In his consideration of the language of the fashion magazine--the structural analysis of descriptions of women's clothing by writers about fashion--Barthes gives us a brief history of semiology. At the same time, he identifies economics as the underlying reason for the luxuriant prose of the fashion magazine: "Calculating, industrial society is obliged to form consumers who don't calculate; if clothing's producers and consumers had the same consciousness, clothing would be bought (and produced) only at the very slow rate of its dilapidation."
- ISBN10 080901503X
- ISBN13 9780809015030
- Publish Date 1 July 1984 (first published 12 December 1983)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 17 March 2021
- Imprint Hill & Wang
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Language English