My Thesis: Fashion & Identity

Below is my Thesis Abstract. It basically lets you know what caused my great lack of blog posts and what took up my time for the past 4 months (Jan. 2011-Apr. 2011). This is the bare bones of my thesis project and all that it entailed. As usual, copyright and all that jazz with the actual abstract. It is a bound work in Penn State, Harrisburg’s library, after all, so all the plagiarism rules and then some would apply.

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Fashion and Identity:  Exploring How the Visual Language of Fashion and Magazines Represents the Identity of Generation Y

How does Generation Y, made up of those individuals born between 1981 and 2002, come to define its identity through the visual language of fashion and clothing? Does the visual rhetoric of advertisements and articles in magazines reflect the visual language being communicated by Generation Y’s clothing? If so, how has the rhetoric of visual culture come to act as a guide and chronicle to the Generation Y concept of identity through fashion?

Store front in Kufstein, Austria- Nov. 2010

This project seeks to explore the contemporary identity of Generation Y, first, by analyzing Generation Y and its relationship to consumerism, and second, by exploring the visual rhetoric of advertisements and articles presented in fashion magazines targeted at the 18-30 year old population of Generation Y as consumers. The advertisements and images analyzed are a cross-sample, taken from magazines published from 2007-2010. Five periodicals were strategically chosen to provide data for this inquiry. The magazines used are Cosmopolitan, Complex, Ebony, GQ, and Vogue. These magazines appeal to diverse sections of American culture, maintain readership in the 18-30 age group, and are consumed by different gender and socioeconomic groups. All the magazines feature varying styles in the presentation of ads and fashion images. An overall examination and overview of semiotics and sociological analysis have been taken into consideration to assess the ways in which Generation Y has adopted the visual language expressed through fashion in order to create a unique identity.

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