Animal trademark emblems on fashion apparel are proposed as signs representing conditions of American life and culture. In Part I an interpretive strategy which synthesizes semiotic theory with analytic and interpretive methods common to the visual arts is developed Peirce's triad of icon, index, and symbol is described as the framework for analysis. Panofsky's classic model for interpreting visual works of high art is the method through which the emblems are interpreted; the application is justified through popular culture theory. In Part II animal trademark emblems are interpreted as icon, index, and symbol of American culture, and the potential value of Peirce's trichotomy to semiotic analysis in broader areas of dress is suggested
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