TECHNOLOGY AND FASHION

Technology and Fashion



Technology and Fashion

Introduction

The significance of fashion as a global force in contemporary society has increased to such an extent, encompassing—or one might say infiltrating—more and more domains in the popular culture and in culture and society more generally: entertainment, tourism, leisure, media, art, education, publishing, politics, technology, business, architecture, sports, advertising, and ecology. From couture fashion, limited runs, and the ability to customise items oneself, to fast fashion and knockoffs, and to fashion with a moral dimension—sweatshop free and eco-friendly—one can say that fashion has entered a new age, the age of hypermodernity. Hypermodernity is driven by a consumer-based logic of change and excess. It has the capacity to absorb the past and recycle it according to an individualistic dynamic and to embody the spirit of the present.

With the advancement of mass production, it's greater flexibility, and the democratisation of desire vis-à-vis the adoption of a consumer capitalist ethos of continuous improvement of material and aesthetic conditions, there is no longer an absence of style. In hypermodern fashion, strict boundaries are dissolved and ideas are taken from the always-expanding fashion world at large. Collaborations exist between “high” and “low” fashion, and consumers themselves are mixing the two. Mass culture and high culture in fashion also converge. Fashion makes itself more accessible through marketing and communication strategies aimed at reaching more people and providing customers with a unique experience of the brand. The couturiers are not imitated as they were in the past; rather the zeitgeist of fashion—styles and trends in the popular culture; celebrities, music, film, and designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford, John Galliano, who themselves are stars and as such become part of the fashion zeitgeist—are a source of inspiration.

The cycle of change in fashion has accelerated with the ability to design, produce, and distribute goods quickly. Alongside an increase in the speed in production and distribution channels is a permanent renewal with regular creation of new models. Fast fashion firms, on average, offer new items every six to ten weeks. There has been a move from a twice-yearly seasonal model in haute couture to an expanded seasonal model in ready-to-wear that spans four or five seasons, and a variable model in hyper fashion. H&M can have lower-cost versions of clothing seen on the runway in as little as two weeks, notes Robert Murphy, as can Sara with its own factories. An American Apparel marketer explains, in an interview with Veronica Manlow, that the firm “may execute 40 campaigns in a season.” It is possible with the factories on the premises in Los Angeles, and running on a twenty-four-hour basis, to design something on a Friday and have it out in small quantities to stores on Monday morning. For overseas factories, the fast turnaround time, coupled with an unpredictable economy, can lower wages and make working conditions less favourable (Lipovetsky 2005, 21).

Each fashion firm has four main tasks to accomplish: (1) creation of an image, (2) translation of an image into a product, ...