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Petushkova T.A., Petushkova G.I. Theoretical costumology: evolution of semiotic representations. Journal of Clothing Science. 2024; 9(1). Available at: https://kostumologiya.ru/PDF/17IVKL124.pdf (in Russian).

Theoretical costumology: evolution of semiotic representations

Petushkova Tatyana Anatolyevna
Moscow Institute of Economics, Moscow, Russia
E-mail: tatyana_petushkova@yahoo.com; petushkovata@noumei.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3900-1663
RSCI: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=1069890

Petushkova Galina Ivanovna
Russian State University named A.N. Kosygin (Technologies. Design. Art), Moscow, Russia
E-mail: galina-petushkova@mail.ru

Abstract. The article examines the development of semiotic representations in theoretical costumology at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The methodological foundations for developing corresponding classifications of semiotic models are demonstrated. In the 1970s, within the framework of a systemic-structural approach, the conceptual apparatus of costumological semiotics was developed based on ideas from semiotics and structural linguistics. Characteristics of the concepts of sign and symbol were identified, and basic concepts such as structure, system, stable and mobile elements were introduced into research practice, revealing their systemic relationships in the formative process. This allowed for the development of sign-symbolic models of form creation as individual visual structures, varying initial forms in their systemic combinations according to the laws of Euclidean geometry.

Furthermore, the language of costume design as a comprehensive system of signs was classified into categories and sections such as «Graphemics», «Isomorphology», «Iconotheca», «Iconic Form Creation», «Graphic Grammar», «Syntax», «Composition» and «Stylistics». Issues related to the communicative culture of specialists in creating and reproducing fashionable images in industrial production under increasing computerization are problematized. The further deepening and expansion of theoretical costumology and costume design progressed through the construction of an evolutionary theory of costume symmetry (ETCS), incorporating principles from fundamental symmetry theories: classical, affine, similarity, and curvilinear, allowing for an assessment of fashion advertising materials beyond Euclidean geometry and the construction of structural modifications in the systemic interrelation of the form of fashionable costumes, their plastic characteristics, and mechanisms linking all components, including form metrics and plasticity, fabric patterns and textures, clothing cuts, body movements, posture, and fashionable poses in their historical sequence.

Subsequently, the language of semiotic modeling in costume design evolved within the framework of a bionic direction analogous to architecture, leading to the development of original methodologies for tectonic and structural analysis of natural systems and costume forms, establishing systemic «relationships between external (tectonic) and internal (structural) characteristics of form and the functioning ‘internal’ space between the human figure and the artificial costume shell». The combination of natural forms and algorithms of transformation using classical, affine, similarity, and curvilinear symmetry expanded the linguistic possibilities of costume design at both the syntax level and in creating semantically rich authorial concepts. With the development of synergistic representations in costumology, a transition from the paradigm of structural-linguistic semiotics to fractal semiotics emerged, where linear symmetry was complemented by the concept of nonlinear or fractal symmetry. Fractality is considered a «natural morphogenetic principle» for developing classification models of self-similar, hierarchically organized systems harmonized by relationships of the golden ratio.

Keywords: advertising; fashion; costumeology; costumography; semiotics; sign; symbol; icon; communication; information; symmetry; evolution; bionics; mimesis; fractal symmetry; fractal semiotics

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