Would you describe fashion as a language and a discourse, as Barthes did?

I would, but perhaps less theoretically and more prosaically or literally. As with all languages, fashion can be astonishingly revelatory if we understand its vocabulary. Because fashion operates as a social mechanism, when we dress, even if we think we are dressing for our own pleasure, we are essentially representing a view of ourselves to everyone else who sees us. It is a communication that often precedes our actual speech. Wielded with intelligence, fashion is a powerful tool. Whether it is Elizabeth I dressed for a state portrait with a deliberately constructed iconography of power, a thug in a black shirt, or a woman wearing a tight suit with fishnet hose, fashion’s potency as communication is inarguable.