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Media Relations

The Obscure and Uncertain Semiotics of Fashion

The New York Times

The Obscure and Uncertain Semiotics of Fashion

By Stephanie Rosenbloom
March 5, 2006

Fashion designs are often more symbolic than practical. This season on Paris runways, one of the more striking trends, according to reporter Stephanie Rosenbloom, was the obscuring -- by masks, hoods, hats and swaths of fabric -- of models' faces. So what does it mean? One clothing company executive believes that the models' faces were perhaps too beautiful for this point in time, given all the troubling conflict in the world. Suzanna Walters, the chairwoman of the gender studies department at Indiana University, said that could be so, but she doesn't believe that turning the masking of women into fashion can be a good thing.

To read the entire article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/weekinreview/05rosenbloom.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1141853366-1/gRm9KRb5ad3SbJtyDTVw

For more information on the IU Department of Gender Studies, see:
http://www.indiana.edu/~gender/html/

And, to learn more about Suzanna D. Walters, go to:
http://www.indiana.edu/~gender/html/core_faculty.html

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