democratisation of fashion

Democratisation of Fashion: ‘Fashion

for All’

“Submitted by: Chehal Gulati, MAFMG13719 in

partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

of Masters in Fashion Marketing”

2013-2015

Submitted to the Department of Business

31/October/2013

Pearl Academy

New Delhi

Table of contents

S.no Topics Pg.no

1 Introduction............................................................................................ 1

2 Historical Background

Evolution of clothing

Clothing Dictated by Royalty................................................................. 4

3 Fashion Development

Effects of Industrial Revolution

Retailing in Nineteenth Centaury

Effect of communication on Fashion.......................................................... 5

Government Regulation of Fashion

Trend towards Casual fashion

Youth Buying Power

4 Theories of Fashion Movement................................................................ 6

Trickle-down Theory

Trickle-across-Theory............................................................................... 7

Bottom-up-Theory

5 Fashion’s Free Culture

6 Democracy that Destroyed Fashion

7 Just Fashion.............................................................................................. 8

8 Conclusion............................................................................................. 10

9 Bibliography.......................................................................................... 11

1

Democratisation of Fashion- ‘Fashion for All’ M.A Fashion Marketing 2013-2015

Chehal Gulati

“The Paradox of fashion is that everyone is trying at the same time to be like, and to be

unlike, his fellow men”-J.C Flugel 1930

Introduction

The term ‘Democratisation’ of fashion states about fashion being available to the broader

section of society ,open to individual choice, and people have started practising it equally

and freely without any restrictions. In the early years of human being, clothing was a

matter of pride, status and a distinctive feature from one class to another. Over the last

400 years we can see a huge development in the fashion industry. Industrial revolution

has played an important role in making clothing accessible and feasible to the masses.

Fast fashion is taken as a survival strategy to cope with growing demand of the market.

While we can see that there is a decrease in exclusive designer clothing and fashion is

travelling down from haute couture to ready-wear. It has also been seen these days that

lot of Designer’s are combining with fast fashion giants and catching consumers

attention on the lines of ‘affordable high-fashion’. Recently, target’s has done

collaboration with Missoni and Lagerfeld with H&M. (Haden, 2013) for some people,

democtrasitation of fashion could be mixing high end and low end designs. For an

example, one can wear a t-shirt from a street and wear it with a luxury brand. Fashion

and clothing has also been seen weighed on the scale of justice. ‘Just’ fashion explains

and sees fashion as a society.

Historical Background

Evolution of clothing: Clothing is described as one of the basic needs of human kind.

Earlier clothing was used to protect our skin from severe climatic conditions and later on

it changed into a social phenomenon. Davis defines clothing as a “type of

communication which is different from speaking and writing” and he stresses that “this

communication type is usually related with ego and basically related with cultural values

(gender, sexual life, social status, age) which constitutes our social identities. (Bilgen)

In the Neolithic age, early men used to cover themselves from plants (leaves and trees)

and animal skin. This signifies the functional aspect of clothing whereas slowly and

gradually shift started taking place from clothing as a necessity to clothing as a means to

express one self. This transition took place because of the epidemics, trade and changes

in civilisation.

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Chehal Gulati

Clothing dictated by Royalty: Two classes existed in the mid –seventeenth century, one

was wealthy and other was poor class. There was a difference in a way rich would dress

and poor would dress. In the ted talk show, Reynolds explains that in early 16th

century

royalty wore elaborate clothing to show off their royal lineage and superiority .There

were various laws made on how a certain class would dress in order to keep the classes

distinct from each other. Elite were granted right to wear certain colours and fabrics, for

example rich could wear colours like black, purple, dark green. These colors were made

from expensive dyes which poor could not afford. On the other hand artisans had to wear

cheap dyes which would fade off with time. In the research paper of Bilgen, he describes

the type of dresses worn by both men and women. Women wore long gowns with long

sleeves and belts decorated with beautiful embroideries and stones. The characteristic

features of men clothing were tunic, tight fitted trousers, and capes and elaborated

headgears. Fabrics like velvet, silk, brocade were worn by the people lived in palaces

whereas cheap cotton, linen worn by lower class. (Frings, 1982)

Fashion Development

Effect of the Industrial revolution led to mass production: Frings explains the

significance of invention of sewing machine in 19th

century. Sewing machine was one

such major invention in the history till date which has made mass production possible.

This revolution changed the face of fashion industry where ready to made apparel was

produced in large quantities.

(christman's), the authors cited a quote by William .C. Browning stating the meaning of

the term “Democratisation of clothing”:

“And if it be true....we have provided not alone abundant clothing at a moderate cost for

all classes of citizens, but we have given them at the same time that style and character in

dress that is essential to the self-respect of a free, democratic people.”

Retailing in nineteenth century: Fairs and Bazaars were the once the market place for

the customers but later on stores started to come in .There were two types of stores which

had brought fashion to the public: the specialty store and the department store. Speciality

stores were the ones where the brand or company is specialized in catering to only one

product line. Traditional handicraft store emerged itself into specialty store, which

further got popularized in the late 20th

century. Departmental stores were one such

concept which brought the idea of buying different types of merchandise under one roof.

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Chehal Gulati

It was the first time where people from all income groups could enjoy browsing and

shopping at the same time. (Frings, 1982)

The effect of communication on fashion: There was an increased availability of fashion

information going from one end to another by new communication media like mail

service, magazines, newspaper, .radio digital communication, internet, television. Media

and communication has made fashion to be seen by every person in some way.

Television was one such big influencer of fashion on public. (Frings, 1998)

Government regulation of fashion: After the Second World War, the United States

government wartime regulation restricted the use of fabric per garment. This led to the

limited use of trying and experimenting in fashion. For an example in first chapter of

fashion from concept to consumer, Frings has mentioned how government had put

restrictions on the way a certain garment would make. “Hems could not exceed two

inches; there could be no ruffles and no cuffs on coats or suits for men and women; and

only one patch pocket was permitted. Zippers were not allowed; this rule fostered the

wraparound skirt.” This restriction gave rise to the functional clothing for women who

can wear a masculine kind of silhouette .At that time women started working out and

playing the role of their men. Fashion remained quite stable during war years. Women

wore clothes that were functional and comfortable.

The trend toward Casual Fashion: After the Second World War, there was a search for

domestic stability, American families wanted to escape the cities and wanted to go in

suburbs where they could relax, spend some time with their families. Eventually the

fashion of elegant dress faded, the popularity of casual wear increased. American fashion

was developing its own distinctive style of easy to wear fashion.

Youth buying power: Frings stated in 1960’s one major change in the history of fashion

was coming of baby boomers. They dictated their own distinctive fashion style. Young

fashion came into the picture and young crowds no longer wore couturier fashion, hence

youth fashion was huge hit spreading across the industry. Many designers during that

period designed for young youth. It was the first time fashion trickled up from

inexpensive clothes to couture.

Hence, by studying the developments in the 19th

and 20th

century one could make out

that everything is coming in full circle ,the industry now works on the needs of their

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customers. Now the fashion has gone to that democratic level where everything is made

for the people, by the people, of the people.

Theories of Fashion Movement

Three major fashion theories have been developed which helps to bridge the gap between

social classes –“that is, becoming in one’s mind like ‘them’ by wearing what ‘they’

wear.” (Dikerson, 2003)

These theories are “trickle-down theory”, “trickle –across theory”, “trickle –up theory”.

Trickle-down theory: This theory is proposed by Veblen, 1963 where he explains that

fashion from the top pyramid of societal class travels down to lower pyramid. Fashion

gets trickled down slowly and gradually. First, fashion leaders allow themselves to

experiment with the new styles and then it moves down further to the middle class,

,where the style gets copied and made in comparatively lesser price than it was and then

the same style is sold in much cheaper versions .

According to the article written by Katt Gubb, he mentions that today high end

collections are taken as inspirations and are converted into affordable versions by the

high end stores. This is the trickledown theory in action where diluted version of catwalk

collection is available on the high streets.

David Walmsley, points out that trickledown theory has been the most influential in the

modern times as people who can’t afford brands which costs them millions and dollars

would wait for the style to get cheaper and affordable. They are happy buying the cheap

version’s of style in lot more reduced price. (Walsley, 2011)

In the article ‘In defence of bling’ author Yashica Dutt has mentioned designer Rakesh

Aggarwal blaming television for the popularity of elements like sequence, Swarovski

that is being shown too much on the TV soaps .As a result it lead customers coming to

him ,bringing cut outs of the same designs and asking him to copy as it is. Bollywood

designer Manish Malhotra agrees to the fact that usually his designs are trickled down to

local stores and this trickled down versions doesn’t have the same glaze as seen in the

originals. This transition of emulating states the fact of showing off and it lacks original

component in a ‘design’ (Dutt, 2013)

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Chehal Gulati

Trickle across theory: According to this theory, fashion spreads horizontally within and

across similar groups. This phenomenon was proposed by Charles W.King in 1963.

Bottom-up-theory: This theory states that fashion from ‘street’ trickles up to the top end.

This theory is reverse of trickle-down theory. Greenberg and Glynn 1966, maintains that

young people are quicker and make individual styles of their own by mixing one style

with another and this fashion filters up not from young to old age but also from lower to

higher levels. (Dickerson, 2003)

In the twentieth century, fashion does not follow any trends as earlier people used to

follow a small group of innovators but today people are bringing everything together

from here and there and combining it together to form a style statement .For them

fashion has no rule book, it is anything that goes well with their look and comes in their

budget. (Doona, 2012)

Fashions Free Culture

Democratisation of fashion can be looked from one more perspective that is anybody

could copy any design and sell it as their own design .There is no copy right protection

but there is a trademark protection .Many fast fashion brands like Zara, H&M, Top shop

are following the strategy of copying the high fashion. In video, Lessons from fashions

free culture Johanna clearly explains that “why fashion industry does not have a copy

right protection?” it is due to the fact that fashion is too utilitarian and does not qualify to

have copy right protection. Johanna gives another explanation of copying where she puts

designer’s point of view about copying their product. Now designer’s experiment and

develop new ideas to make their product look different. They try making those things

which are hard to replicate and avoid making designs that are too easy. Hence, designers

cannot have copy right protection but their designs can be researched well so that nobody

else could copy. (Blakely, 2010)

Democracy that Destroyed the Fashion

In this article the author, choufan points out how fashion is going from one point to

another point and has become a point of discussion based on the rights available to each

one of us. It is being measured on the terms of democracy. The democratic aspect is

being taken as a concept by major retailer’s or big fashion brands where the masses have

an access to consume elite fashion or they have a choice of selecting a piece from an

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array of options, whereas this notion was usually reserved for those with power. Choufan

shows resentment and blames ‘trend adaptation’ as a major cause. It was disappointing

and disrespectful for all the members of design fraternity where they could see their

designs getting copied and selling from the shelves at lower prices. While on the other

hand, this phenomenon has been received an approval through popular claim “I have the

right to buy the clothing advertised in vogue at lower price” (Choufan, 2013)

The outlook of fashion industry has changed the view of manufacture’s and designers

who were once concentrating on the way its need to be styled and designed .Now their

concern has been shifted to the amount of fabric used and price concern attached to the

garment. The author argues on the cheap and affordable term given to the piece of art

which lacks creativity and expression a designer puts in his long hours work. Thus,

democratisation is promoting decrease in creativity and increase in mass production. In

the name of pluralism every retailer is focusing on the singular lines where you can see

every brand is keeping the same product on same theme that too on similar prices. It will

further decline the signature style and uniqueness.

Another view, Rabklin has emphasised in his article is that providing access to

affordable clothing is a noble thought, but, this goal was forgotten long time ago by the

rise of irresponsible consumer behaviour. The price of clothing started to fall and people

were able to buy more. Author Rabklin replaces the word democratisation of fashion

with basterdisation of fashion taking designer’s idea and watering them down for mass

consumption. (Rabklin, 2012)

“Real style is a matter of taste. And taste is a matter of experience. Just like one’s tastes

in music, art or books, taste in clothes forms over time. It takes effort and knowledge.

Buying into a style, quickly and cheaply, inevitably leads to the disposability of style.”

(Rabklin, 2012)

‘Just’ Fashion

“Justice concerns the issues of rightness, fairness and equity.”(Busch, 2012). In our

everyday life, we consume fashion in one form or the other. We all do fashion in order to

look good, to be seen amongst our peer groups, to feel ourselves safe and to project

ourselves differently. Somewhere down the line we forget our insecurities and feel that

we are at the top. Yet at the same time, we all know that it is just for some time duration.

We all would like to be in centre stage by wearing clothes that are made by well known

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Chehal Gulati

personalities. Through those clothes some people portray themselves as wealthy and

powerful. These people are most of the time dictated by fashion leaders and they

unknowingly follow them.

According to Otto von Busch “Fashion is an atomizing phenomenon in which elitism

seems so “natural” to us that we do not even consider its inherent injustices” We as a

people think that we all have equal opportunities, choices to make and there is a fair

distribution of goods. We are somehow made to believe that we all have an access to

fashion but at the same time we are put aside from making decision ,self determining , as

the goods are already been decided and put on the stores. We feel great that we have a

choice to select our own fashion but we fail to understand that someone else has decided

for us.

Today also, many people are excluded from the realm of fashion. These people are not

only excluded on the bases of monetary fund’s but also size, gender, race, body type and

abilities. (Busch, 2012)

“Design humanism is the exercise of design activities in order to interpret the needs of

social groups and to develop viable emancipative proposals in the form of material and

semiotic artefacts” (Buonsiepe 2009: 213).

Our fashion industry largely promotes ‘Glamorous fashion’ to public. Many designers

restrict themselves and design only for certain s groups. They do not design for needy,

socially backward groups. Vernok Scott a college design student in 2012 started an

initiative to design for social change. She had initiated an empowerment plan where she

wanted to design a MPWK coat, self heated, and water proof coat that transforms into

sleeping bag at night .This coat was only designed for the homeless people. This project

justifies and well goes with the idea of democratisation. Whereas, this coat will hardly

become a fashionable garment according to the standards set in the fashion industry.

There are some people who have been facing with problems like when they have to

struggle for their size and fit. Karen bowerin in 2010, have tried filling this gap in the

clothing market, to fit the requirement and needs of people with specifications. After

this, he had also created man sizes in jeans, developed lines for petite, maternity, small &

tall. Nowadays fashion is not only about being for the tall , the thin and young people but

also it has to offer clothes for round,old,short. While these people were always been

criticized for the things which they have been given by nature. (Carbone, 2012)

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One body that is often gets left out is the disabled or differently abled person. There is

one clothing that is never been given importance is that for a seated person. It is usually

encountered that whenever a person using a wheel chair comes to shop ,he’s being seen

struggling for help when it is required .Sale’s people , are not been trained to provide

help to those who are in wheelchair’s. That is because they have seen clothing made just

for abled person and who can dress themselves. The needs of other physically challenged

people are not met by fashion industry. However, things have started to change and new

brands, Non-profit organisations are coming up with new clothing made especially for

physically challenged. (Kenny, 2012)

Conclusion:

One of the key paradoxes in fashion is perceived equality. Yes, we can say now that

everybody can dress fashionably. This social phenomenon has been popularised by fast

fashion retailers by selling at cheap prices and eliminating the social differences around

us. Young people today can buy a lot more goods and products than their parent’s

.Simultaneously we can see that there are groups who barely recognise their income

levels, barely afford food. On one hand we can see things like job security, possibility to

own a house seems to have disappeared from basic list. Consumer democracy is seen in

the form of cheap goods and can be a politics of the day. Now we can dress and imitate

the one we aspire to be .Simultaneously, we can also dress distinctively to put ourselves

different from other culture and ethnicities.

Today’s cheap and fast fashion is said to be accessible and mass produced for all. But to

conclude from the above essay, I would say people are still excluded, unseen, uncounted,

missed, discriminated on the bases of clothing and fashion. If fashion is to be equated

with democracy then there is a lot more to do than cheap mass production. It should

emphasise more on the needs, more on sharing the beauty of art, design with the whole

society rather than offering services to ‘niche class.’

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democratisation of fashion

Documents

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democtrasitation of

paradox of fashion

fast fashion giants

casual fashion youth

theories of fashion

clothing accessible