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- Title
CHAPTER 14: Looking Back to Look Forward.
- Authors
Rose, Clare
- Abstract
Studies of the contemporary fashion industry are exploring some of its key characteristics such as the dominance of brands, multi-media marketing, fast fashion, and price point competition, backed up by mass manufacturing techniques and global distribution networks. But what if these characteristics were not new, but 170 years old, predating the sewing machine? Knowing which issues in fashion are not specifically modern, but intrinsic to the fashion system, will allow us to understand better how to shape the fashion industry for the future. This chapter will present findings from a study of over 3000 documents from the British fashion industry from 1850–1914 held in the Stationers’ Hall Archive, the John Johnson Collection at the Bodleian Library, and other archives. These reveal a large and varied industry, including a thriving women’s ready-to wear sector. The documents show freelance designers, manufacturers, trimmers, fashion illustrators, publishers, and advertising agents – including many female professionals – collaborating to produce and market each season’s ranges. They also reveal the overlap between different sectors, with bespoke tailors and dressmakers subcontracting to mass manufacturers. Most strikingly, many of the documents were marketing tools, ranging from collectable giveaways to full-colour fashion posters and catalogues disguised as London guide books. This picture of the fashion industry before 1914 raises both conceptual and methodological questions for our understanding of contemporary practices.
- Subjects
BODLEIAN Library; CLOTHING industry; ADVERTISING agencies; WOMEN'S clothing; FAST fashion; MANUFACTURING industries; TOOTH abrasion
- Publication
At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, 2021, Vol 135, p284
- ISSN
1570-7113
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/9789004446595_016