Dr Jessica Bugg

The shifting focus: Culture, Fashion & Identity

This paper gives an overview of the shifting contexts for fashion design and fashion
communication and retail in the UK over the past 10 years, particularly exploring the
role of the fashion designer in relation to this. It discusses the impact of social,
political and cultural change on the fashion industry and raises questions about how
fashion could develop in a Global and local context. It suggests that the identity of
designers is in a particular state of flux, highlighting a need for extended context
responsive and flexible approaches within fashion.

Fashion is part of the cultural industries and identity of a country. Fashions and
Individual or collective Identities are born out of the social, political and economic
context and are understood in a specific place and are understood in through the
lenses of its history and the experience and global context of the viewer. Clothing
and Fashion are embodied practices Identities can be performed, adopted or
constructed to challenge or conform to social norms however the dominant culture
and dress codes assist us in understanding societies. When fashion is seen on
different bodies or in different contexts: in stores, on the catwalk, in art galleries, in
different cultural contexts or in differing media spaces meaning and intention
changes.

Fashions of a particular group are often localised or specific to a country, for example
London is often seen to be experimental and inspired by the street, Paris more
focused on couture and sophistication and Japan as technologically forward and
innovative. We read fashions of a given time period, of a culture or place and
increasingly in cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural and cross social class contexts. The
power in these fashion capitals also shifts and in a global context this is particularly
evident. Capitalist western ideals have been embraced by rapidly developing cultures
such as China and Russia who are becoming important players in the industry.
Japan had a significant impact on the development of conceptual and aesthetic
approaches to fashion from the 1980’s onwards and places such as Antwerp have
developed as fashion capitals. Many countries now have Fashion week and more
recently graduate Fashion week has opened up to other countries. It is clear that
Fashion and the clothing industries are in a time of flux and are questioning their
production cycles, values and cultural identities.

The term fashion itself is malleable and is understood differently in different

countries, which is in itself problematic. Fashion by its very nature is perpetually
looking forward and evolving and referencing past fashions and culturally specific
images and themes, making it difficult if not impossible to pin down. Barnard
acknowledges the problem with defining the term fashion and related terms when he
talks of the ‘difficulty involved in, if not the impossibility of, trying to provide a final or
rigid definition’ (Barnard, 1996, p.11)

The term fashion in the Chambers English dictionary is: fash'n, n. the make or cut of
a thing: form or pattern: vogue: prevailing mode or shape of dress or that imposed by
those whose lead is accepted: a prevailing custom: manner: genteel society:
appearance. v.t. to make; to mould according to a pattern; to suit or adapt.
(Chambers Dictionary, 1972, p.475)

The term fashion here refers to the consumption and context of fashion, suggesting
'acceptability' in a given period as a current 'mode', however, the second part of the
description focuses on production and intention 'to make' or 'mould'. This duality
suggests something of the complication with defining ‘fashion’. This becomes more
heightened in a global fashion industry where a fashion designer’s practice may
move or be consumed in different physical, social, economic and cultural contexts.

Fashion is a product of its socio economic and cultural environment, it functions on

many levels, it can be political, concept or statement driven, craft and production or a
mannerism, style or image and it is a multi million pound business. In recent years
the subject of Fashion has also raised its status as culturally significant and as a
serious area of theoretical and academic debate and is also an important part of a
country’s cultural capital, creative industries and economy.

We live in times of rapid technological, economic and social and cultural change and
the fashion industry as central to the construction of social, cultural and personal
identity has been dramatically affected by these shifts. Mass consumption and global
production has driven the industry towards what has become termed as ‘fast fashion’
and more recently the backlash against this ‘slow fashion’. Issues of sustainability
and eco awareness are at the forefront of the industry in the UK currently and socially
responsible fashion has emerged in response to serious global issues.

With the birth of e technologies information is transmittable and accessed far more
quickly and by a broader audience than ever before. The global context of
contemporary fashion enables the transcending of cultural boundaries that were once
more fixed and as a result the sharing of cultural references is immediate images and
identities are combined and juxtaposed raising questions about how we understand
and read fashion and in turn how we understand our cultural and creative identity.
The world is more accessible, seasons are less definable and an increase in travel
requires consumers to have more flexible choice to accommodate this.

Trends and fashion looks are now far more instantaneous ideas are shared in cyber
space and through the media to a global audience, collections are streamed from the
catwalk on sites such as www.catwalking.com, www.style.com and www.wgsn.com
well before the designers can get the collections into the physical retail environment.
The shift towards what has become termed as ‘fast fashion’ in academic circles
indicated a significant change in consumer behaviour away from traditional notions of
luxury and quality toward an immediacy of attaining a ‘look’ at low cost and with the
possibility of quick turn around and renewal season by season.

Consumer groups are changing, we live in a culture focused on youth markets and
seemingly unattainable airbrushed images of fashion ideals. Celebrities are driving
fashion agendas and endorsing products or increasingly designing lines themselves.
The high street is ‘cool’ and celebrities are mixing and matching high street and
designer clothing and are choosing high street copies of designer collections rather
than spending on the original. Class divisions are shifting and I argue that high and
low cultural signifiers are in effect merging.

The growth of the ‘image industry’ (Melossi, 2000) from the 1980s to present has
also shifted the focus of fashion, the garment or collection is no longer the sole focus
and far wider ranges of products are promoted from this catalyst. Designers’ work is
now communicated through and within fashion film, animation, the music industry, art
photography, fashion illustration and graphics, virtual space, performance and the art
gallery.
As Caroline Evans points out:
Current fashion participates in an economic system that is developing very
differently from its nineteenth-century origins, which pioneered the techniques
 of retail and advertising to promote the garment. Now the fashioned garment
circulates in a contemporary economy as part of a network of signs, of which
the actual garment is but one. (Bruzzi, S. & Church Gibson, P., 2000, p.96)

Mobile and web technological advances, on line editorial and on line retail
environments have enabled wider audiences to access fashion and in turn retailers,
marketers, journalists and editors have been able to target wider markets for
products and ideas. The focus on fashion communication, marketing and imaging is a
growth area and some of the most innovative and interdisciplinary practice in the UK
is taking place here with developments such as fashion film, experiential marketing
and wearable and 4D technology’s. The promotion and marketing of fashion has
become a creative space in which photographers, illustrators, marketers and art
directors are able to extend fashion practice, challenging methods of communication
and the role of fashion as commercial and creative conduit often working on the
interface of other disciplines and in new spaces.

Fashion merchandising is being continually reinvented and methods of

communication are becoming more and more sophisticated to draw in consumers
and compete with competitors and to target an increasingly media and technology
savvy market. There is a shift towards new methods of display and the boundaries
between the gallery, museum, social space and retail environment can be seen to be
blurring in store spaces such as Dover Street Market, London and The Louis Vuitton
Flagship store in Paris. Fashion Curation has developed as a distinct discipline in the
UK in recent years, highlighting this shift towards contemporary fashion exhibition as
opposed to historical costume and fashion display in museums. The retail space is
arguably adopting the appearance of the art gallery whilst simultaneously gallery
spaces are becoming more commercial and focus is placed on the merchandise as
for example in the Tate modern in London. As Bradley Quinn affirms ‘many fashion
boutiques are being designed with the same considerations given to an art gallery,
using architecture to maximise the impact of the clothing’ (2003, p.42). Consumers
are becoming more sophisticated viewers and they are seeking much more from a
retail experience than purely to purchase clothing, they seek to be entertained,
educated and seduced.

Couture is in decline in Europe, a decreasing number of designers have showed in

Paris at the couture shows in recent years and the media have discussed the
possible death of couture with headlines such as ‘Chanel battles to keep couture
alive’ (guardian.co.uk. 27.1.09). Despite this couturiers such as John Galliano,
Christian Lacroix and Jean Paul Gaultier continue to create lavish and highly crafted
garments that are presented in dramatic catwalk shows often akin to theatre and
showcasing the exceptional skills of couturiers and crafts people. (www.nytimes.com.
11/7/04) . It is true however that through economic necessity couture houses are now
functioning predominantly as brands to promote the sale of perfumes, footwear and
sunglasses or diffusion ranges of jeans and T-shirts, diversifying their brand name
into related lifestyle markets. The mass market consumes ideas and looks far more
quickly and designer products are counterfeited and reproduced cheaply abroad
undermining the social standing of the designer and the brand (English, 2007 p.141).
Garment manufacture in the UK is also now predominantly outsourced to other
countries where production is far cheaper.
The fashion system itself has started to fragment and the traditional 'trickle down
effect' where couture and catwalk looks feed down to the high street is being turned
on its head, as several writers point out (Entwistle, 2000, p.223, Kawamura 2005.
p.58). As more emphasis is put on consumption of fashion and the fashion image,
the designer's own process is shifting. Fashion arguably has shifted from the notion
of the 'Guru' or 'genius' designer (Barnard 1996, p.26) and is becoming increasingly
driven by the consumer and the media. High-end designers appear unsettled by a
range of rapid contemporary shifts. High street designers and manufacturers are
able, through access to the Internet, to copy designs straight from the catwalks
before the designers themselves can get their garments into the shops. This is
creating a clear diversification of the traditional fashion cycle and placing increasing
power with the ‘value’ and high street market indicating that consumption is driving
the growth in markets (See Fig 1). In response to this many high-end designers are
increasingly producing diffusion lines that appeal to lower markets for example Victor
and Rolf’s diffusion range for H&M or Preen for Topshop.

Market Levels of the Fashion Industry UK. (Adapted from Model by Tim
Jackson, presented at The London College of Fashion Centenary Conference
in 2006.)

High Price

Couture

Designer

Designer Brands

Department Stores, Designer Lines

High Street High Fashion

& Designer Lines

High Street Low Fashion

& Designer Lines

Designer Discount
Stores

Value Stores

Super Market
Ranges.

Low Price
As Industry capitalism and big business consumes the creativity and innovation
within the subject far more quickly than ever before the role of the fashion designer is
arguably compromised through this shift focus from production to consumption.
The lack of trend direction from the catwalks of London, Paris and Milan over recent
years (English p.141) seems to be a reaction to this. There is a growing divide
between conceptual and commercial fashion in the UK and this is reinforced by the
growing number of practitioners involved at the image generation end of the industry:
stylists, art directors, photographers, journalists and marketers who are in many
cases just as responsible as the designer for creating fashion. Trends in the UK
indicate a new understanding of luxury and value in fashion in reaction to ‘fast
fashion’, brands and designers are increasingly employing ethical and socially aware
approaches and looking at the unique and experiential.

This current period could be viewed as one of the most challenging to the fixed
divisions between levels of cultural outputs and creative discipline boundaries. In the
UK the boundaries between high and low culture have become increasingly blurred,
Frederick Jameson said in ‘The Cultural turn’ there is an ‘erosion of older distinctions
between high culture and mass popular culture.’ (Jameson, 1998, p.2). The
relationship between fashion and art is a significant feature of the changes in the
fashion industry over the past ten years. There has been a continual exchange and
from the later part of the 1990s the distinction became difficult to draw.

Some high-end designers in response to the lack of control afforded in a consumer

driven system are dividing up areas of their practice and functioning in different
contexts and commercial and non-commercial spaces simultaneously. Alongside
their commercial lines, they are stepping out of the fashion cycle, rejecting seasons
and recycling of historical periods, as well as the business of constant renewal, to
find a more holistic, creative and in-depth process that is more akin to the origins of
couture and more in keeping with personal philosophies. Designers such as Shelly
Fox, Dai Rees have returned to a process led approach to design rejecting fashion
seasons and commercial imperatives. Others such as Miyake, Martin Margiela,
Hussein Chalayan, Rai Kawakubo, Simon Thorogood, Helen Storey and Lucy Orta,
are selecting more permanent and culturally significant contexts in which to
communicate their work or are challenging the contemporary fashion system, making
socio political comment through there work supported through patronage and or
creative funding bodies.

Fashion now serves a range of functions and means different things to different
audiences and consumers in different contexts. The importance of the expanding
playing field of fashion and its wider application led me to question the fashion
designers process and to look at how the shift to consumption and the growing
contexts for fashion communication and design. It was these shifts that led me to
question my own work having trained as a fashion designer and now finding myself
working in a range of different contexts from exhibition, contemporary dance to the
music industry.

My own PhD research ‘Interface: concept and Context as strategies for innovative
fashion design and communication’ (Bugg 2006) identified the emergence of new
approaches in fashion design in the 1990’s. Initially, responding to the growth of
performance and theatricality on the catwalks of designers such as John Galliano,
Alexander McQueen and Hussein Challayan. As Dejan Sudjic (1990) observed:
 in the past thirty years the traditional catwalk has changed from a private
commercial transaction behind closed doors into a public spectacle regarded
as part theatre, part performance art and part entertainment. (p.25)

During the same period there was a sharp increase in fashion designers
communicating their work in the contexts of art galleries for example Addressing the
Century (1999), Hayward Gallery, London; Radical Fashion (2001), V&A, London;
Out of the Closet (2000), Sotheby's, London; and Rapture: Art's Seduction by
Fashion (2002), Barbican, London, Fashion: the Greatest Show on Earth (2003),
Bellevue Art Museum, USA; Viktor and Rolf, (2003) Musee de la Mode et du Textiles,
Paris; Martin Margiella’s exhibition 9/4/1615 (1997), Museum Boijmans van
Beuningen, Rotterdam; Fashion 2001 Landed (2001), Antwerp; Spectres: When
Fashion Turns Back (2005) V&A.

In this context my research questioned whether these interdisciplinary methods of

communication were being employed as a means of spectacle and publicity to
increase sales or whether there was more behind this practice. This was interrogated
through theory and practice that investigated the intersection of fashion, art and
performance. It became evident, through the contextual review and the interviews
undertaken with practitioners employing these methods, that alternative strategies for
fashion design and communication were being implemented. This was supported by
Caroline Evans in her in her book Fashion at the Edge Caroline Evans 2003 which
came out during the period of the research, where she describes the conceptual
practice of these key designers as 'experimental fashion'. It became evident through
the research that in certain cases these approaches were concept and context-led,
rather than being driven by publicity, commerce, the market and trends although I
would argue that they do have wider commercial applications.

Through analysis of my practice within the case studies I was able to explore and
propose new strategies for conceptual and experimental fashion design that tested
the parameters of fashion in a range of contexts and disciplines. It also enabled a
practical investigation of the complex communication between designer, wearer and
viewer of clothing in specific contexts, extending an understanding of how designers
can communicate to wearers and viewers through clothing. This network of
communication and the findings of the case studies can be applied in whole or in part
to inform the design processes employed by designers working in new and
interdisciplinary contexts as it focuses on the central issues of fashion: clothing, the
body, wearing and viewing work in context, as opposed to dealing with abstract
concepts and trends. It became clear through the research that, although the project
initially was set outside of a commercial arena, It has commercial applications where
clothing is central to the communication such as design for performance, fashion
promotion, fashion photography and fashion film, styling, curation, art direction etc. It
is also suggested that this information can inform fashion designers in respect of
developing design methods for particular contexts, as well as selecting contexts
appropriate to the design intention of their work.

The research suggested that if a designer is working for a new context then clear
attention needs to be paid to the new context in which the designer is working, as
integral to the design methodology. Context goes beyond a physical space and
includes the discipline context; the wearer of the clothing; the new audience resulting
from this context and the participants within the arena. This attention to context
should directly inform the design process and as a result allow for a more grounded
and fully considered communication in the final work itself.
Conclusion

I have illustrated that the hierarchy in the fashion industry has clearly shifted from the
couture and mass production to a multifaceted fashion industry with many more
levels and markets, at the same time designers and fashion itself is diversifying,
serving new purposes and meeting wider audiences and markets. Our understanding
of fashion itself has altered dramatically as commerce and faster approaches to
fashion came into play. High end designers have reacted against this shift in a variety
of ways dealing with political and global issues to make social comment through their
work, taking the subject back to process and craft and are working in interdisciplinary
contexts as well as with interdisciplinary methods or collaborating with other
disciplines and the exploration of technologies and communication advancements is
also moving designers practice and creative thought forward.

In a Global context fashion as an industry is being forced to re assess its role in

different countries in different ways in response to these changes. The impact of this
is significant and raises many questions for example it may be that the terminology of
fashion itself may need to change as it is understood differently in different cultures,
the globalization of fashion arguably requires us to find new shared languages
through which to understand the subject and its methodologies and practices. The
pace of change in the industry requires us to re assess and re evaluate our social
constructs and understand fashion in its new intertextual cultural, global and
multidisciplinary contexts. I would also argue that context focused approaches to
design may need developing.

The ongoing debate between high and low culture is relevant, however it seems that
as opposed to this being problematic and a ‘loss of culture or identity as Fredrick
Jameson alludes to (Jameson, 1998, p.9). Fashion is in its very nature is
continuously in a state of flux shifting and changing its intention and reading as it
recontextualises itself in different times, contexts and to different audiences
responding to social change. It is important therefore that in this melting pot of culture
each country or creative discipline retains a sense of it own unique identity, skills and
history although there is great potential to learn from one another, create new
meaning, new creative forms, strategies and processes within fashion and related
industry’s through embracing interdisciplinarity and intertextuality.

Bibliography:

Barnard, M. (1996) Fashion as Communication. London: Routledge

Bruzzi, S. & Church Gibson, P. ed. (2000) Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations
and Analysis. London: Routledge
Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary. (1972) Edinburgh: W & R Chambers

English, B, (2007) A Cultural history of Fashion in the 20th Century. Berg

Entwistle, J. (2000) The Fashioned Body. Cambridge: Polity
Evans, C. (2003) Fashion at the Edge. USA: Yale University Press

Jameson, F. (1998) The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern 1983-1998.
London: Verso
Kawamura, Y. (2005) Fashion-ology. London: Berg

Melossi, G. (2000) The Style Engine. USA: Monacelli Press

Quinn, B. (2003) The Fashion of Architecture. London: Berg

Web links
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/27/chanel-haute-couture-fashion-
show
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/style/fashion-review-reports-of-couture-s-death-
were-exaggerated.html

Conferences/Lectures

Clarke, J. (2006). Paper on Die Reese and his exhibition in Mexico LCF Centenary
Conference. London: London College of Fashion

Fox, S. (2006) Lecture at opening of Philadelphia Florist exhibition. Stanley Picker

Gallery