The Symbolic Production／Consumption of Fashion Magazines: Take the Local Fashion-Consciousness of Chinoiserie as Example

• Main Authors: Lin, Chih-Hung, 林志鴻
• Other Authors: Hsu, Ta-Kuang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/52654267965479521681

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 織品服裝學系 === 90 === In the cultural context of globalization, fashion magazines continue to articulate a modern field of vision of content change. At the same time, with the playful acts of sign consumption, fashion magazines are carriers of fashion codes, spreading fashion messages to their audience. Enacted by its exchange value and sign value, fashion, as a network comprised by words and images, rises above the dimension of use value, and therefore boosts the development of fashion culture. That multiple dimensions of fashion culture are what motivate this research. This research attempts to study fashion trends from the perspective of “sign”, hoping to understand the concrete details of the symbolic production and consumption of fashion magazines in the context of sign system. Seeing that fashion industry masters in the commodification of culture and visual objects, researcher proposed to read the successful commodification of Chinoiserie in recent fashion trends as an access to understand 1) how fashion magazines produce fashion signs and what are its conditions of production in relation to media industry and fashion culture; 2) how audience recognizes fashion magazines as a media and how local audience in Taiwan interacts with the Chinese versions of fashion magazines; and 3) what is the politics of fashion culture, especially in the current trend of Chinoiserie, as conceived by both fashion workers in media and its audience. In terms of methodology, researcher has adopted the post-empirical paradigm incorporated with qualitative study and interviews. In the analysis of interview, researcher has endeavored to reconstruct the reality of the symbolic production and consumption in media industry, so as to understand how the sign system of Chinoiserie has influenced the local culture and its epistemology of images after it has crossed various cultural contexts. In the conclusion, this research has found that not only how fashion industry has attempted to create fashion trends but also by what means media-produced fashion signs have triggered consumption. In addition, using notions such as surface aesthetics, cultural wardrobe, and post-modernity / modernity in collage, this research has managed to present the critical reflection of fashion media workers and the audience on the cultural production of Chinoiserie, as well as the struggle between cultural identification and transnational sign system that resulted from the fashioning of Chinoiserie.