The Language of Fashion

(vip2019) #1
History and Sociology of Clothing 17

Muffs and Morals, London, G. G. harrap, 1953, and Erik Peterson, Pour
une théologie du vêtement [French trans. m.-J. Congar], Lyon, Ed. De
l’abeille, 1943.
14 Georges Gurvitch, La Vocation actuelle de la sociologie [Vers une
sociologie différentielle], Paris, PuF, 1950, ch. 1 [editors’ note: ‘Les Faux
Problèmes de la sociologie au XIXe siècle’, 19–48, in which Gurvitch
considers the following problems as irrelevant to twentieth-century
sociology: the fate of humanity; order and progress; conflict between
individual and society; the opposition between the psychic and the social;
what is the predominant factor; establishing sociological laws; Gurvitch
prefers sociology to study depth, a micro-sociology using studies of
groupings, and he valorizes the collective conscience and moral theory in
Durkheim and Bergson’s sociology, as well as a highly relativist and
‘hyper-empiricist’ version of marxian theory].
15 [Editors’ note: in relation to the roman penula or lacerna, Quicherat says
that ‘one wore this only to protect oneself from the rain, and on travels
and in the countryside, rather than in the city (in the city, one wore
a toga)’ (29).]
16 It is clear that the more standardized the manufacturing, the stronger the
vestimentary system. on this see the observations by Georges Friedmann
on factories producing the waistcoat and the jacket, in Le Travail en
miettes, Paris, Gallimard, 1956 [trans. as The Anatomy of Work. The
Implications of Specialisation, by Wyatt rawson, London, heinemann,
1961].
17 Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale, Paris, Payot,
1949, 4th ed. [trans. as Course in General Linguistics, by Wade Baskin,
eds Charles Bally, albert Sechehaye, albert riedlinger, London, Peter
owen, 1959]. here we prefer the formulation of structuralism by Saussure
to the narrower one by his epigones in the Prague School; Saussure’s
is more historical, much closer to Durkheimism. as for the possibility
of extrapolating Saussurism to disciplines other than linguistics, this
is implied in Saussurism itself, based as it is on a postulate that has a
general epistemological significance.
18 Stephen ullmann, Précis de semantique française, Paris, PuF, 1952 [first
published as The Principles of Semantics, Glasgow, Jackson, 1951].
19 nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy, Principes de phonologie, trans. by
J. Cantineau, Paris, Klincksieck, 1949 [trans. as Principles of Phonology,
by Christiane a. m. Baltaxe, Berkeley, university of California Press, 1969].
20 as a working hypothesis, we propose to classify dressing objects in the
following way: (1) individual dimensions of the garment, in relation to the
size of the wearer; (2) degree and particularities of how worn-out, scruffy
or dirty; (3) pieces or items missing; (4) non-usage (buttons not done up,
rolled-up sleeves, etc.); (5) pure protection, not formalized (improvised

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