events: Visual studies today: The power of images
Abstracts
Irena Mihalić
Revival in Fashion: Revaluation of Past Styles in New Settings
Fashion is defined most prominently through its association with perpetual metamorphoses and rapid changes constantly driven by the demand for novelty. Traditionally, fashion mechanisms were known to function cyclically in relation to social ideals and epochs of thought. Following the democratization and decentralization of the fashion system in the twentieth century, these cycles became shorter and shifts in visual expression started moving towards reinvention and revaluation of the past. Both authentic and reproduced, former styles became acceptable as sources of fashion, and notions of time and space had been suspended throughout the postmodern condition, giving way to anything-goes aesthetics and fluidity in fashion. The endless rebirth of former styles within the frantic pace of contemporary fashion challenges our perception of fashion semiotics while constantly re-exploring the concepts of "past" and "present".