Abstract for a fashion conference
Apr. 26th, 2005 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frualeydisI have written an abstract for the presentation I'm planning to give at a Fashion conference in Copenhagen in October. I would love comments on it, especially the language of course. It has to be sent tomorrow, because on thursday I'm having a wisdom tooth removed and I don't think I will be able to go to work after that.
Clothing as social sign in medieval Scandinavia
In the Middle Ages clothing conveyed a variety of signals; gender, age, occupation and social position could be seen from a person's clothing. Geographical origin and even religious and political affiliations could also sometimes be "read" by the informed observer.
My dissertation, which will be finished in the beginning of 2006, deals with different aspects of clothing in medieval Norway and Sweden. The first part of it deals with the actual clothing; which clothes were worn? from what materials were they made? what colours did they have? how were they combined? How do the way people in Sweden and Norway dressed relate to continental European fashion? I examine documentary sources like wills, inventories etc. These are compared with archaeological finds and otherwise preserved clothing from the Nordic countries and art mainly from Norway and Sweden. In the case of archaeological finds only published finds are used and for art the study is limited to works which are easily accessible, either in books or electronic databases.
The second part of the dissertation deals with clothing and society. Here the results from the previous study are used to discuss what it was that clothes said about the wearer and how it was said. In my presentation at this conference will discuss the different signals that could be found in clothing in the middle ages.
According to fashion historian James Laver women's dress is governed by the "Seduction Principle" while men's clothing is governed by the "Hierarchical Principle". This has become a widely accepted theory. I will, however, show that at least in the Middle Ages the symbolism in dress and the driving principles behind them are more complex than that and also that they are essentially the same for both sexes. Both men's and women's clothing are affected by the wish to show off one's wealth as well as being sexual attractive. For example I will show that female headwear is not such a simple symbol of sexual and marital status as it is usually perceived, but that headwear for both men and women could signal for example age and position in society and that the same type of symbols actually was used for both sexes.
Using the one-sex model, as described by Thomas Laqueur in Making Sex- Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, I will also show how the perception of sex and gender influenced clothing, creating a one-sex fashion that for the greater part of the Middle Ages strove to achieve the same beauty ideal, irrespective of sex.
I will also touch on the subject of diffusion of fashion in different social strata in medieval Scandinavia and discuss the significance of the relative absence of sumptuary legislation from Sweden and Norway.
Clothing as social sign in medieval Scandinavia
In the Middle Ages clothing conveyed a variety of signals; gender, age, occupation and social position could be seen from a person's clothing. Geographical origin and even religious and political affiliations could also sometimes be "read" by the informed observer.
My dissertation, which will be finished in the beginning of 2006, deals with different aspects of clothing in medieval Norway and Sweden. The first part of it deals with the actual clothing; which clothes were worn? from what materials were they made? what colours did they have? how were they combined? How do the way people in Sweden and Norway dressed relate to continental European fashion? I examine documentary sources like wills, inventories etc. These are compared with archaeological finds and otherwise preserved clothing from the Nordic countries and art mainly from Norway and Sweden. In the case of archaeological finds only published finds are used and for art the study is limited to works which are easily accessible, either in books or electronic databases.
The second part of the dissertation deals with clothing and society. Here the results from the previous study are used to discuss what it was that clothes said about the wearer and how it was said. In my presentation at this conference will discuss the different signals that could be found in clothing in the middle ages.
According to fashion historian James Laver women's dress is governed by the "Seduction Principle" while men's clothing is governed by the "Hierarchical Principle". This has become a widely accepted theory. I will, however, show that at least in the Middle Ages the symbolism in dress and the driving principles behind them are more complex than that and also that they are essentially the same for both sexes. Both men's and women's clothing are affected by the wish to show off one's wealth as well as being sexual attractive. For example I will show that female headwear is not such a simple symbol of sexual and marital status as it is usually perceived, but that headwear for both men and women could signal for example age and position in society and that the same type of symbols actually was used for both sexes.
Using the one-sex model, as described by Thomas Laqueur in Making Sex- Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, I will also show how the perception of sex and gender influenced clothing, creating a one-sex fashion that for the greater part of the Middle Ages strove to achieve the same beauty ideal, irrespective of sex.
I will also touch on the subject of diffusion of fashion in different social strata in medieval Scandinavia and discuss the significance of the relative absence of sumptuary legislation from Sweden and Norway.
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Date: 2005-04-26 04:08 am (UTC)Eva