Untitled #275 [Fashion]

In nearly all of Sherman’s works, clothing and disguise are an essential element of her confrontation with the construction and distribution of images of femininity. In 1982 with Untitled #102 to #116 and then between 1983 and 1994, the artist explicitly dedicated herself to the imagery of the fashion world and to clothing as subject matter. In no way do Sherman’s photographs reproduce images of idealized female beauty. Her Fashion series instead demonstrates the grotesque theatricality of characters and bodies. In the Fashion images from the 1990s, the characters tend to recede into the background; the artist largely stages stereotyped figures and clothing itself. In addition to her Fashion series, Sherman published photographs outside the context of art on several occasions, i.e. photo spreads for fashion magazines and brands including advertising for Dianne Benson (1983), direct-mail advertising for Comme des garçons (1994) and an advertising campaign for MAC Cosmetics (2011).