vienna

the procession. 594 If Barthes is right in his assumption about
the ancient Greek myth of the god Dionysus who resurrects
from the darkness of old time, in the context of the change of
fashion, then perhaps a sacrifice is also involved in the fashion
festival. Hubert and Mauss addressed the myth of Dionysus in
a chapter dealing with a special case of the sacrificial system, of
the sacrifice of the god. Based on Frazer’s idea that the agrarian
sacrifice is closely connected to the sacrifice of the god, Hubert
and Mauss showed how this form of sacrifice is linked to the
very mechanisms of sacrifice. The first step involves finding a
victim who represents the sacrifier. 595 In an agrarian sacrifice,
the sacrifier is the field. The victim has to be in close relationship
with the sacrifier. The incarnations of the life of the corn and the
wine are the bull and the goat of Dionysus. 596 The victim in the
agrarian sacrifice always symbolically represents the fields and
their products. The next step is to sacrifice the victim. After the
communion, the god resurrects, and this gives new power to the
fields and their fruits. 597 In the case of the sacrifice of the god,
the victim and the god sacrificed are a homogeneous unity. If we
apply this mechanism to fashion, then we have to imagine that
the sacrifier is fashion instead of the field. This is not so difficult
as there are also many fruits (brands, styles…), and there is a
parallel to the seasons as well. We will, for the time being, not
change the name of the god in adherence to Barthes’ concept.
Thus, the sacrifier is fashion and the god is Dionysus. For the
next step, we need a victim who stands in relation to the sacrifier.
Going by our observations during the seasonal sale, let us
assume that this is the seasonal collection. Although it is still
linked to fashion, the relation is already weakened because it will
be going to be out of fashion very soon. We have found several
indications of the “symbolic death” of the past fashion during
the dramatisation of the seasonal sale. The seasonal sale has the
character of what Baudrillard described as a “collective theatre of
death”. 598 The haute couture collection and the mass-market garment
are all equal in the face of death (the seasonal sale). It is a
collective exchange of the symbolic death in a commonly shared
festival celebrated in the shopping streets of the city. In his Flesh
and Stone, Richard Sennett examined two ancient Greek festivals
594 Bremmer (1999:39).
595 The sacrifier is the subject to whom the benefits of the sacrifice accrue. See Hubert/Mauss (1981:10).
596 Hubert/Mauss (1981:79).
597 Ibid., p. 68.
598 Baudrillard (2004:146).
The
Death
of
Fashion 253