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Introduction
The fashion industry is one of the least-known polluters in the sphere of global
sustainability. A lot of people know that aviation, the production of meat and disposing
plastic material has serious consequences for the climate. However, the clothes we wear
everyday has some significant impact too. Overall, the fashion industry accounts for ten
percent of the total amount of carbon emissions produced by humanity. Following the
petroleum industry, it is even the second-largest cause of the total global pollution (Woodside
& Fine, 2019). In the production of clothes, a lot of water is being used as well. The industry
is even the second-largest water consumer of the world. And if that was not enough,
microplastics that come from synthetic clothing production is a huge pollutant for our oceans
too. It is therefore safe to say that concerning problems of sustainability, the fashion industry
has to undergo a significant change seeing the impact it has on the Earth’s biosphere at the
moment. In order to tackle this massive problem, a form of sustainability was introduced in
the fashion industry, known as sustainable fashion or “Slow Fashion” and can be seen as the
alternative trend of “Fast Fashion” (Woodside & Fine, 2019). This comparative analysis will
identify and investigate these contradictions in fashion production and will raise the concepts
of Fast and Slow Fashion by looking at the semiotic differences and similarities between two
advertisements of Primark and Everlane (see Appendix). In order to provide a semiotic
analysis, several tools and concepts are needed that will guide the comparison of these visual
texts, of which the most important ones will be explained before starting the analysis.
Semiology is seen as the “study of signs”, where the meaning of a certain cultural
object is created through the use of language and interpretation (Saussure, 1974).

A visual text is composed of two different orders of semiotics. The first order of signification can be
seen as a division between denotation and connotation, which respectively stand for the signifier (literal meaning) and the signified (the concept figuratively). A sign can then be considered as an association of the signifier with the signified, the process called signification. The sign is part of the second order of signification, and it is here where a myth (and eventually an ideology) can be formed (Saussure, 1974). There are also different kinds of signs. An iconic sign needs to have some kind of similarity to the underlying meaning it is representing. A symbolic sign is considered to be the signifier of the object itself but does not resemble the signified, so the relationship between those must be taught. An example of this is language, the letters on itself do not make sense, but the learned relationship does. Finally, an indexical sign refers to the situation where the signifier is directly connected to the signified, either physically or causally (Peirce, 1958).
This paper will discuss the elements described above for an analysis of the visual texts
and show how intertextuality and deconstruction of texts can be of importance in the
interpretation. On a side note, only the semiotic elements that are useful for the comparison
are discussed in this analysis.

Visual Text 1: Primark Advertisement
Starting off with the first visual text, which is an advertisement for the clothing company Primark. The advertisement shows a woman in a mall, with a rather large bag of clothes in front of her, with the text “Spend a little, get a whole heck of a lot.” written on it. Underneath, it states the brands name and slogan: Primark Amazing Fashion Amazing Prices. The woman in the advertisement has dark hair and is light-skinned. She wears red sunglasses on the top of her head and a jeans jacket. The mall is mainly white and openly designed. The woman is leaning on a glass constructed enclosure and looking away from the camera towards the other side of the mall.
The first, main sign that immediately grabs the attention in this advertisement is the
unusual large bag with clothes inside of it. This is immediately the denotative meaning of this
sign, where the connotative meaning could refer to the huge amount of clothes inside the bag,