Code-X (23)

By: Joshua Glenn
July 29, 2014

portman

Call this fashion code: White is the New Black.

Definition: Whitened faces make women look dramatic and “existential” — like “black swans.” The whitened face derives its power from the surrounding black.

wild thing

Notes on this code: Whiteness as a sign you’ve achieved sophistication — rejected the natural. The key insight here is the drama and aesthetics are prioritized over naturalness. As Oscar Wilde said, “Nature is just a pose — and the most tiresome pose, at that.”

Rooney Mara

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MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco

Categories

Codebreaking, Semiotics