Once the failure of classical fashion Semiotics (1960-1980) was certified, as it conceived the fashion phenomenon as a system devoid of meaning (Barthes), incapable of communicating (Lotman) and unbearable (Volli), the great designers and marketing strategists began a new period, that of the Pragmatics of Fashion (1980-2000), committed to resemiotizing the system by resorting to prestigious referents for their collections (the history of art and culture) and to the brand, defined as a hypericonema loaded with powerful literal, imaginary and psycho-emotional meanings (Paz Gago). This stage of fashion semiotics is described by Floch and Calefato, scholars of fashion brands as written text, since it is the proper name of the great fashion designers that has become a brand. Both agree on the need to move beyond the more linguistic stage of the discipline to develop a visual semiotics or a plastic semiotics that serves to analyze fashion as an essentially visual phenomenon. With the new millennium, in line with the new digital technologies that colonize and are colonized by fashion, the Neosemiotics of fashion (2000-2020) emerges, mediated by the stories and reels uploaded to social networks such as Instagram or TikTok, as Bianca Terraciano or Victoria Nannini will analyze. Fashion semiotics faces a new challenge today due to the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, which has already colonized all processes in the fashion system: design creation, pattern making, manufacturing, advertising and marketing campaigns, fashion shows, distribution, and marketing can all be implemented through generative Artificial Intelligence applications. These new technological phenomena respond to the semiotic mode I have called Machination, as opposed to the Representation and Simulation characteristic of classic analog and digital technologies.

This reflection aims to explore the foundations, limitations, and necessity of fashion semiotics, beyond the inertia that still binds it to a mere reinterpretation of Barthesian legacy. On the contrary, fashion semiotics reveals its compelling and contemporary relevance when it is considered in light of the explanatory power granted to a language too often relegated—for commercial reasons or societal conventions—to a marginal or reductionist role, rather than being acknowledged as an active part of present-day expression in all its forms. These include, notably, gender relations, political implications, the dynamics of possible and impossible relations in the context of digital interfaces, the dialectic between conjunctive tensions and the condemnation to disjunction. Desire and resistance will be the two key terms guiding us through this unaligned reinterpretation.

Korean dramas (K-dramas) have emerged as powerful cultural artifacts that not only entertain but also shape societal perceptions of Fashion, body image, and identity. Fashion in K-dramas operates as a semiotic medium of cultural storytelling, weaving together traditional Korean heritage with contemporary global trends. These audiovisual narratives play a crucial role in constructing and circulating culturally specific ideals of beauty and bodily norms. This article investigates how Fashion and body image are represented in K-dramas and how these representations are interpreted across different cultural contexts. Through a semiotic lens, it explores the mechanisms by which K-dramas mediate notions of identity, desirability, and belonging, revealing the tensions and harmonies between local traditions and globalized aesthetics.

As a representative brand of French fashion, Chanel not only facilitates the transformation between objects and signs in the production of fashion value, but also contributes to the construction of fashion consensus by offering rich interpretations and representations. In this process, female brand ambassadors play a pivotal role, serving as a crucial bridge between the brand and its consumers, while also functioning as key agents in the external communication of brand culture. This study takes Chanel’s female brand ambassadors in the Chinese market as a case, employing a semiotic analytical approach to examine how these ambassadors contribute to the construction of contemporary femininity marked by diversity and uniqueness. It further analyzes the Western brand’s imagined representations of Eastern women within a cross-cultural context, uncovering how Chanel utilizes Chinese female brand ambassadors to convey distinctive images of femininity, and explores the communicative pathways through which emotional resonance is established with Chinese consumers. This paper offers a new perspective on understanding the significance of women in the fashion industry and their cultural implications, while also providing theoretical support for the construction of female representations by brands across diverse cultural markets.

This paper focuses on the relationship between fashion, language and the body. We refer to two theoretical starting points: Lotman's definition of language as a “primary modelling system”, and the relationship, identified by Barthes, between “real” and “written” fashion. The paper studies this relationship within four fields: the performative power of brands, the “playful” role of writing on T-shirts, the function of the written language in some examples of contemporary fashion, tattoos and permanent body modifications between writing and fashion practices.

This paper explores the semiotic significance of attire in Hulu's series The Handmaid’s Tale, examining how clothing functions as a tool of power and control within the series. It further investigates the role of uniforms in contemporary society and draws parallels between modern fashion practices and subtle forms of repression and power exerted over women. By analyzing the interplay between fashion, power, and gender, this study aims to highlight the enduring impact of clothing as a medium of socio-political expression and control.

This study analyzed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by integrating corporeal narratology with Greimas’s semiotic square, examining how temporality and identity are constructed and deconstructed through the body. Benjamin’s body serves as a semiotic field where oppositions like “youth/old age” and “life/death” are generated, clash, and collapse. The semiotic square revealed how these binary structures become unsustainable and the internal disintegration of the semiotic system, highlighting both the model's utility and limitations in complex corporeal narratives. Corporeal narratology emphasized the body's role as an active agent that embodies and enacts the collapse of meaning, contributing to the disintegration of narrative structure. Ultimately, the analysis demonstrated that body, time, and identity are core semiotic forces that uphold and undo narrative structures.