The semiotics of fashion design: A proposal for higher education

Although the role of semiotics was established as a tool to interpret fashion as a communication system, as a discipline it is virtually absent from the curricula of graduate and postgraduate programmes. In this article, we argue that semiotics can provide epistemological support for the development of a framework for fashion design education. Semiotics is required not only as a tool for designers to (re)interpret the complex and often abstract or conceptual/emotional relations between the design object (clothes) and the wearer, but also as a creative tool. We propose a framework where semiotic analysis is present throughout the structures of fashion design higher education programmes, in order to offer adequate support to fashion design projects. We also discuss the facets of semiotics relevant for fashion design, with an emphasis on the perspective of higher education settings.