Publications

Publication details [#63781]

Sover, Arie. 2017. Humour, food and fashion: The use of humour and food in fashion shows. The European Journal of Humour Research 5 (1) : 69–90.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies

Annotation

This is the first inquiry that explores the combination of humour, food and fashion. It is based on an assay of three singular fashion shows whose designer is the American Jeremy Scott; two under his brand, and the third as an art director for the Italian brand Moschino. The three shows link these three elements, while proposing the peak of a food-humour theme in modern fashion, which had began with Moschino’s brand founder, Franco Moschino, in the nineties. Combining food and fashion is pertinent in modern culture as it compares consumption of fast food to that of fast fashion. The connection between laughter and food is ancient. A few days after birth, there are buds of a smile on a baby’s face, demonstrating its satisfaction with food. Smiles and even laughter oft happen throughout a person’s life in the context of delicious food. The uniqueness of the forecited fashion shows is not humour in itself, but rather its combination with food and fashion, the two apparently different. The combination of these three elements causes a cognitive challenge for the fashion spectators. It is asserted that this threesome forms an important, creative breakthrough in fashion. One of humour’s important functions is to defy social, cultural and aesthetic norms. As thus it has been penetrating fashion shows since the 1980s, as a norm-breaker and a marketing strategy. This paper debates the cultural function of food and humour in fashion shows, from a cultural semiotic methodology.