Abstract
Over the past decade, representations of women in fashion have gained in naturalness and "authenticity". Old concepts of "prettiness" and conventional attractiveness are being invalidated.
Fashion that plays to the female gaze is the latest form of status-seeking. In order to understand these shifts, this paper unpacks representational strategies of the influential niche title The Gentlewoman that constructs the image of the modern, independent, honest, interesting, hard-working and stylish woman.
The magazine advertises itself as the place "where real women, real events and real things are enjoyed". The idea is that we are tired of "fake" fashion and trivialised representations of women; we are looking for something "real".
But as Simone de Beauvoir has articulated, once a woman is "dressed", she is "the character she represents, but is not" (Beauvoir 1997: 547). What approaches are used to represent a woman in fashion media without "emptying" her specificity? How many manipulations can be made to still represent a woman as "authentic" without reducing her to the "image"? This paper scrutinises the concept of the "gentlewoman".
The theoretical ground for the research is a social semiotic theory of representation. The paper explores both written and visual excerpts and employs techniques of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (drawing on the work of Kress and van Leeuwen).
The paper analyses how particular semiotic choices signify "authentic" women and their values. The magazine The Gentlewoman uses a conversational, professional, yet playful tone and emotionally resonant photography to encourage the reader to feel sympathy and warmth towards the "gentlewoman".
As the paper claims, the idea of "sincere simulations" has gained significance in contemporary fashion discourse. As a result, the list of characteristics of representations of the "real" woman of fashion is introduced.