Download files
Abstract
What insights might a sociology of wit as applied to the phenomenon of fashion generate? This thesis applies the sociology of humour to fashion to develop a concept of wit that contributes to further understanding fashion. The thesis argues that this concept of wit is characterised by qualities of surprise and seduction. Surprise is defined as the experience of an unexpected, creative intellectual insight expressed in a pithy manner; seduction is the experience of being led astray, and also the desire of the subject to be led astray. The thesis demonstrates the presence of empirical sites of wit within fashion in the form of the dandy and glamour. It utilises Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus [2000] (1836) to further conceptualise the wit of fashion at the intersection of theories of humour and theories of fashion. The contribution of the wit of fashion to classical texts in the sociology of fashion is considered with reference to contemporary empirical examples. Thorstein Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption is expanded to develop an idea of the 'conspicuous wit' of fashion from the perspective of the designers Alessandro Michele for Gucci and Demna Gvasalia for Vetements and Balenciaga; Roland Barthes' idea of the singular, integrated, economically oriented fashion system is expanded to encompass the proliferation of contemporary witty fashion systems through an examination of Moschino and the work of the house of Viktor & Rolf.