This document discusses 11 ways that fashion can be understood as a form of communication. It explores how fashion expresses identity, is used to market lifestyles to consumers, and how the body is "worn" through both clothing choices and practices like exercise, tattoos, and cosmetic surgery. The document also examines how gender influences fashion norms and how media like film, television and the internet influence fashion trends and communicate identities.

1. Media Cultures 1 Fashionable Communications Week 7 – 1 September 2009 Tracey Meziane Benson

8. Beatification or mutilation? Slide credit: Tracey Meziane Culture or aesthetics?

9. Lucky Rich – ‘the world’s most tattooed man’ “ The world as we know it - the world dominated by homo sapiens - is quickly coming to an end. We may well be the last generation of "true humans" that live out natural lives, and I believe that it is essential that we embrace body modification in order not only to safely and positively prepare ourselves for transition into our next evolutionary step, but also to survive that step.” ( http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/lucky_rich / ) Slide credit: Tracey Meziane

10. Orlan is a performance artist who uses her own body and the procedures of plastic surgery to make "carnal art". She is transforming her face, but her aim is not to attain a commonly held standard of beauty. Slide credit: Tracey Meziane

11. Orlan cont… Slide credit: Tracey Meziane

12. Stellarc

13. Mike Parr