A solid, hard-hitting, and uncompromising journalistic look at the fashion industry. The time when "fashion" was defined by French designers whose clothes could be afforded only by elite has ended. Now designers take their cues from mainstream consumers and creativity is channeled more into mass-marketing clothes than into designing them. Indeed, one need look no further than the Gap to see proof of this. In The End of Fashion, Wall Street Journal, reporter Teri Agins astutely explores this seminal change, laying bare all aspects of the fashion industry from manufacturing, retailing, anmd licensing to image making and financing. Here as well are fascinating insider vignettes that show Donna Karan fighting with financiers,the rivalry between Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, and the commitment to haute conture that sent Isaac Mizrahi's business spiraling.
Attitudes to fashion have changed radically in the twenty-first century. Dress is increasingly approached as a means of self-expression, rather than as a signifier of status or profession, and designers are increasingly treated as 'artists', as fashion moves towards art and enters the gallery, museum, and retail space. This book is the first to fully explore the causes and implications of this shift, examining the impact of technological innovation, globalization, and the growth of the internet. The End of Fashion focuses on the ways in which our understanding of fashion and the fashion system have transformed as mass mediation and digitization continue to broaden the way that contemporary fashion is perceived and consumed. Exploring everything from the rise of online shopping to the emergence of bloggers as power elites who have revolutionized the terrain of traditional fashion reportage, this volume anatomizes a world in which runway shows now compete with live-streaming, digital fashion films, Instagram, and Pinterest. Bringing together original, cutting-edge contributions from leading international scholars, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion and cultural studies, as well as anyone interested in exploring the dramatic shifts that have shaken the fashion world this century – and what they might say about larger changes within an increasingly global and digital society.
This captivating book reproduces arguably the most extraordinary primary source documents in fashion history. Providing a revealing window onto the Renaissance, they chronicle how style-conscious accountant Matthäus Schwarz and his son Veit Konrad experienced life through clothes, and climbed the social ladder through fastidious management of self-image. These bourgeois dandies' agenda resonates as powerfully today as it did in the sixteenth century: one has to dress to impress, and dress to impress they did. The Schwarzes recorded their sartorial triumphs as well as failures in life in a series of portraits by illuminists over 60 years, which have been comprehensively reproduced in full color for the first time. These exquisite illustrations are accompanied by the Schwarzes' fashion-focussed yet at times deeply personal captions, which render the pair the world's first fashion bloggers and pioneers of everyday portraiture. The First Book of Fashion demonstrates how dress – seemingly both ephemeral and trivial – is a potent tool in the right hands. Beyond this, it colorfully recaptures the experience of Renaissance life and reveals the importance of clothing to the aesthetics and every day culture of the period. Historians Ulinka Rublack's and Maria Hayward's insightful commentaries create an unparalleled portrait of sixteenth-century dress that is both strikingly modern and thorough in its description of a true Renaissance fashionista's wardrobe. This first English translation also includes a bespoke pattern by TONY award-winning costume designer and dress historian Jenny Tiramani, from which readers can recreate one of Schwarz's most elaborate and politically significant outfits.
A fascinating chronicle of how celebrity has inundated the world of fashion, realigning the forces that drive both the styles we covet and the bottom lines of the biggest names in luxury apparel. From Coco Chanel’s iconic tweed suits to the miniskirt’s surprising comeback in the late 1980s, fashion houses reigned for decades as the arbiters of style and dictators of trends. Hollywood stars have always furthered fashion’s cause of seducing the masses into buying designers’ clothes, acting as living billboards. Now, forced by the explosion of social media and the accelerating worship of fame, red carpet celebrities are no longer content to just advertise and are putting their names on labels that reflect the image they—or their stylists—created. Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Combs, and a host of pop, sports, and reality-show stars of the moment are leveraging the power of their celebrity to become the face of their own fashion brands, embracing lucrative contracts that keep their images on our screens and their hands on the wheel of a multi-billion dollar industry. And a few celebrities—like the Olsen Twins and Victoria Beckham—have gone all the way and reinvented themselves as bonafide designers. Not all celebrities succeed, but in an ever more crowded and clamorous marketplace, it’s increasingly unlikely that any fashion brand will succeed without celebrity involvement—even if designers, like Michael Kors, have to become celebrities themselves. Agins charts this strange new terrain with wit and insight and an insider’s access to the fascinating struggles of the bold-type names and their jealousies, insecurities, and triumphs. Everyone from industry insiders to fans of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model will want to read Agins’s take on the glitter and stardust transforming the fashion industry, and where it is likely to take us next.
“Overdressed does for T-shirts and leggings what Fast Food Nation did for burgers and fries.” —Katha Pollitt Cheap fashion has fundamentally changed the way most Americans dress. Stores ranging from discounters like Target to traditional chains like JCPenney now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices. And we have little reason to keep wearing and repairing the clothes we already own when styles change so fast and it’s cheaper to just buy more. Cline sets out to uncover the true nature of the cheap fashion juggernaut. What are we doing with all these cheap clothes? And more important, what are they doing to us, our society, our environment, and our economic well-being?
In an era marked by sudden and profound change, the fashion world has also experienced significant transformations. Its boundaries, its rationale and its protagonists have all been redefined, with these changes continuing now and in the future. The purpose of this book is to analyze this market with particular focus on the segment defined as "high-end" and to provide entrepreneurs, professionals, workers in the sector, consultants, and business/fashion students, a context to understand better the latest and most up-to-date ideas and how to govern their growth. The starting point for the book's discussion begins with the title of the book, which emphasizes two important characteristics regarding its context: the increasingly blurred distinction between offline and online - hence the term "onlife" - and the absence of rules, given the obvious out-of-date nature of those on which fashion companies have based their business strategies in recent decades. This has led the authors to propose a handbook of new rules, suitable for a world that increasingly appears to be lacking them.
"Crimes of Fashion" columnist Lacey Smithsonian delves into her latest mystery when hot new stylist Angie Woods supposedly commits suicide, but Lacey believes otherwise and teams up with a gorgeous ex-cop to find the truth, an investigation that leads her to a congressional staffer. Original.
Fashion Game Changers traces radical innovations in Western fashion design from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Challenging the traditional silhouettes of their day, fashion designers such as Madeleine Vionnet and Cristóbal Balenciaga began to liberate the female body from the close-fitting hourglass forms which dominated European and American fashion, instead enveloping bodies in more autonomous garments which often took inspiration from beyond the West. As the century progressed, new generations of avant-garde designers from Rei Kawakubo to Martin Margiela further developed the ideas instigated by their predecessors to defy established notions of femininity in dress, creating space between body and garment. This way, a new relationship between body and dress emerged for the 21st century. With over 200 images and commentaries from an international range of leading fashion curators and historians, this beautifully illustrated book showcases some of the most revolutionary silhouettes and innovative designs of over 100 years of fashion.
Teaching Fashion Studies is the definitive resource for instructors of fashion studies at the undergraduate level and beyond. The first of its kind, it offers extensive, practical support for both seasoned instructors and those at the start of an academic career, in addition to interdisciplinary educators looking to integrate fashion into their classes. Informed by the latest research in the field and written by an international team of experts, Teaching Fashion Studies equips educators with a diverse collection of exercises, assignments, and pedagogical reflections on teaching fashion across disciplines. Each chapter offers an assignment, with guidance on how to effectively implement it in the classroom, as well as reflections on pedagogical strategies and student learning outcomes. Facilitating the integration of practice and theory in the classroom, topics include: the business of fashion; the media and popular culture; ethics and sustainability; globalization; history; identity; trend forecasting; and fashion design.
Learn how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being applied in the fashion industry. With an application focused approach, this book provides real-world examples, breaks down technical jargon for non-technical readers, and provides an educational resource for fashion professionals. The book investigates the ways in which AI is impacting every part of the fashion value chain starting with product discovery and working backwards to manufacturing. Artificial Intelligence for Fashion walks you through concepts, such as connected retail, data mining, and artificially intelligent robotics. Each chapter contains an example of how AI is being applied in the fashion industry illustrated by one major technological theme. There are no equations, algorithms, or code. The technological explanations are cumulative so you'll discover more information about the inner workings of artificial intelligence in practical stages as the book progresses. What You’ll Learn Gain a basic understanding of AI and how it is used in fashion Understand key terminology and concepts in AI Review the new competitive landscape of the fashion industry Conceptualize and develop new ways to apply AI within the workplaceWho This Book Is For Fashion industry professionals from designers, managers, department heads, and executives can use this book to learn about how AI is impacting roles in every department and profession.
