A Reflection on Chapter 2 of Fashion, Culture, and Identity 1

Chapter 2 of Davis’s Fashion, Culture, and Identity (1992) made me reflect on how fashion is not merely about aesthetic choices, but rather a complex site of cultural ambiguity and identity negotiation. Initially, I believed that fashion conveyed relatively fixed social meanings. However, Davis’s discussion of ambiguity and the symbolic layering embedded in clothing led me to rethink this perspective. I was particularly struck by his example of costume jewelry and class signaling, which reminded me of the symbolic play that is also prevalent on Chinese social media. Overall, this chapter encouraged me to think more deeply about how fashion operates as a semiotic system, rather than simply a stylistic expression.

Chinese Version：

在Davis（1992）的《时尚、文化与身份》第二章让我反思到，时尚并不仅仅关乎审美选择，更是一个充满文化歧义和身份协商的场域。起初，我认为时尚传达的是相对固定的社会意义，然而，戴维斯对“模糊心理”（ambiguity）和服饰中符号层叠的讨论促使我重新思考这一观点。我尤其被他关于仿制珠宝与阶级象征的例子所吸引，这让我联想到中国社交媒体上也普遍存在的符号性游戏现象。总的来说，这一章促使我更深入地思考时尚如何作为一个符号系统发挥作用，而不仅仅是风格化的表达。