90861 - Sociosemiotics of Fashion

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has acquired the ability to analyise and understand the most common types of texts used in fashion and life style communication and design. The result is pursued by introducing the theories of semiotics in their application to the analysis and planning of commercial and social messages.

Course contents

"Fashion is always semiotic" – Juri M. Lotman
This course sets out to examine the discourses of fashion through the lenses of cultural semiotics, the semiotics of memory, and socio-semiotics. Its aim is to equip students with the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to critically engage with the clothing system as an integral part of the power relations that run through our societies.

The first part of the course will focus on the key thinkers who have shaped the semiotic debate around fashion, style, and the art of dressing. The second part will explore how fashion and dressing practices can serve both as a means of identity-based emancipation for subaltern communities and as a site where power dynamics are reproduced, as well as a medium for collective memory and political activism.

In particular, the course will provide a framework for reflecting on fashion and politics (hierarchical systems, subaltern conditions, gender dynamics) as intrinsically linked domains. A semiotic approach will be adopted to deconstruct what is often perceived as natural in ways of dressing, revealing the underlying codes and structures of power that warrant critical analysis.

• Week 1
  Sociosemiotics of Fashion
• Week 2
  Key authors, perspectives, and methodologies in fashion semiotics
• Week 3
  Key authors, perspectives, and methodologies in fashion semiotics
• Week 4
  Fashion and politics
• Week 5
  Fashion and politics

 

Readings/Bibliography

Sociosemiotics

• Marrone, G. (2001). Corpi Sociali. Processi comunicativi e semiotica del testo, Torino, Einaudi. (Solo "Introduzione" e "Tra le parole e le cose").
  

Semiotics of Fashion

• Barthes, R. (2006). Il senso della moda. Forme e significati dell'abbigliamento, Torino, Einaudi.
• Pezzini, I. e Terraciano, B. (a cura di). (2020). La moda fra senso e cambiamento. Teorie, oggetti, spazi. Milano: Mimesis (capitoli 3, 6, 8, 10, 13)
• Terraciano, B. (2022). "Semiotica della moda", in Marrone G. e Migliore T. (a cura di) Cura del senso e critica sociale. Ricognizione della semiotica italiana, Milano: Mimesis (solo questo capitolo)

Fashion, Memory, Politics

4. Thompson Ford, R. Dress code. Come la moda dà forma alla storia. Milano: Il Saggiatore (solo PARTE TERZA: Power dressing: vestirsi per il potere)

5. Maria Cristina Marchetti. (2020). Moda e politica. La rappresentazione simbolica del potere, Milano: Meltemi. (capitoli scelti)

Teaching methods

The lecturer will alternate traditional lectures with seminar-style sessions, during which specific case studies will be analyzed or classic texts in fashion semiotics will be discussed.

Active participation from students is required.
Attendance is strongly recommended.

 

Assessment methods

Learning will be assessed through an oral exam.

Scores will be based on the following criteria:

18-20: the student's contribution lacks elements of excellence or originality, i.e. the shortcomings are sufficient to offset the positive aspects of the activity; (E-)

20-24: the activity has some good aspects but has not been fully developed, i.e. it shows some serious shortcomings, although it is of a good overall standard; (E E+)

25-27: the activity is good or very good, but some or several weaknesses prevent it from achieving an excellent rating. (D D+)

28-30: Very good, no shortcomings, some or several elements of originality. (C C+)

30 with honours: excellent in all respects, original and exceptional (A).

Teaching tools

Portable and desktop PCs, video projector, WiFi access point, internet connection, e-learning platform, personal smartphones.

Office hours

See the website of Mario Panico