Andrew Reilly - Key Concepts for the Fashion Industry

Understanding Fashion series

ISSN 17533406

Series Editors:

Alison Goodrum, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Kim Johnson, University of Minnesota, USA

Understanding Fashion is a series of short, accessible, authored books designed to provide students with a map of the fashion field. The books are aimed at beginning undergraduate students and they are designed to cover an entire module. Accessibly written, each book will include boxed case studies, bullet point chapter summaries, guides to further reading, and questions for classroom discussion. Individual titles can be used as a key text or to support a general introductory survey. They will be of interest to students studying fashion from either an applied or cultural perspective.

Titles in the series include:

Fashion Design

Elizabeth Bye

Fashion and the Consumer

Jennifer Yurchisin and Kim K.P. Johnson

Fashion Trends: Analysis and Forecasting

Eundeok Kim, Ann Marie Fiore and Hyejeong Kim

The author recognizes the following people for their involvement in helping to produce this book: Dr. Kim K. P. Johnson, for asking me to write a proposal on fashion theory for the Understanding Fashion series; Marcia Morgado for her patience with my endless question, does this make sense?; Dr. Attila Pohlmann for his assistance with photography; Dr. Barbara (Bobbie) Yee, chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Hawaii, Mnoa, for her support of my writing; all team members at Bloomsbury Academic (formerly Berg) for their guidance, suggestions, and patience, including Anna Wright, Hannah Crump, and Emily Roessler; and my mother, Judith Charboneau, father, Terry Reilly, brother, Noah Reilly, my grandparents, Bill and Doris Hinchcliffe, and dog Holly for their continued support of my career.

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in the book.

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Mary Lynn Damhorst

Fairchild Books

Mark Hamilton

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International Textile and Apparel Association

Kim Miller-Spillman

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Levi Strauss & Company, San Francisco

Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Joseph McKeown

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The Ohio State University Historic Costume and Textiles Collection

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Attila Pohlmann

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Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. This publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated into future reprints to editions of this book.

In Paris a fashion designer is sketching a new collection. At a convention in Las Vegas a buyer is looking among more than one thousand vendors to select dresses to sell in a boutique in Miami. In London a forecaster is analyzing data to predict the fashion trends three years from now. In Shanghai a merchandiser is preparing a report to propose the fashion direction for a popular chain of budget-priced retail stores throughout Asia. Each of these people is an expert in their field and each person will use a framework or principles of fashion to guide their decisions. The fashion designer will lower the hemline of dresses by two inches because she understands the directional nature of fashion. The buyer will scout for merchandise that is unique and exclusive because his customers desire to look different from other people. The forecaster will examine the social movements to make a prediction because she understands how society impacts trends. And, the merchandiser will flood the market with a few styles because he understands that if businesses offer a limited number of styles there is greater chance of them becoming a trend. Each of these people makes logical choices based on established principles and concepts of fashion.

The word theory is derived from the ancient Greek word theoria which meant to look at or view. Greek philosophers would look at a situation and try to find an explanation for it. In scientific terms today theories are a framework for thinking about, examining, or interpreting something. Consider the following definitions of theory:

A theory consists of a conceptual network of propositions that explain an observable phenomenon (Lillethun, 2007, 77).

A systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life (Babbie, 2004, G11).

A set of interrelated constructions (variables), definitions, and propositions that presents a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining natural phenomena (Kerlinger, 1979, p. 64).

An idea or set of ideas that is intended to explain facts or events; an idea that is suggested or presented as possibly true but that is not known or proven to be true (Merriam-Webster, 2013a, n.p.).

A contemplative and rational type of abstract or generalized thinking or the results of such thinking (Wikipedia, 2013, n.p.).

We can examine behaviors, actions, occurrences, works, and any other tangible or intangible phenomena. Theories are made of different parts that contribute to the total understanding. Part of the theory might be true while other parts might not have support, but it does not necessarily change the theory as a whole. Like fashion itself, the theories that explain fashion movement are constantly revised and refined (Brannon, 2005, p. 82). By analogy, a garment that is made up of a bodice, skirt, collar, sleeves, and cuffs is called a dress. However, if you take off the cuffs it is still called a dress, or if you add a pocket it is still a dress. Changing part of the whole does not invalidate the whole.

Theories are divided into three categories based on their scope of explanation: grand, middle-range, and substantive (Merriam, 1988). Grand theories are very broad, all-inclusive, universal and are useful for organizing other ideas; they offer general ideas, such as Albert Einsteins Theory of Relativity. Middle-range theories do not attempt to explain such overarching phenomenon as do grand theories but rather concentrate on limited phenomena; one could argue that the theory of collective behavior (i.e., that fashion trends are inspired by specific groups of people with unique aesthetic styles; further explained in Chapter 4) is a middle-range theory. And substantive theories offer ideas and reasons in a narrow setting, such as the reasons for Japanese immigrants to adopt westernized clothing in Honolulu, Hawaii in the 1920s.