Conversion of popular culture items to consumption object with bricolage technique: Semiotic analysis within the scope of magazine advertisements

Throughout the history of humanity, the concept of culture has been effective for shaping the semantic world of individuals. As economical and socicultural structure of a society where the individuals live in is dynamic, the concept of culture has been transformed in parallel with these changes and of course the meanings of culture also has been effected by these changes. Following the historical milestones in this process of change will make it easier to understand the transformations that occur in the semantic content of the concept. One of the most important events that has changed the economic and socio-cultural structure of the society since the 18th century is the Industrial revolution. As a result of this progress forms of industrial mass production have been developed and commodities have been produced more than needed. Also, one of the fundamental reasons that social and human relations incline to consumerist society is capitalist production form after Industrial Revolution. All fields of life has transformed into the objects of consumption in the consumerist society which gained momentum as a result of capitalist manufacturing. Therefore notion of culture also took part in the commodification process. Hence cultural elements have transformed into the goods of industry and capitalist market conditions. With industrialization also technology has developed. Mass media became widespread and so communication network were globally developed along with the technological development. Therefore, cultural changes and transformations have accelerated. Industrial mode of production created mass culture by the culture industry, and therefore a number of cultural elements were conceptualized as popular culture. While producing commodities, the industry commodified cultural elements in this process and the industry has benefited popular cultural elements. In this context, the fashion industry has made a major contribution to the change and transformation of culture. The industry of culture, while again produced goods, used the bricolage technique and produced cultural elements eclectically anew. This thesis analyzes that commodities produced in the context of clothing fashion are nourished from popular cultural elements, produced by industry by using bricolage and eclectic methods, using the semiotic method based on indicators found in selected fashion magazines.