Fashion as Communication

What kinds of things do fashion and clothing say about us? What does it mean to wear Gap or Gaultier, Milletts or Moschino? Are there any real differences between Hip-Hop style and Punk anti-styles? In this fully revised and updated edition, Malcolm Barnard introduces fashion and clothing as ways of communicating and challenging class, gender, and sexual and social identities.

Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches from Barthes and Baudrillard to Marxist, psychoanalytic and feminist theory, Barnard addresses the ambivalent status of fashion in contemporary culture. He looks at the producers, consumers and critics of fashion, exploring the tensions between haute couture and high culture, and asking how meanings are generated, and by whom.

Examining concepts such as culture, meaning, class, gender, reproduction and resistance, Barnard demonstrates that fashion is not an innocent form of communication, and uncovers the ways in which clothing can be used both to create and contest identities.