PRODUCING FASHION
- Symbolic production of
fashion
• Fashion discourse and the
media (old and new)
• Branding and advertising - Material production of
fashion
• From Industrial Revolution
to flexible specialisation
and globalisation - Ethical / Political Issues
• Sweatshops
• Sustainability
SYMBOLIC PRODUCTION OF FASHION
•‘Discourses are ways of referring to, or constructing knowledge about a particular topic or practice.’ Hall, S. (2012), Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices, Milton Keynes: Open University, p.6
•Discourse – after Michel Foucault – “Discourse, and discursive practice(s) refers to the languages (verbal and non-verbal) that help to construct our social orders, as well as us within them.” Fuery, K. (2009) New Media. p.147
THE DISCOURSE OF FASHION
• Ways of thinking about fashion
• Change
• Novelty
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnnSZcQEpc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU-cori12KU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Rzas1DEEQ
•Roland Barthes – The Fashion System (1967):the ‘vestimentary code’ the ‘rhetorical code’
• Branding and advertising
• “The technique of advertising is to correlate feelings, moods or attributes to tangible objects, linking possible unattainable things with those that are attainable. And thus reassuring us that the former are within our reach.” J. Williamson (2010) Decoding Advertisements p.3
MATERIAL PRODUCTION OFFASHION
• Before C18: self provisioning; bespoke;
second hand
• Shift from the ‘Ancient Regime’ to Market
Society
• C18: Industrial revolution – workshops;
steam power
• C19: Sewing machine – Ready to wear
• C20: Synthetic fabrics (rayon, etc.)
• Fordism: Mass production/consumption
• Post-fordism: Segmented markets –
Flexible manufacturing
• Fast fashion
THE PERSISTANCE OF THE SWEATSHOP
• Continued centrality of the sewing machine.
• Fashion discourse.
• Avoidance of fixity (re. costs; labour; rules).
• Lack of compliance monitoring.
• Globalisation
– Outsourcing and subcontracting.
– New international division of labour – Core/periphery.
– Laissez faire capitalism.
THE PERSISTANCE OF THE SWEATSHOP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1um3KglDAs
• Labourbehindthelabel.org
“The scandalous truth is that the majority of workers in the global
fashion industry rarely earn more than two dollars a day, in an
industry worth over 36 billion a year in the UK alone. Wages are
low because they are kept that way through a global competition
that engages workers, factories and whole countries in a race to
the bottom – A race where the winners are those that can
produce as quickly, cheaply and flexibly as possible.” (LBL Report
2009)
• Made in Bangladesh (2019)
THE ETHICS OF FASHION AND SUSTAINABILITY
“The challenge of sustainability – that is, of integrating human well being and natural integrity – is such that we can’t go on as before. Business as usual, or more to the point fashion as usual, is not an option”. K. Fletcher (2008) Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys. London: Earthscan p. xii
Some problems associated with ethical consumption:
• ‘Ethical’ – a subjective notion?
• High price
• Commodification (can ethical fashion be more than just a trend/niche market?)
CAN FASHION BE ETHICAL?
• Vogue April 2019: ‘Is 2019 The Year Fashion Finally Takes Sustainability Seriously?’:
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/hasfashion-finally-got-sustainable-2019
• BOF February 2019: ‘UK Takes Aim at Fashion’s Sustainability Problem’
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/uk-takes-aimat-fashions-sustainability-problem