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Veronica Manlow. Assistant Professor of Business School of Business Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Fashion Institute of Technology April 22, 2013. Presentation Outline. My background Discussion of book, Designing Clothes Writing a book, background issues
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Veronica Manlow Assistant Professor of Business School of Business Brooklyn College of the City University of New York Fashion Institute of Technology April 22, 2013
Presentation Outline • My background • Discussion of book, Designing Clothes • Writing a book, background issues • Themes in book
Veronica Manlow • PhD in sociology • Focus on fashion industry • Teaching in a School of Business, Brooklyn College • Marketing • Fashion marketing • Organizational behavior • Leadership • Research methods
Designing Clothes Culture and Organization of the Fashion Industry 2007 and 2009
Writing a book, process • Dissertation or thesis takes the format of a book • Have to decide on an area of focus • Decided to focus on the fashion industry • Fashion is a major global industry that reaches into different sectors (micro and macro dimensions) • On some level we can view fashion as starting within firms • Fashion design as key facet around which everything revolves in a fashion firm • Can decide to look at fashion as a larger system • Professor Kawamura’s work on haute couture system in Paris • Can look at aspects of fashion other than design • Joan Entwistle looks at fashion buying as an important facet to understand the fashion system • Converting a dissertation into a book • Need to refocus to make it marketable to a target audience
Some themes in the book: Why is fashion important? • A form of symbolic communication • Marks status • Takes on different forms in different societies • Nomadic • Tribal • Agricultural • Industrial
Difference between clothing and fashion • Before fashion there was clothing • Clothing displays social status, role in society, gender, age, religion, etc. • Difference. Clothing remains largely the same. • Sari (varies by region/caste) but has been worn for centuries • Recently sari is more subject to “fashion”
Traditional Clothing • green striped chapan is a traditional Uzbek coat • a ceremonial Karakul hat • - Western suit
HamidKarzai, President of Afghanistan Pashtun men • Descendant of the Populzai clan (rulers of the country for over six hundred years). The Populzai clan is part of the Pashtun tribe • Combines elements of different tribes in his costume to show solidarity/unity. Cape represents one region. Hat another.
Fashion is linked to democracy • Democratic Society • Before Church and community: strong influence. Family, community, social class, political ideologies had a strong hold on people. Shaped their attitudes. • Choice and individual freedom (vs. tradition imposed from above). • Beginning couture system: each season had a look. • Fashions were not fixed. Changed seasonally. • Located in Paris. Dictated by certain designers who determined a look. • 70s rise in consumerism, mass consumption, mass media. Individualism. • In today’s consumer-driven society • No longer just trickle down (Simmel) or social class based (Bourdieu)
Non-democratic/traditional societies Louis XIV King of France Sanctions for non-conformity: fashion is forbidden or controlled Floging in Somalia of women who wore pants. Burkah – full covering for women. Taliban demands. Sumptuary laws – In the past in Europe. Restrict certain people from wearing the clothes reserved only for nobles.
Postmodern or hypermodern phase? • Jean Baudrillard, extreme view • “We’ve passed this stage where a referent is tied to something real” • No system of reference or foundation • End of a notion of value • “Ethics of production” is replaced by an “ethics of manipulation” (2000, Symbolic Exchange and Death: 93) • Values are totally commutable. • Class solidarity has disappeared. • Only thing that remains is logic of the code. • Question: who controls it? • He does not have an answer for this
Importance of Identity and Communication • Identity is something individuals are concerned with • Want to control identity • We see a lot of systems implicated in identity • Social class • Education • Profession • Gender • Religion • Age • Group membership • Need to communicate remains no matter what type of society we live in • Fashion aids us in communication
Chapter 2 Emergence of the Fashion Industry • Tailors and dressmakers worked anonymously • Dressmakers followed direction of customer. Fashions originated in the court • Industrial manufacturing of clothing begins in early 1800s. • First ready-to-wear is for soldiers and sailors • Working classes unable to afford dressmakers relied on poorly made industrial clothing, second hand or home made. • By 1850s in the USA, loosely fitting wraps and outwear and hoop skirts for women • 1870s and 80s, department stores, mail order catalogues and chain stores
Haute Couture “High sewing/fashion”. Made-to-order designer clothing for private clients. Englishman Charles Frederick Worth founded haute couture in France in 1845. Created one-of-a-kind designs for aristocratic and wealthy clients. Began showing designs on live models at the House of Worth. Clients selected one model, specified colors and fabrics. Selections custom-made in Worth's workshop.
Ready-to-wear • By late 1800s New York becomes the capital of ready-to-wear • While in France an institutional and hegemonic system with government funding/control emerged in the US we find a garment business • French styles were copied but modified for American tastes • Simplification of design • By 1930s an American sportswear industry and style firmly established • French sportswear influenced by Coco Chanel in 1920s and 30s was for upper class women • Americans offer multiple silhouettes while French system is regulated • American sportswear was made for the middle class woman • During 1940s during war editors and buyers cut off from Paris • Claire McCardell develops a distinctive American style • Easy, comfortable, moderate price
After War Dior’s 1947 New Look, Return to more traditional femininity Influences women all around the world
Fashion in the global economy • Once social mobility is possible, and there are emerging economies, fashion can increase its scope and can have multiple points of origin • This is dependent on advances in technology and availability of a low cost labor force • Allows for focus on marketing • Rise of designers in the 1970s • Fast fashion driven by consumer demand • H&M and Zara • Consumer culture and ideology promoted first by media then social media
Chapter 3 Fashion Designer • The dressmaker was anonymous • As fashion increased in importance role of the designer evolves • Charles Frederick Worth produces his own collection • ChambreSyndicale de la Couture Parisienne • Most women cannot afford couture fashion but look filters down • Begins with manufacturers copying French couturiers • Designers in these firms are anonymous • 1940s-60s turn back to French couture • 1970s designer fashion craze. Overall turn away from couture to ready-to-wear
Yves Saint Laurent • Yves Saint Laurent was the first French haute couturier to come out with a full ready-to-wear line • Opened Rive Gauche boutique in Paris in 1966 “Yves Saint-Laurent revolutionized women’s wardrobes, by drawing on aspects of the male evening suit, trouser suit and safari suit to dress women, thereby passing attributes of power from one gender to the other. The designer took inspiration from the streets (1971 scandale collection), his dreamlike journeys (Russia, China, India, Spain, Japan, Africa and Morocco) and interaction with art (Modrian, Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh).”
Mary Quant, London Designed affordable ready-to-wear influenced by street styles
1960s The Peacock Revolution Dramatic change in menswear. For the past 150 years, clothing for men had been tailor-made and plain and dark in appearance. Now, following trends which first appeared in gay fashions, colorful elements were introduced, such as the collarless jacket, worn with slim-fitting trousers and boots. During the mid-1960s frills and cravats came back in, together with vividly printed shirts. Finally, lapels and trousers took on exaggeratedly wide dimensions. Unisex clothing emerges.
Designer as cultural arbiter • Designer achieves a status before limited to couture designer • Designer is a cultural arbiter • Extends signs of distinction to all classes • Helps to configure a social order (maintain, disrupt, reconfigure) • Create images, brands and lifestyles • Designer names achieve household recognition • Bypass editors who in the past had power to make or break designers • Triumph of marketing and pr over design (less focus than designer ready-to-wear) • Tommy Hilfiger uses TV, billboard and ad campaign before he is recognized • Kenneth Cole “Birth of a Shoe Company” film • Calvin Klein logo
Chapters 4 and 5 • Leadership • The persona of the “master” designer is crucial to the running of a fashion firm • Firm is at once bureaucratic but leader has elements of “charisma” • Others are charged with the leader’s charisma • Heads of divisions • Leader enacts and must his sustain his or her charisma • Organizational Culture • Is shaped by the leader • His or her creative vision infuses the culture of the firm • Fashion work requires an emotional engagement • People are selected on the basis of characteristics that resonate with the leader’s vision of the brand