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Boris Christa was educated in England, graduating in Slavonic Studies at the
University of Cambridge, where he also took his doctorate. He held academic
appointments as a slavist in Australia and New Zealand, being appointed in 1966
to the Chair of Russian and the University of Queensland where he is now Emeritus
Professor and Honorary Research Consultant. His early published work centred
on Andrey Bely and aspects of the Russian Symbolist Movement, but in recent
years his main research interests have been in the area of semiotics, with particular
emphasis on vestimentary markers. He has published numerous papers investigating
the function of semiotic signs in literary communication with a special focus
on the narrative technique of Dostoevsky.
In this paper the author's long term interest in the communicative function of items of dress that appear as literary images in creative writing, is extended to focus on the analaysis of the cognitive process that makes clothing such a significant feature of human, non-verbal communication. Accepting that in most contemporary societies the functional aspects of clothing have become secondary, dress is examined as a semiotic system of communication, in many respects similar to a spoken language. The paper aims to analyse and define basic elements that constitute the 'grammar' of this 'language'.
Special attention is given to the process by which vestimentary statements become meaningful through their relation to the dress-codes current in a particular environment, which are governed by such factors as class, age-group, fashion, profession, ideology etc.
The universal, communicative features of attire are analysed and discussed with a view not only to increasing theoretical understanding of the processes involved, but also to providing a set of conceptual tools to improve our reception and evaluation of vestimentary, non-verbal statements made by persons that we encounter in everyday life, in art or in the media.
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