol.1 Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) argued that
spending on clothing was often intended to project a certain image of ourselves,
rather than to achieve the practical function of cover and protection. By choosing
and wearing a dress, consumers can define and describe themselves, communicate
their identity, make a situation clear. So, fashion works according to a system of
rules, more or less stable,2 which allow the dress – and, more generally, the “body
lining” – to connect to meaning indicative of an age, of a social or sexual role, of a
political office, public holiday or business.3
Roland Barthes began to study fashion as an autonomous system with its
own internal rules, with a function similar to that of natural language. Assuming
a parallel between natural language and the language of clothes, he postulated
a single disciplinary perspective in the study of language and dress, and applied
some Saussurean linguistics categories (langue/parole, synchrony/diachrony,
signifier/signified)4 to the study of fashion. Through the analysis of magazines,
Barthes noted the central role of the captions: the dress, as a real object, is taken
over by a second system, which is that of language. This narrows the universe of
possible meanings, highlighting details the reader will linger over.5 The case of

1 The dress is not exclusively aimed at a practical function, as shelter from the cold, but reflects
peoples’ identity (Lurie 1981: 31).
2 For example, depending on whether it is a traditional or a trendy dress.
3 The meanings of clothes approach or overlap with the naked body, which could be called the
“ground zero” of the dress. The naked body is full of meanings too, because even the absence
communicates. Sometimes a naked body provides meanings and values through a series of
specific constructions (body tattoos, tan, wrinkles, scars, etc.; Calefato 1999).
4 Barthes does not deal with real fashion, but with fashion described in magazines. Before
beginning a semiotic analysis of the dress, indeed, he met obvious procedural difficulties,
which led him to restrict his analysis to a particular subset within the universe of fashion.
This lead to the structural analysis of fashion magazines which is the basis of the System (1967).
See Marrone (2001: 7–15) and Attimonelli (2007 [1981]).
5 Barthes asserted the primacy of natural language, which has a decisive role in the determina-
tion of what in a certain time is considered “fashionable,” because it anchors explicit meanings

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 305

fashion is for Barthes the opportunity to show a similar system to that of

language. The word “language” does not indicate only a verbal dimension,
but involves all the sign systems through which humans model their position
and their relationship with the world: fashion falls into this definition because it
has an axiological function, that is, the skill to produce social values.
In his theory there is an important analytic distinction between custom and
clothing: while the first is an institutional reality, essentially social, independent
from the individual, the second is an individual reality, a practice through which
the individual actualizes in his identity the establishment of general custom
(Barthes 1998: 66–67). If the phenomenon of clothing is the subject of psycho-
logical research, the phenomenon of custom, says Barthes, is the proper object
of sociological or historical research (Barthes 1998: 67). The dichotomy between
tradition and clothing proposes the articulation of language in Saussure’s langue
and parole (see Marrone 2001): the first, social institutions, the second, indivi-
dual acts. The comparison with the linguistic sphere ultimately covers all of the
problems related to the social value of clothing, considered as a generic collec-
tion resulting from the combination of fashion and traditions, and that, follow-
ing Saussure, is the “language.” Barthes puts fashion into the phenomenon of
custom, though sometimes it oscillates between the dispersion of the custom in
clothing and, on the contrary, to the enlargement of the latter in the phenom-
enon of custom (Calefato 2005: 198).
According to this view, Calefato (1999: 98) reflects on the social significance
of dress colors. For example, in some societies, the color black is traditionally
associated with mourning and is banned from clothing for infants, who are
protected from images culturally characterized by negative connotations
(night, death, fear). Likewise black is not generally accepted as a suitable
color for a wedding dress. These thoughts become part of the custom of a society
and appear to be morphologically stable. In fashion, however, the social sig-
nificance of colors fades in a proliferation of languages that become social
discourses. For example, fashion sometimes allows the color black in different
contexts and discourses from those provided by tradition: think of the wedding
dress, whose ritual function is subjected to fashion changes, with the abandon-
ment of white in favor of “provocative” colors and forms (for example the use of
red, black, slits, necklines, very short skirts). Calefato gives the examples of
“urban tribes,” such as punks and “goths,” the semiotic relationships between

to the garments: the garment is totally converted into language and the image does not exist
except from its transposition in question. See Calefato (2004).

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306 Marianna Boero

fashion and cinema,6 and “designer style,”7 all cases in which the garments are
no longer the product of collective events, but signs of a style, on one hand, and
consumer goods, on the other.
Communicative value of clothing and of the body that wears it is also
highlighted by Lurie (1981), according to whom clothing is a language with its
own grammar and vocabulary, like other languages. Dress vocabulary includes
not only clothes but also accessories, hairstyle, jewelry, makeup, and body
decorations: it is as wide a vocabulary as that of any other language, if not
more, since it includes every item, hair style, and type of body decoration that
has been invented. Choosing a dress is a means of defining and describing
ourselves:

More often the wearing of a single foreign garment, like the dropping of a foreign word or
phrase in conversation, is meant not to advertise foreign origins or allegiance but to
indicate sophistication. It can also be a means of advertising wealth. When we see a
fancy Swiss watch, we know that the owner either bought it at home for three times the
price of a good English or American watch, or else he or she has spent even more money
traveling to Switzerland to purchase it. (Lurie 1981: 8)

In the language of clothing, like in speech, each person has his/her own reserve
of “words” and adopts personal changes in tone and meaning. In practice,
however, the dressing lexicon of a person may be very limited: those of a farmer,
for example, may be limited to five or ten words with which he can create only a
few sentences, often undecorated and able to express mostly basic concepts; on
the contrary, a fashion leader may have hundreds of thousands of words to
build sentences connected to many different meanings. The author shows an
analogy between verbal language and the language of clothes. A casual way of
dressing as well as spoken language, conveys fluidity, relaxation, vitality, as
happens in natural language with slang. In some cases, it is also possible to
equate the different articles of clothing with the different parts of speech:
trimmings and accessories have the same function as adjectives and adverbs,
which is to enrich the dress or the phrase, respectively (Lurie 1981: 10). However
we must not forget that some ornaments and accessories of a period may be
essential elements of another: fashion vocabulary often changes because fash-
ion is fickle and is just the reflection of the flow of time.
Within the limits imposed by the economy, clothes are bought, used, and
discarded, just as words, because they meet our needs and express our ideas

6 For example, the function of black garments in films such as The Blues Brothers or Men in
Black (Calefato 1999: 98).
7 For example, black color in J. Yamamoto, Versace or Dolce & Gabbana.

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 307

and our emotions. Any attempt by the experts to save outdated words or
persuade people to use new terms correctly fails. Similarly, people will choose
and wear those clothes that reflect their identity or what they wish to be at a
certain time. Others will be set aside, even if promoted by means of mass
communication. According to Lurie, the fashion industry is no longer able to
maintain a style that men and women have chosen to leave, because they are far
from the emerging social context, or to introduce new ones that they do not wish
to adopt. Thus, consumption practices legitimizes or de-legitimized fashion
proposals, establishing the success and sometimes also the end of a trend.8
In this connection, Alberoni and Ragone (1986) stated that fashion, as statu
nascenti (‘light phenomena’), would facilitate the changing of values in society.
This change, however, is traumatic, and fashion is a mechanism that allows
people to test the change, to produce it slowly, so that its introduction will not
be immediate and destabilizing, but may offer the possibility of an afterthought,
a step backwards if this change proves to be useless or harmful to society. But
the matter of statu nascenti is also the objective limit of fashion: once it is spread
widest, once it gains maximum acceptance, the process is forced to become
extinct. If it does not happen, fashion would become a fact of custom, with all
connected ethical and political consequences. The disappearance of fashion at
the very moment of its maximum popularity is the reason for its playful char-
acter: the audience knows it is a game and that, sooner or later, it will cease.
Following one fashion, another is born, destined to end its career as before in a
continuous cycle.9

3 The language of fashion

Fashion is a language but at the same time a language of fashion has been
developing, made up of specific terms and referring to a world. Paz Diman, in
his book The Poetry of Fashion Design (2012), analyses the collections of what he
calls “the world’s most interesting fashion designers” underlining a fragmented

8 In the US, massive advertising campaigns, with the cooperation of magazines such as Vogue
and Esquire, could not save the hat, which for centuries has been an essential part of outdoor
clothing. Currently it survives mostly as a protection against bad weather, as part of a ritual
dress (official wedding), as a sign of age or individual eccentricity (Lurie 1981: 39).
9 But if the individual fashion, because of its playful character, does not turn into custom, the
same – say Alberoni and Ragone (1986) – cannot be said for the succession of many fashions in
a certain period of time. Fashion, that is, would not change the custom in a single action but
through ensuing “sedimentations.”

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308 Marianna Boero

trend in the language of contemporary fashion: it significantly reduces the use of

adjectives and descriptions, preferring connections with music, art, and cinema.
The language of fashion is made more of acronyms than phrases, with a strong
use of foreign language terms. Therefore, we focus on the study of a “language
of fashion” with the lexical features typical of a sectoral language, which is
mainly spread through the mass media.
In Italian magazines, a key feature of this language is internationalization,
which is primarily seen through the frequent use of English or French words,
where the aim is to convey more elegance. In the online version of the magazine
D-Donna, an article by Katia Brega is titled “The most original sunglasses of this
season are hexagonal”10 and suggests, for those who want to be original, to put
together a look using “jeans shorts, flat sandals, over shirt and a man’s straw
hat.” As for tattoos, another article asks the following question: “Tattoos: better
chic or choc?.” The home page of the web magazine Glamour is made of different
thematic sections, namely: “look/shop/blogfusion/fashion angel/meet up/city-
buzz.” The fact that these are published on the home page shows how readily
these terms are recognized by the public. Therefore many English terms have
become part of other nations’ everyday language, witnessing the importance of
English in the fashion industry. Words such as look, trend, t-shirt, style, fashion,
jeans, shorts, piercings, casual, design, indicate a deep cultural interaction: an
exchange between diversities that produces new meanings and linguistic
expressions (Lorusso 2003: 137).
In magazines aimed at a wider audience, such as Glamour and Intimità, a
young, concise and simple language prevails. The following are some examples
from Corbucci (2008: 39):
– “For love at first sight lips, perfect L’Oreal shiny lipstick with vitamin C and
the scent of raspberry, available in fifteen delicious shades” (Intimità 18, 10
May 2001: 30);
– “expert touches for psychedelic lips” (Glamour 109, March 2001: 45): it is
noteworthy the presence of the expression psychedelic, an expression pre-
viously associated with the jargon of drug addicts;
– “Lips: trend nuance is so sheer it adds volume to your lips. For an extralight
result, use gloss all over with little touches on your lipstick” (Glamour 109,
March 2001: 45): the word nuance is French and extralight, gloss, and all over
are from the English language. None of these terms are strictly necessary11:
instead of nuances, the Italian word sfumatura could have been used, while

10 My translation. These examples are taken from Italian magazines. The use of italics is mine
and aims to highlight the English and French words in the original Italian texts.
11 The concept of “loan of necessity” can be found in Gusmani (1993).

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 309

the terms extralight, gloss, and all over could have been replaced, respec-
tively, with molto leggero, lucidalabbra, and integrali.

Language becomes more difficult in high-end magazines like Marie Claire, Flair,
Vogue, Elle, and Amica. There are words derived from English, but the language,
full of metaphorical expressions and intertextual references, becomes less
understandable to a lay audience. Here there are some examples from
Corbucci (2008: 39–40):
– On page 670 of Marie Claire we read: “Fetishes to have: purple (and pink), a
fruity lip gloss, a punk touch.” The article continues:

They were the legendary 1980s when Cindy Lauper sang Girls Just Want To Have Fun. With
the luxury-thought offs (already people fears the recession) everyday small fetishes will
raise our spirit. New make-up temptations: purple and pink (infected by the revived Pucci-
fad), a scented powder in Fifties style, perfect for an American Graffiti look: skirts and
dancers, but chic version. (Marie Claire, 3 March 2001: 670)

Note the use of hyperbole (legendary), the number of foreign words (look, make
up, chic) and the appearance of neologisms (luxury-thought, Pucci-fad).
– Vogue published the following caption: “Red, hot & lipstick. Provocative as a
beauty pageant, trashy as clones of an early Madonna, classic as a well-lady,
botched as all-night kissing teens. Lips are the stars of 2001 make up”
(Vogue 605, January 2001: 534). It follows the search for a sophisticated
style, using catch phrases from English that create an aura of charm and
technicalities (beauty pageant, trash).
– Another piece in Vogue magazine talks about the “scary look”: “Scratched
faces and black eyes from Dior, macabre black mouths as Brandon Lee in
The Crow by McQueen, destroyed baroque by Gaultier. The new make up?
Aggressive/Dark” (Vogue 613, September 2001: 426). The choice of words
and the reference to The Crow evokes an atmosphere of horror. The author
uses complex and composite expressions as “destroyed baroque,” which
probably conceals a reference to a novel by Isabella Santacroce, where the
term “destroy” obsessively recurs.

A similar distinction is also seen in more recent fashion articles. A language that
recalls the everyday conversational and emotional dimension in general maga-
zines, and a more complex language in the specialized ones:
– An article in Flair (May 2011) is introduced by an evocative title: “Lunar
atmosphere to describe new costumes that choose total black” followed by
“Design costumes with plunging necklines, essential bikini, little black dress
choosing new asymmetric silhouette.”

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310 Marianna Boero

– “Masquerade” is the title, instead, of a fashion shoot in Marie Claire (2011),

in which handbags are made “in suède with silver strass,” “in black and
silver paillettes with a chain shoulder strap and star charms” and can be
easily combined with “satin décolletées with swarovski elements and suola
pied de poule.”

In newspapers and journals not specifically targeted to a female audience,

articles often offer a simple and colloquial language, linked to everyday life,
so that we may better define those as “custom articles” rather than “fashion
articles”: there is a correlation between content and expression, because stan-
dard Italian language prevails, drawing aside – or using infrequently – foreign
and technical words.
– “Supermodels of all ages for heater-men” is the title of an article in Il
Messaggero (12 January 2011), which begins as a piece of gossip: “Thirty
three outfits for many very special models: famous top models, but also
sports champions, lawyers, scientific researchers. Each with its own person-
ality. In Alberta Ferretti’s show...”
– “The man dresses like Superman but with the class of Clark Kent” is the title
of an article in Il Giornale (12 January 2011). The piece begins with a dynamic
and colloquial style: “Rain, wind, cold to frighten the penguins and polar
bears, but then suddenly the sun comes back and you find yourself in the
middle of winter with April temperatures. Here is the weather forecast of
fashion experts...”
– Once again, in Il Giornale (19 January 2011) we read: “For Armani man is grey”
(the title) and then “A computer is able to realize a monochromatic scale of 256
levels of grey. The human eye perceives an average of 16, but Armani must have a
second view because in the menswear collection for next winter there are
countless shades of this color.” The language is much easier than in specialist
periodicals, with a conversational style that is closer to everyday life.

The language of fashion has its own specialized vocabulary, used with particular
frequency, and specific morphosyntactic strategies that characterize the style. In
specialized magazines featuring fashion (Vogue, Marie Claire, Flair, etc.), the
density of jargon, neologisms, and cultural citations makes text very complex for
the layman. These texts, compared to newspapers, appeal more to the evocative
power of images, placed in the foreground, and less to the verbal discourse. The
language of fashion is also changing, alongside rapidly changing fashion trends,
together with the close connection it has always maintained with the world of
entertainment (particularly with music and cinema). The constant enrichment of
the vocabulary is also due to the changing of social trends, and the proliferation

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 311

of variants (often geographically and culturally characterized) of the same item

of clothing, each of which plays the role of status-symbol for a short time.

4 Postmodern contaminations
While the language of fashion internally evolves, it also interacts with other
fields of discourse. An example is the dialogue between fashion language and
the language of the city. As highlighted by Calefato (2006), the street is the place
where people can experience the atmosphere of time, but meanwhile the city
influences fashion and its forms of expression, is a two-way relationship.
“Fashion and the city,” writes the author, “are being built together from signs
and languages that rely on the multiple universes of social discourses and
contemporary forms of communication: visual and musical cultures, consumer
attitudes, artistic practices, youthful tastes, styles of the urban subaltern groups,
cross-cultural hybridization” (Calefato 2006: 61, my translation). From these
cultural interactions, the city of fashion and, at the same time, fashion in the
city takes shape, in a continuous process of contamination (Calefato 2006: 62).
There are many ways in which fashion influences the city structure and its
forms of organization. In the first case (the city of fashion), the city makes some
features of fashion relevant. London and Paris, male and female fashion capitals,
respectively, since the eighteenth century, are an example of this process: behind
the organization of urban space in these cities there is all of the manufacturing
and textile expertise that has characterized and distinguished them in the world.
Similarly, at the end of the twentieth century, Milan, with the slogan “made in
Italy,” was the city of fashion, and then the generation of Yamamoto in Tokyo,
Shanghai, and Hong Kong in Asia, to the latter-day radical fashion in Anversa. In
the second case (fashion in the city) fashion gives countenance to the cities and
the street is primarily intended as a place of consumption and leisure
(cf. Figure 1). We only need to think of nineteenth-century passages in Paris or
the retail complexes of today with concept stores designed by architects, shop
windows, buildings, subway stations, bars, cafes, and places of comfort. “As
institution of consumption, fashion glamour-paints cities as if buildings, streets
and corners were ready to fill the pages of a glossy magazine” (Calefato 2006: 63):
glamour designs urban territories of fashion, pervades goods and their containers
(buildings, bodies or images) by altering the surface.12

12 My translation. Architecture and fashion intercept and show the change of the cities: one by
“living bodies,” the other by “wearing places”; a concept expressed at the beginning of the
twentieth century by Walter Benjamin, when he wrote that the two disciplines belong to the

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312 Marianna Boero

Figure 1: Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion – an innovative project that saw the collaboration between
the architect Zaha Hadid and the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. The temporary structure,
which resembles in form a space ship, has hosted an exhibition of contemporary art, touring
the world with stops in Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, and Paris. The project sought to celebrate
the success of the famous bag “Chanel 2.5.”

Moreover, the language of fashion interacts with art and culture. In the fashion
industry communication and design choices, we can often see a link to the world
of art: high fashion, and sometimes a whole collection finds creative inspiration
in artistic genres (cf. Figure 2) or, on the contrary, art events are maintained and
supported by the most famous brands (art sponsorship).
This dialogue also involves the topological level, redefining identity and
spatial boundaries. Clothes are exposed by taking the communicative techni-
ques of artistic and cultural spaces, such as the museum, while in other cases,
spaces are created specifically to host art exhibitions in which the object of
interest is high fashion: cultural spaces that host dresses in a mutual creative
exchange. As it can be seen in Figure 3, Prada clothes are exhibited in glass
cases, as is typical with works of art: through this exhibition strategy the identity
of the dress is redefined, as well as that of the enunciatee (See Greimas 1970;
Traini 2006). This means that the text refers to a consumer who gives high

darkness of human experience and to the oneiric consciousness of society. Since the 1990s,
there have been significant changes in the business strategies of fashion: prestigious fashion
houses were purchased by big companies and flagship stores have become a crucial issue in
marketing strategies. In this contest, the architect plays a key role: he should translate the
underlying values of a brand in tangible forms. See “Fashion and Architecture” in VogueEncyclo
edited by Archie Juinio: http://www.vogue.it/encyclo (accessed 20 May 2015).

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 313

Figure 2: Piet Mondrian inspiration, an example of dialogue between art and fashion.

Figure 3: Prada flagship store in New York.

fashion the status of a work of art. In Figure 4, instead, we see an image of the
historical and fashion exhibition of dresses housed from 2011 in the Royal Palace
of Venaria Reale: every room tells the story of an era of fashion in a diachronic
narration of past practices and customs.
These interactions express the complex postmodern reality and, from a
social semiotics point of view, allow us to study the evolution of the language

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314 Marianna Boero

Figure 4: Exhibition of historical clothes in Venaria Reale.

of fashion within the system of social discourse (Semprini 2003). Between social
reality and speeches that describe it, we suppose the existence of a mirror
relationship: society is reflected in the discourse that represents it, and this
way it changes (Landowski 1989). In the case of fashion, our research shows that
fashion does not only mean a glossy world, made of kitsch luxuries, worlds away
from the image of the real consumer, smart concept stores, and globalized
brands: a renewed and preponderant fashion culture is coming, finding its
fertile ground especially in everyday social practices. Cinema and photography,
at first, and then music, art, new technologies, and urban spaces feed this
constellation of signs in different forms, all linked to what is called “fashion”
(see Calefato 2011).

5 Fusion, holism, creativity

Fusion, holism, and creativity are important trends of the language of fashion in
postmodern society. Fusion indicates the mix of different (often contradictory)
elements or beliefs in original combinations (see Boero 2013): “[fusion] is a new
oxymoron, an apparent contradiction that harmoniously finds a solution, dis-
closing a new reality that suddenly takes the traits of consistency” (Fabris 2008:
160, my translation). It is a continuous contamination from distant worlds, in
which not only a simple juxtaposition or superposition occurs between ele-
ments, keeping their own identities, but results in a new identity, that cannot
be reduced to the sum of the individual elements. Through the trend of fusion,

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 315

elements expressive of cultures, geographical areas, different historical periods

meet and become one, putting into question the principle of non-contradiction,
defined by Fabris (2003: 259) as a “dogma in Western cultures.” It is not a new
phenomenon but is more widespread than in the past, when it was often
considered as a manifestation of eccentricity and transgression.
Fabris (2008: 163–171) describes this trend with figures of speech and
parallelisms:
– Oxymoron. This figure of speech indicates the combination of apparently
contradictory phenomena that find a balance. In fashion, for example,
garments of the past coexist with more modern garments, everyday clothes
with luxury ones, sacred and profane are mixed, as in the case of the singer
Madonna, whose stage name, belonging to the religious sphere, is combined
with a profane, unconventional look. Businesses have been adopting this
trend by practicing mass customization, which is the personalization of
industrial production (Pine and Davis 1996).
– Collage. Collage shows the juxtaposition of “cuts” that are different but not
necessarily antithetical. In the case of fashion, an example is given by the
combination of items belonging to different historical periods, from the
assembly of different materials, like plastic and wood. In the food sector
an example of collage is the juxtaposition of foods from different parts of the
world: it is a way for consumers to express their imagination, to emphasize
their uniqueness.
– Quotations. With the quote an inter-textual reference occurs: within a text,
through pictures, words, scenes, there is a reference to another text, of a
different nature. Quote can be drawn from the past, art, other cultures,
history, spectacle, and may be more or less evident. In the latter case,
irony is often used as a reference, making it more difficult, or at least
ambiguous to the understanding of a wider audience. In the case of fashion,
through the use of colors or shapes it is often possible to quote film, literary
or artistic texts. Another example comes from the advertising message, in
which quotes and references to other discursive fields are frequently used13
– Patchwork. Born as a technique for using remnant material, patchwork
means “work with patched” or “made in the square.” It is created by
combining different squares of fabric (often with mixed fantasies) in a single
fabric. Pieces of different backgrounds come together to create a new kind of
reality, in a play of colors and shapes.14 The unit can only exist thanks to the

13 For a discussion of such strategies see Boero and Traini (2006) and Boero (2010).
14 See “Patchwork,” by Simone Riccioli, in VogueEncylo: http://www.vogue.it/en/encyclo/tex-
tiles/p/patchwork (accessed 20 May 2015).

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316 Marianna Boero

presence of the individual parts, which remain clearly visible in the complex
unit. In fashion, this mixing of different parts with a strong identity gives
rise to unusual contrasts between styles, materials, colors. Missoni, for
example, is characterized by the use of the patch style.

According to Fabris (2003: 258), fusion is one of the fashion trends set to become
tradition. Fusion is linked to syncretic-eclecticism, another characteristic of post-
modern consumers (see Bauman 2000). The new consumer, indeed, is at the same
time eclectic, because he easily moves between contemporary tribes (see Maffesoli
1988) combining different styles, and syncretic, because he manages to bring
together the different experiences in a harmonious manner, reaching a synthesis.
Fusion is also connected to other postmodern trends such as holism and creativity.
Holism means a coherent, organic way of seeing reality, the human being and
existence. Fabris (2003: 218) gives the example of the quality assessment of a
product: from a holistic point of view, the concept of quality is extended to the
entirety of the expressions of the asset (packaging, quality of distribution, mer-
chandising, promotions, its intangible meanings and its image) and not only to its
basic and structural features. Creativity means the precipitation in everyday life of
a means that in the past was only the prerogative of artists, scientists, or of the
great creators. In postmodern society, creativity becomes a value, a common
aspiration. People can be creative in everyday life, placing flowers on a desk,
setting the table, working in the kitchen: the mix and blend of styles allows
consumers to express their artistic side (Fabris 2008: 158).
In the clothing sector, a reinterpretation of styles and trends has been
introduced in the last ten years (Boero 2013). The first sign was the tendency
to reinterpret fashion in personal terms, first by mixing items in a creative way
and then by becoming designers themselves, combining modern items with old,
expensive clothes with cheaper ones, famous brands with anonymous clothing,
etc. Now we see that the ethnic way of dressing coexists with the styles of
Western cultures, simple and coarse materials with mohair and alpaca, denim
with rich fabrics. Other contrasts in the field of fashion are: past/present, luxury
fashion/street fashion, local/global, Western/Eastern Europe. Contrasts of color
and unusual combinations are frequent. For example, at the autumn/winter
2013–2014 London fashion shows, fusion was the dominant element, intended
as a free mix of different styles that, though at first seen as the manifestation of
eccentricity or transgression, in the new socio-cultural climate becomes an
expression of postmodern identity (cf. Figure 5).
The “mix and match” style proposed by big fashion houses also occurs in
cosmetics, the look for spring/summer 2012–2013 has been inspired by the
graphic art of the 1980s (cf. Figure 6; examples from Boero 2013). Here there

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 317

Figure 5: Tartan print and rock details (tartan-rock style) in the A/W 2013–2014 London fashion
shows.

are citations for artists like Dan Flavin and Bruce Naumen for the use of neon
and other influences coming from the music scene (Figure 7).
All of these examples reflect a fusion of styles and genres that give new
meanings to the overall look. In the following figures, we can see a part of
Moschino’s collection for the autumn/winter 2012–2013, a fusion between
“street” style, with graffiti street art, and a more elegant style (cf. Figure 8).
Another example from the Autumn/Winter 2012 fashion shows is the style called
“baroque and roll,”15 to indicate the mix of two different styles into a unified
and innovative proposal. A classic style in the form of high-waisted shorts and
shirts with elaborate necklines is combined with contemporary colors, materials,
and fantasies. High fashion brands recover and revisit their own traditional

15 Neo-classical style in music, in which the role of the violin is played by electric guitar and
whose main representative is Yngwie Malmsteen, is diffused in other fields. One of the most
recent projects in the field of art is that of Pablo Echaurren at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Rome where, through six sculptures, the baroque aesthetics dialogues with the rock music, in
an unexpected mixture of genres and universes.

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318 Marianna Boero

Figure 6: Yves Saint Laurent. Contrasting colors for an eclectic make up in the 2012
spring/summer palette.

styles: diamond pattern weaves, traditional tweeds and tartans, nouveau draw-
ings, and retro jewelry. Classic colors like navy blue, grey, black, and brown
are interspersed with touches of bright colors like red, scarlet, and purple
(cf. Figure 9).
This style is also evident in furnishing. Here contemporary design meets
traditional materials and styles, leading to the production of unique pieces,
which can be tailored to consumers’ needs (cf. Figure 10).
Souvenirs from around the world displayed in the home do not disrupt
traditional décor. It is the deliberate choice to include articles from different
countries that suggests that the fusion trend is present: “antique furniture and
radical designs blending, works of art and Ikea items, hi-tech and past genera-
tions furniture, tatami and futon with a litho of Picasso” (Fabris 2003: 260, my
translation). The popularity of feng shui – an Eastern philosophy that is becom-
ing part of the Mediterranean lifestyle is a clear example of fusion in the home.
The food industry is experiencing a continuous overlap between different
ways of presenting, cooking, and consuming food, rich and poor cuisine, recipes
from different regions, recipes from the past and modern recipes. Nobu has
recently opened its first restaurant in Milan (cf. Figure 11) and is famous for its
Pacific fusion food, a mix of Japanese and South American cuisine.

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 319

Figure 7: Limited edition of the famous Elnett hairspray (L’Oreal Paris), in collaboration with
John Andrew Perello, said JonOne, guru of street art in the 1980s. Packaging is transformed into
a work of street style art, with vivid colors that recall the works of the artist.

“Moreover, the Italian-style sushi, with yellow rice, spaghetti, macaroni, has
been for a long time a stable presence on the menus of some finest restaurants”
(Fabris 2003: 261, my translation). French nouvelle cuisine was one of the first
styles to go against traditional cooking principles, blending foods not usually
eaten together and thus creating new dishes. Combining expensive foods with
cheaper more rustic ones, recipes from different regions etc. Chinese restaurants
that usually serve pizza, or the shops bearing the sign “not only…,” do not
belong to this trend because in this case a merger between different elements
does not exist. According to Fabris, the tendency to fusion, holism, and creativ-
ity is not just a fad but a series of new behavioral consumer trends able to affect
both recipes and the site of the place of consumption, promoting the crossover
of different languages and cultures.

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320 Marianna Boero

Figure 8: Moschino’s collection – Autumn/Winter 2012–2013.

6 Fashion language and social media

The emergence of new social trends requires brands operating in the fashion
industry to rethink their communication strategies. Thus, from the changes in
the postmodern socio-cultural context new non-conventional forms of marketing
were born: experiential marketing is an example (see Pine and Gilmore 1999;
Schmitt 1999). Understanding the changes of social context is critical in identify-
ing trends and styles in their infancy and in planning an effective communica-
tion with the new consumer. In the decade 1960–1970, for example, the sense of
uneasiness and widespread rebellion in the young was also expressed through
the rejection of the traditional symbols of clothing: collars, pants with pleats,
classic shoes, and jackets were replaced with high collars, jeans and leggings,
moccasins, and parkas. The miniskirt designed by Mary Quant (1934) and the
adolescent body of Twiggy (1949) became symbols of the feminine look of the
1960s, and the cultural revolution of “Swinging London” affected personal
habits and styles of international great actors.16 The boys were divided between

16 See “1961–1970. I giovani” at http://www.moda.san.beniculturali.it/wordpress/?moda

¼ 1961-1970-i-giovani (accessed 20 May 2015).

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 321

Figure 9: Paul & Joe, 2012 Spring/Summer show.

London mods and rockers, while the United States saw the growth of the hippie
look, a form of anti-fashion intended as a sign of identification of the youth
movement that rejected consumerism and condemned US foreign policy.
With the shift from modern to postmodern society (see Boero 2004) there is a
similar change, which assumes the features of a real transition period (Fabris
2008: 7). While the era of standardized consumption, production primacy, and
consumer subordination is coming to an end, we proceed “in the season of the
fragment, plurality, fluidity and multiplicity of points of views” (Fabris 2008: 7,
my translation). The new society is complex, turbulent, and, not surprisingly,
the metaphor used to describe it is the labyrinth. It is especially in consumption
that the discontinuities between modern and postmodern society are more

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322 Marianna Boero

Figure 10: http://www.baroqueandrolldesign.co.uk (accessed 20 May 2015).

pronounced: if the era of modernity consumption was not recognized as an

autonomous epistemological system with its own distinctive specifics, but as the
language of production, in postmodern society consumption becomes language
itself, an independent semiotic system.
In the new society, fashion becomes an important tool to communicate the
many identities of the postmodern consumer. The combination of contrasting
prints and styles within the same look expresses the polymorphic, eclectic, fluid
nature of a consumer who is increasingly a homo ludens, interested in aesthetic,
hedonistic, and multisensory consumption. Fashion follows new social trends
and fashion marketing was born, defined by Easey as: “the application of a
range of techniques and a business philosophy that focuses on the customer and
potential customer of clothing and related products and services in order to meet
the long-term goals of the organization… The very nature of fashion, where
change is intrinsic, gives different emphasis to marketing activities” (Easey
2009: 7).

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 The language of fashion in postmodern society 323

Figure 11: Armani Nobu fusion restaurant in Milan.

Recently, with the widespread use of blogs and social networking platforms,
fashion, traditionally characterized by an elitist language and aimed at a niche
audience, began to relate to a wider public, breaking down the barriers that
previously kept it away from a mass audience. The phenomenon of fashion
bloggers is indicative of this trend: fashion draws its inspiration from listening to
the audience, “from below,” to rethink strategies and methods.17 In these “capsule
collections” the creative relationship changes: thanks to the fashion bloggers,
limited editions collections, in which inspiration starts from the public, are created.
High fashion brands adapt their image to new communicative realities and legit-
imize the new protagonism of the public through the creation of online fan pages,
dedicated applications, and competitions that allow people to see exclusive events
and to enter, albeit briefly, into the glamorous world of high fashion. Thus a
democratization of luxury (Fabris 2003) takes place: what was distant and inacces-
sible to the majority now becomes accessible thanks to the new online media.18

17 Providing consumers with a standardized offer is “a thing of the past,” as well as the
asymmetry of information that relegated consumers “to a role of absolute marginality”
(Fabris 2008: xiv). In the new contest, the Internet plays a key role as a source of information,
knowledge, sharing of knowledge, and socialization.
18 We can also find this trend in the tourism sector: with the possibility of buying coupons and
package holidays online, bypassing the intermediary agencies, luxury hotels become

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324 Marianna Boero

Referring to the fashion system as a language and adhering to the new

trends is the basis of an effective fashion marketing strategy. That is why even
strong brands such as Chanel, Dior, Burberry, and Armani are rethinking the
ways of promoting their brand identities, adapting them to the changes in the
language of fashion. They cannot ignore, for instance, the opportunities arising
from social networks and web-communities, tools that exemplify the fluid
identity of the new consumer and are fundamental in achieving an effective
dialogue with the consumer world. Through the Web 2.0, new ways of commu-
nication have been developing, with the goal of making the purchase no longer
an acquisition of status, but an experience that, when shared, may multiply
significantly the awareness and cultural relevance of the brand, fostering a
process of identification by the public.

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