The Fashion System as Sign Itself: Surprise, Seduction and the Wit of Viktor & Rolf

Abstract

I have previously argued that aspects of fashion’s appeal and allure are bound up in a concept of wit. This wit is comprised of surprise—the sudden provision of an unexpected creative insight via a novel quip or image or—and seduction—pleasurable play, mutual challenge, and the desire to led astray from orthodox thinking in intriguing ways. However within fashion studies, the idea prevails that fashion is largely regarded as explicable in terms of a singular, integrated, commercially-oriented fashion system. I will examine Roland Barthes’ influential The Fashion System to explore how the idea of the “fashion system” functions as a sign of fashion itself. I will then analyze the oeuvre of Viktor & Rolf—couturiers who explicitly and persistently comment on the construction of the “fashion system”—to demonstrate how their work might critique and complement this system through a theoretical conception of wit.

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