SIGNS IN FASHION: ICONS, SYMBOLS, INDICES AND THEIR TRANSIENCE

We communicate through signs. Words, facial expressions, billboard images, street signs, certain sounds or colours are signs.

Clothes, jewels, accessories are signs.

Clothes, jewels, accessories are signs.

A sign, by definition, is a bifacial entity formed of:

1. signified
2. signifier.

The signified is the represented concept, the signifier is the material medium of representation.

The signifier is the material medium of representation.

Clothing can be used: 

• as a symbol (for instance, gilt accessories, or a lamè bodice, can be symbols of wealth, a black sheath dress of elegance, a pair of extravagant skyscraper sandals of eccentricity and transgression)
• as an icon (a disguise is an icon of what we would wish to look like... If I dress up as a cat at carnival, my clothes become the icon of a cat)
• as an index (I wear stray socks, and unless this is not my style, it indicates that I’m careless).

Clothing can be used as as symbol (elegance) and as an icon (woman dressed)

A few fundamental elements must be considered:

• Signs in fashion are transient and are generated by a group of individuals who voluntarily develop a code.
• Signifieds and signifiers in clothing are subject to sudden changes, due to the choice of the few and in a fleeting time span.
• Signs in fashion are unstable, strong in the twinkle of an eye, weak moments after.

Signs in fashion are unstable, strong in the twinkle of an eye, weak moments after.

It appears clear by now that communicating through fashion is a complex art, unlike what many people think.

Results depend only on professional skills.