Vestígios Vestidos: moda e presença como repertório das performances culturais

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether fashion can reveal itself as an expression of Cultural Performances. I start from the premise that clothes can operate as both supports and agents of cultural repertoires, provided they are imbued with a Presence, in the terms proposed by Diana Taylor (2020). The main objective is to demonstrate that fashion can be understood as a Cultural Performance by analyzing the materialization of cultural repertoires in garments that articulate an intentional Presence. The research corpus consists of images of the garments from the first collections by Misci, Naya Violeta, and David Lee showcased at the São Paulo Fashion Week. To operationalize this analysis, I adopted the methodology of Aby Warburg's Atlas Mnemosyne, using visual panels that function not as illustrations, but as the embodiment of the argument. By the end of the research, the conclusion presented is that fashion can be an expression of Cultural Performances, not metaphorically, but as a constituent part of their social and cultural structures. However, for this performative disposition to be realized, at least two conditions are necessary. Firstly, it is essential that the garment is an intentional manifestation of a Presence (Taylor, 2020). Secondly, it is imperative to recognize that the designer's action is only the beginning of the process, and the interpretation of the consumer/observer is crucial for the meaning to be complete. It is in the dynamic, therefore, between the creator of the wearable object and the one who receives it that the performative potential of clothing is revealed.