Veronica ManlowAssistant Professor of Business

School of BusinessBrooklyn College of the City University of New York

Fashion Institute of TechnologyApril 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 ClothesCulture and Organization of the Fashion Industry2007 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

Ancient clothing

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 centuriesRecently sari is more subject to “fashion”

 

Sari

Traditional Clothing

-green striped chapan is a traditional Uzbek coat

-a ceremonial Karakul hat

- Western suit

Hamid Karzai, 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.

Burkah symbolizes modesty, piety, separation from male world

Catholic nuns

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 Chambre Syndicale 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

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).”

Yves Saint Laurent with models, Rive Gauche boutique

Courreges: youthful, modern

Mary Quant, London

Designed affordable ready-to-wear influenced by street styles

1960s-1970s Individual Expression

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