where do fashions come from?

According to Adam Smith, the founding father of the modern economic science and liberalism, 
"It is from our disposition to admire, and consequently to imitate, the rich and the great, that they are enabled to set, or to lead what is called the fashion. Their dress is the fashionable dress; the language of their conversation, the fashionable style; their air and deportment, the fashionable behaviour. Even their vices and follies are fashionable; and the greater part of men are proud to imitate and resemble them in the very qualities which dishonour and disgrace them".

This theory is echoed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in Distinction (1979), in which he states that aesthetic preferences are "class markers", which reflect the possession of resources that are not only economical but also cultural (that explains why the "nouveaux riches" always have as much trouble as the underprivileged to understand the principles of "good taste"). 

While also echoing Adam Smith’s Trickle-down theory, Georg Simmel extends it by explaining the elite’s motivation to constantly shift towards new styles: fashion’s continuous reform comes, from the ruling classes’ will to separate themselves from the masses. Moreover, a symmetric dynamic can be found at the heart of the perpetual renewal of fashion, in the imitation of ruling classes’ clothing habits by inferior social categories, forcing the elite to adopt new styles in order to appear new again. 
This vision of fashion rests on an assumption that is nowadays widely contradicted, whereby the elites determine the shifts in fashion preferences. We can easily find examples of fashion movements which follow the opposite trajectory, going bottom up.

Blumer says that fashion movements have two specific moments of manifestation: 
*first, when the collections are presented, through fashion shows and showrooms displaying the entirety of a brand’s collection, 
*then, downstream of this presentation, when the buyers from the stores that distribute the collection make their selection. 

The fashion moments are not the result of a differentiation mechanism whose goal is to renew styles as quickly as possible in order to distinguish some parts of the social entity, but the consequence of the selection, by an expert group, of a determined amount of shapes, colors, and materials. Blumer argues that the "expert group" composed by fashion designers and buyers both present an impressive consistency of preferences, which he finds responsible for the creation of fashion movements, or, in other words, of clothing mimicry: as consumers in a specific society have access to a limited amount of styles that have been preselected by an expert group with consistent tastes, it is logical that they all dress the same. What is left to explain are the criteria according to which this double selection is made, and why it appears to be so homogenous.

Blumer excludes the idea of coordination: the "caste" of fashion designers is "secret" and competitive, as is the buyers’. Designers converge towards the same ensemble of choices, each season because they share three categories of preoccupations from which they draw their inspirations: 
the first being the history of costume, the second the immediate clothing habits, and the third the contemporary artistic production. Taking inspiration from past styles is a recurring habit of fashion designers, who were the first to read historic books regarding the story of costume published in the second part of the 19th century: traditional clothing, as well as the creations of the past decades, provides designers with an impressive catalog of images. Fashion designers have also in mind the clothing habits of their immediate contemporaries. When Blumer’s article is published, fashion has opened to ready-to-wear, and as a result, designers have to pay more and more attention to "street fashion". Here again, their job is to reinterpret, through a series of variations, outfits that they witnessed in vivo. But the most fundamental common point between designers, and, for Blumer, the main reason for the similarity of their taste lies in their "intimate familiarity with the most recent expressions of modernity". As they "engage in translating themes from these areas and media into dress designs", they establish a necessary proximity with the other fields of the contemporary creation: their work becomes the translation, in clothing language, of ideas which appeared elsewhere.

It is even more true at an age where fashion is liberated from the academism of Haute couture, mainly through the development of ready-to-wear and the emergence of youth culture. Blue jeans, for instance, are one of the most famous examples illustrating this phenomenon: originally worn by American workers of the 19th century, they are nowadays a worldwide popular uniform, available at all of society’s sections. So we need to find another candidate to explain the origin of fashion "trends". 

Herbert Blumer is one of the most famous opponents to Simmel and Smith’s common theory. He argues that the elites themselves undergo the influence of a universal drive towards novelty. For Blumer, "fashions", in the sense of clothing shifts, are the direct result of specific interactions between individuals who share similar interests and perceptions.It is the observation of "fashion stakeholders", as an "environment", and the understanding of its stakeholders subjective motivations, of their perception system as well as their tastes, that allow us to understand the origin of the convergence of preferences phenomenon.

Eventually, Blumer describes fashion creation as a "derivative" form of creation: its substance comes simultaneously from fashion history, contemporary clothing habits, and recent developments in other arts. According to Blumer, the second selection group, the buyers, doesn't share the designers’ specific choices, yet they share everything else that determines their choices: they read the same magazines, go to the same cities, restaurants, and parties, see the same movies, and take passionately interest in fashion’s twists and turns, both on the catwalk and in the streets. They are part of the same "remarkably common world of intense stimulation": their perceptual environment is identical. Based on this set of intellectual and sensorial stimulations, they anticipate the shifts of fashions and customer’s tastes: it is no wonder, thus, that their anticipations stay consistent. Blumer draws, from these empiric considerations, a general theory about the origin of fashion movements. 

According to him, "The fashion mechanism appears not in response to a need of class differentiation and class emulation but in response to a wish to be in fashion, to be abreast of what has good standing, to express new tastes which are emerging in a changing world". In other words, fashions are not the result of the preferences of the ruling classes, but the consequence of an expert selection determined by minds which are deeply aware of the style novelties: fashion designers and buyers.

Yet, Blumers’ argumentation is not faultless: the data drawn from his inquiry doesn’t seem satisfactory to accredit his general conclusions. Blumer makes an additional implicit hypothesis, which doesn’t rely on his observations, whereby the desire for novelty would be socially or anthropologically prior to the desire of domination or differentiation from other individuals. 

In other words, even if Blumer convincgly shows that fashion movements are not driven by elites, he doesn’t bring any decisive argument to the table in favor of the presence of a pre-existing, independent "fashion desire". We can also suppose that novelty is a mere instrument in order to achieve social distinction: as we observe, following Blumer, that fashions are the result of a collegial decision between specialists, we can also notice that it remains a device of class-affirmation or self-affirmation, as it is the expression of a superior economic or cultural capital. To be fashionable remains expensive, on the intellectual level as well as on the economic level.

FASHION: Jacquemus, a life of fashion

Simon port Jacquemus' fashion brand 

how it started: 

"At the age of 7-8, when I started to instinctively make a skirt for my mother, I cut a linen curtain, I put laces of Converse and I made a skirt. It was doing something like that, spontaneously. My mother wore it and she said "that's beautiful". I wanted to do fashion really to tell stories. It was mostly that, it was not the obsession with a garment, it was the obsession to say something, to tell a piece of yourself through this prism. The stories that I had in mind, it was simple stories, stories of women in the south of France, a woman who takes her car, who goes to the beach. I was inspired a lot by television and the cinema. But in fact, younger, I still had obsessions, whether to play roles, even in my way of getting dressed, taking pictures, to share with people moments of my life. Already at 14-15 years old, I did what I'm doing today. I created stories and I published on the internet. Instagram did not exist, but I already had Instagram. For me, it's innate and the picture is my first obsession. I had to have my high school degree to go to fashion school. I had this high school degree, I came to Paris. It was September, and in October I lost my mother."

Simon dropped out of school and started his brand in honour of his mother he named it Jacquemus. through the use of the French press he began to get noticed, from Vogue to Biba. and it quickly transpired from here, with a huge passion for painting and the influence of movies and shows, Simon became more and more recognised and sought after, using the inspirations and his artwork and incorporating it into his designs. 

he reflects:  :In 10 years, nothing has really changed fundamentally. I feel like I've stayed the same, down to earth. Because fashion is 6 months work, 24 hours madness, and 6 months work for the future. I have been trying since the beginning to have the same message, to share a lot of positivity, a lot of good energy. I think it's a very solar fashion. It's about being sincere with oneself, always listening to yourself, saying no, saying no, a lot. Not taking advice, or some of them, but balancing out who we really are. It has not changed. I do not create for celebrities. They do not necessarily inspire me to create. I create a story first. After, it's always a real recognition I think today to have all the celebrities who are customers, who really buy on the online shop, who support the brand. For me, it's great. There were big steps like that, I remember the first time I saw Kendall Jenner in Cannes, my home town, in "Santons de Provence", or Rihanna also in "Santons de Provence". This is the name of my collection. It was for me revealing, something was happening I think. As fast fashion is indicative of a success, celebrities are also one I think. Being copied is for me a "Palme d'or".

https://www.jacquemus.com/?v=7516fd43adaa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cxRj476Apg

FASHION HISTORY- The Georgians Revolutionary fashions

In a letter to his son in 1748 Lord Chesterfield wrote, ‘I confess, I cannot help forming some opinion of a man’s sense and character from his dress; and I believe most people do as well as myself.’ Chesterfield was reflecting a common aspect of 18th-century society: the idea that you should be able to look at someone and immediately recognise their character and their social status, and thus know how to treat them. Courtiers needing to wear expensive silks to participate in court life is a good example of how clothing could be a key to social interaction. The clothing of the general population – likely to be woollen, less colourful and certainly less embellished – would not have granted them entry to the inner rooms of court.

Some argue that the French Revolution of 1789, which saw the overthrow of the French monarchy, brought all of this into question. It provides one of the best examples of the link between fashion and politics. French revolutionaries used clothing to make political statements against the ruling aristocratic classes. The sans-culottes (literally ‘person without breeches’), as they were known, wore the trousers of the working man (trousers were easier, and therefore cheaper, to make than the breeches favoured by the aristocracy). Their ‘cap of liberty’ had links to the cap that was given to freed Ancient Roman slaves, and they wore a cockade, generally a red, white and blue ribboned badge. The overall look was in stark contrast to the silken, extravagant and colourful court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

From the early 1700s France was the fashion leader of Europe; the French court was seen as the epitome of style and French silks were considered the best. Even those who didn’t like the French fashions, had to admit to their influence:

‘The French, with all their absurdities, preserve a certain ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our nation; and this appears in nothing more than in the article of dress … we are slaves to their taylors, mantuamakers, barbers, and other tradesmen.’

Tobias Smollett, Travels Through France and Italy, 1766.

But did this influence continue once the French royal court was removed? Those sympathetic to the Revolution were noted for adopting their own version of revolutionary dress. Sir Nathanial Wraxall wrote in his memoirs that men in the 1790s wore ‘Pantaloons, cropped hair, and shoe-strings, as well as the total abolition of buckles and ruffles, together with the disuse of hair-powder’. These men were therefore abandoning the clothes and accessories associated with the aristocratic lifestyle – either as a gesture of support for republican principles, or as a way to distance themselves from aristocratic excesses.

It can be argued, however, that this more ‘democratic’ style of dressing had started in Britain long before the French Revolution. Another letter from Lord Chesterfield in the 1740s describes a trend among young men who wore ‘brown frocks [coats], leather breeches’, uncocked hats and unpowdered hair in order to ‘imitate grooms, stage coachmen, and country bumpkins…’. Frock coats were a functional garment, based on a working man’s coat. We’ve also seen how wigs were losing their popularity in the second half of the century and it can be argued that the it was the 1795 tax on hair powder that also stopped people from wearing powdered wigs or hair, as much as their Republican principles.

This move towards a more ‘natural’ or ‘democratic’ dress can be linked to a number of factors. Firstly, although the royal court was still highly influential, the Georges were not known for their involvement in high fashion and court fashions in particular, were not particularly innovative during this period. The British elite were also spending more time at their country estates – a lifestyle that required simpler, more practical clothing for sporting pursuits like hunting, and perhaps explains Chesterfield’s comment above. Finally, the English woollen trade was seen as one of the best in Europe, and fine English woollen cloth was a popular choice for these more informal and practical wardrobes.

The French Revolution helped to speed up these developments and brought the importance and meaning of clothing further into the public eye, but it is also an example of how fashions could take a long time to evolve, and very rarely does a single event spark a complete change in wardrobe.

FASHION: Shanghai fashion week A/W15 SU GUANG YU

Monday 19^th-20^th October Shanghai Fashion Week

Shanghai fashion week AW 15/16 Su Guang Yu, Beijing designer male and female fashion designs 19th-20th October 2015

http://www.design-china.org/post/12874460237/guang-yu

I met in their shanghai based office. (they were all a bit confused downstairs thinking I was some random white model until I mentioned that I was here to help prepare, then they took me upstairs to the designer and his main aids, they girl Amy and another. Amy was a canton girl and could speak good English, but I could understand what they were saying to me anyway as "Kyles" the designer's English wasn’t too good.

The models came to audition for the event tomorrow, then trying on the clothes and taking photos to organise which model would wear what. 20 models, 2 changes of clothes, 2 of which were male models. All Chinese. 3 different simple shoe styles depending on the outfit. Red satin Chinese style pumps, metallic silver mules of white trainers in either red lace or blue red lace, if too long they were tied around the ankle like a ballet dancer, a statement piece. 点晴之笔

the next day needed to be in Xintandi新天地to go to the show as it’s in the main park here each time. I met with Amy at 8.30am. There were other fashion students from Donghua there already. they helped put some of the clothes on the racks for the individual models, and then that seemed to be it for them for the day, I helped the two actual workers with all the steaming, making sure all the outfits where ready, they even called me back to do more as apparently I was so good. We each had a model to look after to make sure they dressed etc. they did a dress rehearsal on the catwalk and then after lunch and makeup, they got dressed and ready to go. Photographers were busy clicking away, they models looked great. At 2 o'clock the show started with one quick change though I seemed to be organising the other outfits for the other students as well as tidying up after once it was done. They were all very grateful and all the pictures looked amazing.


东边跟西边见面

Overall in comparison to previous experiences I have in fashion week shows, the designers were organised but the students and the models weren't, quite last minute for the models and the students were lazy. The show itself as it was a major fashion capital was much organised and professional, full of sponsors and style. East meets west, similar and yet so different, 

FASHION: DHU fashion show

DONGHUA UNIVERSITY 2nd YEAR END OF YEAR FASHION SHOW
JULY 2015

FASHION 服装

BRIDAL 婚礼裙子

FASHION: Introduction to costume design with Jane Clive - creative media skill N.I

Introduction to costume design with Jane Clive

The course was being held in the BBC building in Belfast, my course was being run with an introduction to stunt double course led by “Rocky” both of which were being run by the creative media skill N.I (northern Ireland) we’d paid a small fee, yet all our materials and food and drinks were covered (delicious sandwiches crisps and scones, and all the tea and coffee we could desire!)

Our first day was basic, none of us had received the email requesting us to bring inspirational images from magazines, the internet or books. Instead we had 2 very interesting presentations from Jane (assistant costumer to movies such as the recent Maleficent and Captain America) her first presentation showed us how she began, from a small art student, to working in musical theatre and “Cats” painting onto fabric, to moving into the film industry, aging textiles and creating several different costumes along with renting and making outfits from a mix of new made and rented clothing (she mainly rents from Angels costumers in London) developing fabrics and outfits such as the iced and ragged stages of the cloak in Frankenstein, Decapiro’s coat in “man in the iron mask” (puff printing onto velvet and gilding onto velvet that they aged for various stages of the movie) covering in words and staining the coat of the Marquis De Sade, to blockbusters such as Maleficent creating different looks and using poles for acts in the movies such as her assent to the christening of Aurora for the trail of her dress creating a moving liquid ink like effect. (she also told us about how Jolie wanted a catsuit to show off her figure in the fight scene, and how, on the day filming was due to begin, Jolie kept them all back due to costume..thats what you get for being so famous..and also part producer...explains why she was the only attractive person in the movie too!)

Jane explained her trail and errors in costume, some of the techniques, green screen, her personal experiences on set and in making, it was very interesting and had us all excited to get stuck in, especially when she showed us some of the costume sketches, images and some of the sample materials she used. Our room had several mannequins with costumes rented from Angels in it along with images, costume and fashion books and lots of materials and “mood books”.
We’d been given hard back sketch books and sharpies, we flicked through books for some inspiration, started drawing and making notes and told to bring our own inspiration for the next day as the photocopier was not yet with us.
The next day was all go, photocopying images from books, I was drawn to Alexander McQueen’s butterfly hat, using shape as an inspiration. Our brief was to create a silhouette for the end of the week, perhaps with an idea of what sort of film it would be for. I was drawn to 50’s and 80s, looking at in particular large shoulders, shaping them like butterfly wings. I looked at hats and accessories but kept being drawn back to the shoulder shape as the waist and skirt shapes made the figure seemed too imaginative, I wanted my silhouette to be for a more realistic perhaps historical character. I had the idea of a modern “my Fair Lady” approach, the butterfly representing new life and change, just like the final introduction of Eliza, the caterpillar, the cocoon and learning before being revealed as a beautiful butterfly.

I began looking more at historical design, Jane suggested the use of tracing paper to manipulate current designs and adapt them subtly and seeing how that would affect our design and the silhouette. Again I mainly looked at manipulating the shoulders, but doing so from designs from the 16-1800s in particular and briefly looking at the early 1900’s “la Belle Époque” I layered butterfly wings having looked at different silhouette shapes and experimenting with wing movement 2 dimensional with Indian ink (the course asked us if we needed anything and took our suggestions literally getting Indian ink, different papers, wallpaper, glue, paint brushes etc.) and then 3 dimensionally, folding and manipulating wall paper as its more flexible and stronger than plain paper. With my interest in full force I unfortunately missed the stunt man getting set on fire outside! Apparently his eyebrows were slightly singed. I only got to see the after effects, however, the photograph I saw was fantastic. The things these people do for movies!

 Our 3d day we began using the mannequins, experimenting with shapes to create silhouette using the wallpaper, creating strong features such as collars and ruffles. We also took this as an opportunity to dress up, I got laced up (quite roughly thanks to Debbie a fellow student who previously worked in bridal and knew how to proper lace them) in a corset, putting my small 25” waist to 24” with an inch of it being corset material and boning, sitting down and breathing become a much more difficult and uncomfortable action. Complete vertical, any form of bending was impossible. I was tightened up again before being stuck in panniers (think 1600s) for this style of clothing the silhouette is directly changed and the dress is made 3 dimensionally rather than on the flat as the design needs to be made around this new shape, skirts were often gathers and layers on top of the panniers. We draped some material over it to see the effect of the shape and the silhouette more clearly.
I looked at different materials, even photocopying some and gathering scraps, seeing the use of layers and effect. With all this in mind my design and silhouette became more realistic. I started looking at a more historical my fair lady silhouette, a Victorian layered design, drawing on the butterfly effect more subtly, along with the use of different materials and layers rather than one solid colour and shape like before. I experimented with several designs before favouring one by the end of the day.

Our final day was for finishing our work, making an A3 + silhouette and discussing our work. I finished my design using the idea of layers and different materials, ombre played a final part in my design. I was quite pleased with my completed silhouette.

 We tidied (slightly) and began packing away the costume, not before another dress up, this time Julie (who studies costume design one night a week) and Grant( the only boy in the class) became a classy Victorian lady complete with bustle and hat, and a large breasted ruffled coachman with top hat, al just in time for the group photo. After our last delicious lunch (the scones and sandwiches were a delight, and tea and coffee and tap is just too good, especially when it’s all free) the sun was out and after a quick Q&A with the organizers and designers/stunt men all the ones in my course relaxed outside, chatting and sharing past experiences and information along with ideas. Jane joined us and we picked her brain some more. Back up in our room we each briefly went through our books and presented our final silhouette, from rock stars, to boogiemen and runaway Victorians everything was different, and all very interesting to see. It was a great course, very informative and fun, our names have been placed on a creative skills list, , available for media members perhaps looking for designers and stunts men for upcoming movies, I even got some contact details from the other girls some of which have been involved in Games of Thrones. A few of us got Jane to sign our books (a claim to fame) and then in the sunshine (with all our books and our silhouette) we hit Filthy McNatsy’s in town for a few drinks and to reflect on the week. A Facebook page has been created and we all keep in contact, handy out tips or suggestions, showing each other work etc. you become more creative and inspired when you are with other creative inspired people. I plan to continue being creative inspired, I want to continuing learning and experiencing with the skills I enjoy, and hopefully making lots of friends and contacts along the way, which I certainly did this week.