Week 3: Second Reading

The title of the second reading was 'One: Status Power and Display'.We found several quotes from the second reading that reinforced the ideas that we had highlighted from the first reading.

1. Escapeism: this was represented in the form of nostalgia in the secong reading.

For example, from page 3, 'Women in particular were drawn further into fashion's realm to seek fulfilment through its fantasy images, to construct a self based upon desires rather than needs.'and later in the same paragraph, '...a lifestyle promoted through advertising and popular culture as a means to create a truly modern identity, which capitalised upon new freedoms.'and again, 'constantly pursuing new thrills, a further shock to teh stifling monotony of 'real life'.on page 4, 'to escape the alienation of contemporary existance'.

2. Representation of groups within society:

'However, the escalating power of images has meant that previously excluded groups now seek to create 'imagined' status for themselves through teh construction of styles which mark out their own territory.'and on page 4, 'elitism of couture.'on page 7, 'Alongside teh late 1960s hippie street level renunciations of consumerism and excess, was a continuing revolt against 'good' taste as defined by bourgeois conservatism.'

3. Male and female fashion:

Extravagance was increasingly to be used to refute as well as to uphold couture ideals. It is telling that this period was such a reference point in the 1970s; another era when ideas of femininity were being questioned, this time in response to feminist texts and protests...'and on page 6, 'The volume of the outcry at what was basically merely a return to traditional feminie lines was indeed a remarkable tribute to the grip whic the puritan discipline of Austerity and Fair Shares had gained on our island life.'

4. Identity in fashion:

'Postmodernity is characterised by the breakdown of 'grand narratives' and stabel definitions of identity.