vienna

of regular “ritualisation” in the fashion magazines can be structurally
linked to larger-scale rituals as well. We will define the
shopping streets during the sales period as such a dramatisation
of a macro-ritual. The motif of transition, described by Barthes
as the inner structure of the fashion system, can be thus argued
as a motif of the macro ritual. In this sense, we fulfil the argument
of transformation as an important category of rituals.
In the micro-rite, each item is transformed into the new trend
by describing its new features by means of language. In the
bigger, more abstract, macro-rite of the show window, the whole
collection of the previous season is in the process of being
transformed into the new collection. This transformation is independent
of the current trend and the individual characteristics of
each garment. Another aspect of the ritual hierarchy is the social
effect of the rites in relation to scale. While micro-rites have a
small audience, the audience of the macro rituals is large. This is
also true of the transition of fashion from one season to another.
Indeed, fashion magazines address fewer people with the lingual
transformation of the fashion items than the seasonal sale
windows do on the scale of the city. 76 Regardless of whether the
fashion victims or the people are totally disinterested in fashion
trends, the change of fashion is obvious for everyone. Rites that
fulfil the purpose of transformation have been called rites of
passage. These rites of passage transform one state into another,
in our case, one seasonal collection into the next. Arnold van
Gennep pointed out the original importance of such passages:
“Because of the importance of these transitions, I think it
legitimate to single out rites of passage as a special category,
which under further analysis may be subdivided into rites of
separation, transition rites, and rites of incorporation. These
three sub-categories are not developed to the same extent by
all peoples or in every ceremonial pattern.” 77
It is thus quite possible that these three stages could be
found in the show window as well if the seasonal sale were to
follow the structure of a rite of passage. Van Gennep pointed
out that such rites of passage are documented in relation to
the change of the seasons as well. The death of winter and the
76 According to the statistics of the Viennese Chamber of Commerce, Department of City Planning (December 2002), about
35.000 people pass the windows in Vienna’s shopping street Mariahilfer Straße on a normal weekday.
77 Gennep (1960:10-11).
The
Death
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