Jobling, Paul (1998) Fashion figures : word and image in contemporary fashion photography. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study explores the tension between text and image in the fashion spreads
published in three magazines since 1980: The Face, Arena and Vogue. It takes as its
starting part Roland Barthes' axiom that the magazine is 'a machine for making
Fashion' and pursues his thesis that it is through 'represented clothing', rather
than real garments themselves, that the meaning of Fashion is connoted. But it also
contests his idea that the Fashion system is a vacuous or trivial form of
signification, and in exploring both the verbal and pictorial elements of fashion
spreads aims to uncover how they intersect with wider cultural events. The
material under discussion has been arranged into three separate parts. Each one has
its own discursive framework and diverse methodological perspective, yet it is also
dialectically related to the others in a wider argument concerning the construction
of the body in word and image in contemporary fashion photography.
Part One serves to provide an overview of the evolution of the three chief
titles consulted, considering the social, economic and aesthetic factors that have
been instrumental in forging an identity for fashion photography since 1980. At the
same time, it examines the preoccupation with a postmodern treatment of time and
history in various spreads and assesses whether iconocentrism ipso facto renders
fashion photography devoid of any deeper meaning.
Part Two builds on this argument by analysing the ideas propounded in
Roland Barthes' Systeme de la Mode, chiefly the distinction he makes between
written clothing (le vetement ecrit) and image-clothing (le vetement-image), in the
context of debates on logocentrism. Here I assess whether Barthes' predilection for
written clothing is both viable and relevant when it comes to making sense of the
symbolic content of represented clothing with particular reference to a fashion
spread called 'Amoureuse' from Elle (June 1958). I also evince the same spread along
with more contemporary examples to assess the way that Barthes deals with sex
and gender in Systeme de la Mode.
Part Three consolidates this exploration of gender and fashion by
concentrating on the intense interest in sex and the body that has subtended much
fashion imagery between 1980 and 1996. At this point, I deal with the
objectification of female and male sexualities by mobilising the central tropes of
the 'girl' and the phallic body respectively. In the process, I raise a diverse and
complex intersection of related issues concerning identity formation and otherness,
power, and visual pleasure. Thus I examine the investment that different producers
and spectators might have in the fashion image: male and female; straight and
gay; and white and non-white. In particular, I draw heavily on the
psychoanalytical theories of Freud and Lacan, as well as more recent writing by
Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler and Diana Fuss.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	T Technology > TT Handicrafts Arts and crafts
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Fashion photography -- History and criticism, Fashion writing -- History and criticism, Fashion -- Philosophy, Face, Vogue, Arena
Official Date:	May 1998
Dates:	Date Event May 1998 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Collie, Joanne ; Parker, Kenneth, 1932-
Extent:	v, 293 leaves
Language:	eng

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