Luxury is a ubiquitous term in the fashion world, but what does it actually means to speak of ‘lu... more Luxury is a ubiquitous term in the fashion world, but what does it actually means to speak of ‘luxury fashion’? The specific focus here is on the intriguing relationship between luxury and quality, and the impact of this on sustainable fashion production and consumption. The exploration starts by looking at cultural understandings of ‘luxury’, which facilitates a deeper investigation of how ‘luxury’ can differ quite radically from ‘quality’ depending on the specific fashion environment. Finally, questions regarding the usefulness of the terms ‘luxury’ and ‘quality’ in discussions about sustainability are addressed. With regards to methodology, the starting point is that of linguistic analysis and the work of Barthes, which is used as a tool for investigating how language shapes the cultural production of fashion. Having done so, cultural theorists including Veblen, Bourdieu and Marx are used to explore possible explanations for shifting meanings. The primary finding is that in recen...
Few television shows have had as significant an impact on fashion journalism as HBO’s Sex and the... more Few television shows have had as significant an impact on fashion journalism as HBO’s Sex and the City. The aim of this investigation was, therefore, to explore the complex interrelationships between scriptwriters, fashion editors and the PR representatives of fashion houses that resulted in Sex and the City becoming an international meta-brand. Unlike other work that was concerned with Sex and the City as a cultural text, my approach considered both the material and the textual components of the programme’s success. Too often theoretical approaches prioritise either the production or the consumption of a given cultural product: this work aimed to address both. Fashion journalism is a subject that rarely appears on the academic agenda, so this study provided an opportunity to elucidate the myriad factors that contribute to the production of mass-circulation fashion text. Specifically, it provided an opportunity to look beyond the surface of the writing to consider the motivations of...
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2013
Over the course of the twentieth century, the availability of cheap, mass-produced fashion has co... more Over the course of the twentieth century, the availability of cheap, mass-produced fashion has contributed to a decline in everyday domestic mending skills. Indeed, as mass-manufactured goods have become cheaper for the global population it has become normative consumer behaviour to dispose of any item that is less than perfect, even when the damage is entirely superficial, leading Clark to claim that: ‘mending has died out’ (2008: 435). However, in recent years there has been an apparent revival in domestic mending, aided and evidenced by the emergence of sewing and mending groups in the UK, mainland Europe and North America. This has coincided with a growing interest in more sustainable material goods (McDonough & Braungart 2002; Fletcher 2008), and a small body of academic work around the notion of craftsmanship (e.g. Sennett 2008; Crawford 2009). Of particular interest here is the history of mending of clothing and household goods, as well as recent incarnations of mending as bo...
Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body &# 38; …, 2006
Within international fashion publishing, no title resonates with authority and history the way th... more Within international fashion publishing, no title resonates with authority and history the way that Vogue does. Although Vogue can now, quite rightly, be considered a global fashion phenomenon, the focus here is on British Vogue, a magazine launched in the fall of 1916 ( ...
Luxury is a ubiquitous term in the fashion world, but what does it actually means to speak of ‘lu... more Luxury is a ubiquitous term in the fashion world, but what does it actually means to speak of ‘luxury fashion’? The specific focus here is on the intriguing relationship between luxury and quality, and the impact of this on sustainable fashion production and consumption. The exploration starts by looking at cultural understandings of ‘luxury’, which facilitates a deeper investigation of how ‘luxury’ can differ quite radically from ‘quality’ depending on the specific fashion environment. Finally, questions regarding the usefulness of the terms ‘luxury’ and ‘quality’ in discussions about sustainability are addressed. With regards to methodology, the starting point is that of linguistic analysis and the work of Barthes, which is used as a tool for investigating how language shapes the cultural production of fashion. Having done so, cultural theorists including Veblen, Bourdieu and Marx are used to explore possible explanations for shifting meanings. The primary finding is that in recen...
Few television shows have had as significant an impact on fashion journalism as HBO’s Sex and the... more Few television shows have had as significant an impact on fashion journalism as HBO’s Sex and the City. The aim of this investigation was, therefore, to explore the complex interrelationships between scriptwriters, fashion editors and the PR representatives of fashion houses that resulted in Sex and the City becoming an international meta-brand. Unlike other work that was concerned with Sex and the City as a cultural text, my approach considered both the material and the textual components of the programme’s success. Too often theoretical approaches prioritise either the production or the consumption of a given cultural product: this work aimed to address both. Fashion journalism is a subject that rarely appears on the academic agenda, so this study provided an opportunity to elucidate the myriad factors that contribute to the production of mass-circulation fashion text. Specifically, it provided an opportunity to look beyond the surface of the writing to consider the motivations of...
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2013
Over the course of the twentieth century, the availability of cheap, mass-produced fashion has co... more Over the course of the twentieth century, the availability of cheap, mass-produced fashion has contributed to a decline in everyday domestic mending skills. Indeed, as mass-manufactured goods have become cheaper for the global population it has become normative consumer behaviour to dispose of any item that is less than perfect, even when the damage is entirely superficial, leading Clark to claim that: ‘mending has died out’ (2008: 435). However, in recent years there has been an apparent revival in domestic mending, aided and evidenced by the emergence of sewing and mending groups in the UK, mainland Europe and North America. This has coincided with a growing interest in more sustainable material goods (McDonough & Braungart 2002; Fletcher 2008), and a small body of academic work around the notion of craftsmanship (e.g. Sennett 2008; Crawford 2009). Of particular interest here is the history of mending of clothing and household goods, as well as recent incarnations of mending as bo...
Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body &# 38; …, 2006
Within international fashion publishing, no title resonates with authority and history the way th... more Within international fashion publishing, no title resonates with authority and history the way that Vogue does. Although Vogue can now, quite rightly, be considered a global fashion phenomenon, the focus here is on British Vogue, a magazine launched in the fall of 1916 ( ...
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