‘Blue is in Fashion This Year’ 41the neck can be signifying features; and also to foresee the existence
of a fifth, sufficiently meaningful feature, which is the combination of
these four.
- This example may also be more instructive to me: if by reading
other messages I am persuaded that the sweater is very rarely the
signifier of the concept smart and that the sweater most often imbues
the opposite signified (sport, for example), I will conclude that the
link suggested to me is deliberately paradoxical: a certain number of
features (silk, white, square neck) proceed to undermine the normal
meaning of the sweater. This is a phenomenon of regulation, which is
very important in the grammar of fashion. But again what I want to hold
on to for the moment is the idea that the sweater is not a signifier here:
it is the object aimed at by meaning.
In theory we must always be able to define the object that is aimed
at in a fashion meaning. This is especially easy in the (fairly rare) cases
where meaning acts, so to speak, from a distance, with the feature that
carries the meaning being physically separated from the item aimed at.
For example, in the following proposition: patterned blouses give the
skirt a touch of romance, the signifier (patterned blouses) is perfectly
unconnected with the object aimed at (the skirt). In the case of the white
silk sweater, the distinction is already more difficult, since the signifiers
are in some way incorporated into the item that they signify. In fact, most
often the object of meaning is not even referred to; it is the ensemble,
the outfit, the grooming, the person in the clothing: since the target is a
general one, it is not made precise.
The material element in the link moreover often confuses different
functions. When I am told about a blazer ensemble for cool days, I am
forced to see in the blazer ensemble both a signifier and the very object
of signification. What’s more, this element has a hidden level: it is also
the support for meaning. This is an important new notion. We can see
it clearly in a (rare) example where the three ‘levels’ are completely
detached from one another. Let’s say: a sports cardigan with the collar
fastened. I have three distinct notions here: the object of meaning (this
is the cardigan); the support for the meaning (this is the collar); and
the signifier proper (this collar is fastened). The supports for meaning
take up a lot of space in the fashion lexicon; sometimes, it is true,
they are not defined (blue is in fashion); but most often, the magazine