Jean Baudrillard was born 1929 in Reims, France, where he taught as a professor becoming an expert in German language and culture.Later in 1968, Jean Baudrillard published his dissertation in sociology entitled “Le Système des objets” (literally, The System of Objects), in which he proposes a theory about consumerism.
In contrast to Marxism, Baudrillard explained that consumption drives capitalist society and not production.
While everyday products and objects possess a function, they also carry symbolic meanings and social values for the consumer.
In relation to fashion, advertising, visual merchandising, and the like, they all express some sort of notions like prestige, luxury, and power which, in this way, can emancipate sexuality and culture.
As Baudrillard drew contrasts between pre-modern and postmodern societies, so too the Italian designers at Il Sistema degli Oggetti play with identity, images, and how individuals perceive themselves so as to awaken the masses who are mesmerized by the media.
They do so with African tribal art—pre-modernist objects of symbolic exchange—which are juxtaposed with fashion—postmodernist objects that simulate reality wherein even art itself only represents skyrocketing values!
About Il Sistema degli Oggetti
The Italian label Il Sistema degli Oggetti is the brain child of Caterina Coccioli, Anna Lottersberger, and Alessandro Manzi, who met in college at the Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy.
Similar to the postmodernist theories of Jean Baudrillard, the label adheres to several principles. Clothing has function like a daily uniform but void of ceremonies. Clothing has a simulative meaning to the wearer. Since borders are broken down and every object has become a “transaesthetic object, clothing is transsexual.
See the whole collection here.
Photos Copyright Il Sistema degli Oggetti.
