Blowing up the fashion bubble, or nine things wrong with fashion: an outsider’s comment. A critical essay on fashion as a creative industry
Abstract
The world of fashion has lived in a bubble long before the concept found its way into social networks. Well before the social networks themselves, in fact. The very emergence of fashion as an idea occurred within the bubble of the social life at Palace of Versailles, France, where the notorious Louis XIV sported great interest in the looks of his court in addition to those of his own. The article is an outsider’s attempt to have a sober look at the fashion industry that until recently seemed to have maintained the “structure of feeling” of the 17th century Palace of Versailles. Today’s social realities, however, put fashion in the state of a shock that probably equals that of the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, even though it is presumably much less sudden. Written in the manner of the most popular contemporary fashion media format – a bullet list, the text presents a conceptual analysis of the world’s second most wasteful yet poisonously attractive industry, critically reflecting on such characteristic values of the fashion field as concept and features, hierarchy, arrogance, resources and philosophy.
Keyword : fashion bubble, fashion commentary, fashion concept, fashion industry, rewiring fashion
How to Cite
Stankevičiūtė, K. (2021). Blowing up the fashion bubble, or nine things wrong with fashion: an outsider’s comment. A critical essay on fashion as a creative industry. Creativity Studies, 14(2), 376-390. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2021.15096
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Banham, T. (2019). Will the streetwear bubble burst in 2019? Fashionbeans. https://www.fashionbeans.com/article/will-streetwear-bubble-burst/
Barringer, S. (2014). Louis XIV’s use of fashion to control the nobility and express power. Primary Source, 4(2), 21–25.
Barthes, R. (1997). The fashion system. University of California Press.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Polity Press.
Bernier, O. (1987). Louis XIV: a royal life. Doubleday.
Bierend, D. (2014). In the ’60s, models floated through Paris in Bubbles. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2014/02/throwback-thursday-retro-fashion-retrofuturism-collide-1963-bubble-series/
Bradford, J. (2014). Fashion journalism. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203130865
Brundage, D. (2018). Is the streetwear bubble about to burst? Highsnobiety. https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/hype-bubble-streetwear-bubble-burst/
Callahan, M. (2018). Fashion is dead and there’s no coming back. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2018/01/20/fashion-is-dead-and-theres-no-coming-back/
Castells, M. (1996). The information age: economy, society and culture. Vol. 1: The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Chrisman-Campbell, K. (2015). The king of couture: How Louis XIV invented fashion as we know it. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/the-king-of-couture/402952/
Corner, F. (2014). Why fashion matters. Thames and Hudson.
Davis, F. (1992). Fashion, culture, and identity. The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226167954.001.0001
Fairs, M. (2015). “It’s the End of Fashion as We Know It” Says Li Edelkoort. Dezeen. https://www.dezeen.com/2015/03/01/li-edelkoort-end-of-fashion-as-we-know-it-design-indaba-2015/
Fashion United. (2021). Global fashion industry statistics – international apparel. https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics/
Fiske, J. (2011). Understanding popular culture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203837177
Fletcher, K. (2008). Sustainable fashion and textiles: design journeys. Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Forrester, K. (2017). Re: how often do fashion brands release collections yearly? Quora. https://www.quora.com/How-often-do-fashion-brands-release-collections-yearly
France, K. (2016). The holiday lunch. https://medium.com/@kimfrancenyc/the-holiday-lunch-68cd-16e6db85
Goldenberg, S. L. (1904). Lace, its origin and history. Brentano’s.
Hitti, N. (2020). Gucci abandons “Worn out Ritual” of seasonal fashion shows. Dezeen. https://www.dezeen.com/2020/05/29/gucci-seasonless-fashion-news/
Holt, B. (2019). Could the fast-fashion bubble be about to burst? The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/style/could-fast-fashion-bubble-burst/
Kawamura, Y. (2018). Dress, body, culture. Fashion-ology: an introduction to fashion studies. J. B. Eicher (Series Ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474278515
Lipovetsky, G. (2002). New French thought. The empire of fashion: dressing modern democracy. Th. Pavel & M. Lilla (Series Eds.). Princeton University Press.
MacCabe, R. (2013). Is fashion frivolous or fabulous? The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/lifeand-style/fashion/is-fashion-frivolous-or-fabulous-1.967764
Mansel, Ph. (2005). Dressed to rule: royal and court costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II. Yale University Press.
Marchand, Ch. (2016). Meryl Streep’s speech from “The Devil Wears Prada” is a load of rubbish. Post-Consumer Reports: Thoughts on Art and Faith Written after Consumption. The Blog of Chris Marchand. http://www.postconsumerreports.com/2016/03/meryl-streeps-speech-from-devil-wears.html
McCollam, C. (2016). Has global luxury fashion hit a bubble? Social Media Today. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/has-global-luxury-fashion-hit-bubble
Mulholland, S. (2019). Is the fashion-tech bubble going to burst? Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/fashion-tech-ipo-bubble-realreal-farfetch
Otte, M. (2019). H&M’s Green initiative is a scam. https://medium.com/@ameliaotte/h-ms-green-initiative-is-a-scam-73bc23fe94
Polhemus, T. (1994). Street style: from sidewalk to catwalk. Thames and Hudson.
Purdy, D. L. (Ed.). (2004). The rise of fashion: a reader. University of Minnesota Press.
Rabkin, E. (2021a). Don’t do it yourself: chances are, you aren’t gonna make it in fashion. Highsnobiety. https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/make-it-in-fashion/
Rabkin, E. (2021b). Read this before you decide to work in fashion. Highsnobiety. https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/read-decide-work-fashion/
Rankin, S. (2012). “What we learned from Iris Apfel (and her talk at Sotheby’s). Refinery29. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/iris-apfel-dara-caponigro-lecture
Remy, N., Speelman, E., & Swartz, S. (2016). Style that’s sustainable: a new fast-fashion formula. McKinsey Sustainability. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/stylethats-sustainable-a-new-fast-fashion-formula
Rocamora, A., & Smelik, A. (Eds.). (2015). Thinking through fashion: a guide to key theorists. I.B. Tauris. https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755694785.ch-001
Svendsen, L. (2006). Fashion: a philosophy. Reaktion Books.
Talley, A. L. (2020). The Chiffon trenches: a memoir. Ballantine Books.
The Bohmerian: Art, Style and Interior Design. (2012). Art finds: “Fashion in a Bubble” by Melvin Sokolsky. https://www.thebohmerian.com/2012/04/fashion-in-a-bubble-a-art-photo-series-by-americanphotographer-melvin-sokolsky/
The Business of Fashion. (2020). #rewiringfashion. https://www.rewiringfashion.org/
Veblen, Th. (1918). The theory of the leisure class: an economic study of institutions. B. W. Huebsch.
Well Made Clothes. (2018). The truth about HM’s recycling initiative. https://wellmadeclothes.com/articles/TheTruthAboutHMsRecyclingInitiative
Wolfendale, J., & Kennett, J. (Eds). (2011). Philosophy for everyone. Fashion: Thinking with Style. F. Allhoff (Series Ed.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444345568