TBB Business A – Summary of all
Lectures
Lecture 1 – The Context of Fashion
Diana Vreeland: “The trick is to give people what they never knew they
wanted.”
The fashion professional needs knowledge of the context: the social,
economic, cultural and political areas that you work in.
Fashion as applied arts: there’s always a consumer if it’s all about art, you
might forget about the context, might not sell well
Contexts
- Historical
- The uses of clothing
- Economy
- The language of fashion
- Geography of fashion
1. Historical Context
- Fashion uses history as a source of inspiration
- You only know later what trends turned out to be important
2. The uses of clothing: know your product!
- Fashion as adornment? (decorating your body)
- Fashion as protection? (against weather)
- Nostalgia: unrest in the world (depression, war ), people start
longing to the old days
- ‘Anthropology of clothing’: it nowadays shapes the individual,
whereas before there was a clear distinction between men and
women shifting and blurring ‘codes’
More clothing codes than you think: businessmen wear suit & tie, you
don’t wear only underwear to school
In general, there are 8 functions of clothing
1. Purely functional: utility (lots of changes in fashion had a functional
reason: mobility, (mental) comfort)
2. Modesty: covers up nudity and ‘defects’
3. Immodesty: sexual attraction, ‘men act, women appear’ (but codes
are shifting)
4. Adornment/aesthetics: often not in line with other functions
5. Symbolic differentiation: differentiate yourself from others culture,
religion, profession, but also status and luxury
6. Show affiliation: dress alike to belong to a certain group
, 7. Psychological self-enhancement: creation of the individual/who we
are
8. Modernism
General: you are assumed to have divergent ideas when you don’t
conform to accepted styles however, the more divergent the style is, the
more fashion likes it
Opposite: a fashion victim is desperate to belong and lacks in personality
and taste
Apparently the worst thing that can happen in fashion: wearing the same
outfit as someone else has to do with clothing being so close to your skin,
you create your own personality with it
Difference between fashion and clothing
What is fashion?
- Western invention
- ‘here and now’,
- Change (without change no fashion)
- Succession of styles
- Even uniforms can’t escape fashion
- Differs per community
- Everything in western society is shaped by fashion
- Clothing behavior is shaped by fashion
- No one can escape fashion: it’s not possible to ‘not follow fashion’
- Factor time is crucial: declares styles out of fashion but also recycles
them
- Clothing that is modern in the opinion of the viewer/wearer
Clothing – covers the body and is regarded as being functional by the
wearer uniforms are not fashion!
Fashion is a cultural phenomenon, aesthetic medium for expressing ideas,
desires and values that circulate in society. A personal performing art that
says you’re from the present. quote by Elizabeth Wilson
Is there non-functional, non-fashion clothing? Only clothing used in rituals
Just as important: practical criteria
a. Price: for most consumers the most important criterium last 20
years prices of fashion have decreased (fast fashion)
b. Quality: fabrics, finish, high expectations of quality
c. Fit: subject to fashion, can be a way of differentiating market
d. Comfort: hello good buy
e. Relevance: clothing has to fit lifestyle, work and hobbies
f. Brand: loyalty, fans, unique qualities of the brand
g. Ease/service: people have less time and patience
, Of importance as well
- Presentation of stores, consumers won’t look at clothing that’s badly
displayed
- Home shopping by internet have gained market share: a whole new
culture of ordering from home, trying them on at home and sending
them back
- Response from shops: making shopping as pleasant as possible,
creating experience
- The consumer wants a wide range of clothes, unless they trust you
on a good selection
EPOS – Electronic Point-of-Sale
Lecture 2 – Introduction Lecture by Susie
Breuer
Key-dates calendar – a calendar of development and production
Fashion – what’s the attraction?
- Business: profit, selling things
- Builds communities: blogs, style, design, collective of designers
- Embraces new technology: quicker, 3D printing, dyeing methods
- Invites debate: models, social responsibility of manufacturers
- Legislation: looking for new ways to improve conditions in factories
Flip side of fashion… it pollutes the planet! dyes, much water used,
clothing thrown away
Teams involved
- Not about 1 person! It’s about a team of hundreds making it work
- Designer, developer, sales, shipping, PR, etc.
Seasons – number of collections a year
- No longer fixed seasons: the whole industry is a lot faster
- From monthly to bi-annually
- Not about creativity anymore, but about providing extra clothes
The ANTI-fashion calendar by StudyNY
- Allows monthly deliveries
- Seasonally focused collection
- Filling samples rooms
- More controlled cashflow
Business Models
- Wholesale selling to other stores for their customer base and
further reach, little control over garments/merchandise
- Retail selling in own stores/websites, more control over pricing,
stocks and space
- Mass customization custom/bespoke on big scale, hybrid of mass
market + custom
Lectures
Lecture 1 – The Context of Fashion
Diana Vreeland: “The trick is to give people what they never knew they
wanted.”
The fashion professional needs knowledge of the context: the social,
economic, cultural and political areas that you work in.
Fashion as applied arts: there’s always a consumer if it’s all about art, you
might forget about the context, might not sell well
Contexts
- Historical
- The uses of clothing
- Economy
- The language of fashion
- Geography of fashion
1. Historical Context
- Fashion uses history as a source of inspiration
- You only know later what trends turned out to be important
2. The uses of clothing: know your product!
- Fashion as adornment? (decorating your body)
- Fashion as protection? (against weather)
- Nostalgia: unrest in the world (depression, war ), people start
longing to the old days
- ‘Anthropology of clothing’: it nowadays shapes the individual,
whereas before there was a clear distinction between men and
women shifting and blurring ‘codes’
More clothing codes than you think: businessmen wear suit & tie, you
don’t wear only underwear to school
In general, there are 8 functions of clothing
1. Purely functional: utility (lots of changes in fashion had a functional
reason: mobility, (mental) comfort)
2. Modesty: covers up nudity and ‘defects’
3. Immodesty: sexual attraction, ‘men act, women appear’ (but codes
are shifting)
4. Adornment/aesthetics: often not in line with other functions
5. Symbolic differentiation: differentiate yourself from others culture,
religion, profession, but also status and luxury
6. Show affiliation: dress alike to belong to a certain group
, 7. Psychological self-enhancement: creation of the individual/who we
are
8. Modernism
General: you are assumed to have divergent ideas when you don’t
conform to accepted styles however, the more divergent the style is, the
more fashion likes it
Opposite: a fashion victim is desperate to belong and lacks in personality
and taste
Apparently the worst thing that can happen in fashion: wearing the same
outfit as someone else has to do with clothing being so close to your skin,
you create your own personality with it
Difference between fashion and clothing
What is fashion?
- Western invention
- ‘here and now’,
- Change (without change no fashion)
- Succession of styles
- Even uniforms can’t escape fashion
- Differs per community
- Everything in western society is shaped by fashion
- Clothing behavior is shaped by fashion
- No one can escape fashion: it’s not possible to ‘not follow fashion’
- Factor time is crucial: declares styles out of fashion but also recycles
them
- Clothing that is modern in the opinion of the viewer/wearer
Clothing – covers the body and is regarded as being functional by the
wearer uniforms are not fashion!
Fashion is a cultural phenomenon, aesthetic medium for expressing ideas,
desires and values that circulate in society. A personal performing art that
says you’re from the present. quote by Elizabeth Wilson
Is there non-functional, non-fashion clothing? Only clothing used in rituals
Just as important: practical criteria
a. Price: for most consumers the most important criterium last 20
years prices of fashion have decreased (fast fashion)
b. Quality: fabrics, finish, high expectations of quality
c. Fit: subject to fashion, can be a way of differentiating market
d. Comfort: hello good buy
e. Relevance: clothing has to fit lifestyle, work and hobbies
f. Brand: loyalty, fans, unique qualities of the brand
g. Ease/service: people have less time and patience
, Of importance as well
- Presentation of stores, consumers won’t look at clothing that’s badly
displayed
- Home shopping by internet have gained market share: a whole new
culture of ordering from home, trying them on at home and sending
them back
- Response from shops: making shopping as pleasant as possible,
creating experience
- The consumer wants a wide range of clothes, unless they trust you
on a good selection
EPOS – Electronic Point-of-Sale
Lecture 2 – Introduction Lecture by Susie
Breuer
Key-dates calendar – a calendar of development and production
Fashion – what’s the attraction?
- Business: profit, selling things
- Builds communities: blogs, style, design, collective of designers
- Embraces new technology: quicker, 3D printing, dyeing methods
- Invites debate: models, social responsibility of manufacturers
- Legislation: looking for new ways to improve conditions in factories
Flip side of fashion… it pollutes the planet! dyes, much water used,
clothing thrown away
Teams involved
- Not about 1 person! It’s about a team of hundreds making it work
- Designer, developer, sales, shipping, PR, etc.
Seasons – number of collections a year
- No longer fixed seasons: the whole industry is a lot faster
- From monthly to bi-annually
- Not about creativity anymore, but about providing extra clothes
The ANTI-fashion calendar by StudyNY
- Allows monthly deliveries
- Seasonally focused collection
- Filling samples rooms
- More controlled cashflow
Business Models
- Wholesale selling to other stores for their customer base and
further reach, little control over garments/merchandise
- Retail selling in own stores/websites, more control over pricing,
stocks and space
- Mass customization custom/bespoke on big scale, hybrid of mass
market + custom
