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The Fashion System

The Fashion System

Summary

Fashion never ceases to interest psychologists, aestheticians and sociologists. Roland Barthes, however, examined fashion from a new point of view. Using descriptions from magazines, he uncovered a system of meaning and subjected it for the first time to semantic analysis. The Fashion System, published in France in 1967, is bold and imaginative. In his endeavour to confine his love, outrage and passion for fashion to a system, Barthes created a work of literature that is witty, humane, personal and enormously stimulating

Reviews

  • Obsessed with thinking about thinking, Barthes' life was a stylish intellectual adventure. He was also a hedonist, a meticulous dresser, gay, sensitive, sardonic, sociable, gossipy. He made reading a sacrament. With his unique vision, Barthes has helped us to read the world
    Independent on Sunday

About the author

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980.
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