Luxury Fashion And Luxury

This expansion demonstrates how the luxury industry is now run by massive corporations whose focus is only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and most importantly, PROFITS! With growth and expansion, has come a decrease in quality and rarity. The luxury garments produced are mostly not handmade but are even outsourced to large factories in places such as China and Turkey. Also, to meet quarterly turnover projections, “designers churn(ed) out increasingly trendy collections of clothes, handbags, and shoes.” (Thomas, Pg. 246) With hundreds of new stores around the globe the surplus of designer labeled merchandise is immense hence, the proliferation of outlet malls.

Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a

Since the founding of Vogue in 1892, its covers and glossy contents have featured the changing faces of fashion, from models and actresses of the era to musicians, writers and businesswomen from all over the world. It is clear that editors of Vogue magazine, published by Condé Nast have understood the changing world of fashion we live in, where the achievements and lives of famous aspirational women began to overshadow the now tiresome , ‘dull’ supermodel era under the instruction of Vogue’s current editor-in-chief , Anna Wintour. Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in –chief, artistic director of Condé Nast and chairwoman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Met Gala may be regarded by many as one of the fashion industry’s most influential figures in the world.

The fashion industry is rapidly growing and constantly generating new fashion trends almost weekly. Fashion for some may seem ridiculous and unnecessary; but fashion is not just a meaningless usage of article of clothing or farcical materials sew together for coverage. There is more to fashion than meets the eyes, fashion is precious and significant. It is a reflection of self-image, it speak the ream about who we are and how we review ourselves. Not only is fashion the reflection of self-image but also the reflection of our history as Coco Channel have said, “Fashion is not something that exist in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Fashion

The author who inspired the topic of this thesis is Dana Thomas. As a fashion writer, Dana Thomas, has analyzed the changes in luxury fashion business. Thomas has been writing about fashion for the past twenty-five years in various journals such as Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Financial Times, and more. Dana Thomas’ two books, Deluxe and Gods and Kings, are the inspiration for this thesis. Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre goes into great detail the secrets of the leading luxury industry brands, namely Prada, Gucci and Burberry, to showcase the “New Luxury” of today and how “luxury lost its luster” by featuring the manufacturing and logistical processes. Thomas exposes that many luxury brands use the same Asian factories that mass-market retailers employ, which raises questions concerning quality and craftsmanship for luxury brands.

Definitions of luxury have continuously changed across centuries, and will likely change as luxury evolves in the years to come. It can be difficult to give a precise definition seeing as luxury is all but static. Looking at luxury in an historical context provides insights on different perceptions and views on the subject. In "The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Investigation", Christopher Berry provides an analysis of the evolution of luxury as a moral concern tracing back from Ancient Greece up to you our age.

Fashion does not simply consist of the clothes we pick out of our closets in the morning. That daily decision only constitutes the last step of a much larger process, foreign sweatshops, multi-billion-dollar businesses, celebrities on red carpets, and sophisticated advertising campaigns. Fashion emerges out of pattern-making and design, the cultivation and production of raw materials, the manufacturing process, and the distribution of the finished product. Although all this creates the materials, fashion is more than just cloth and jewels. Fashion is the expression of oneself whether it's based on emotion, fashion trends, or music videos.

Imagine having the creative artistic ideas and culture influences to become a well-known fashion designer but the work created will not be considered art because of the predefined presumptions within. This challenge is the topic of director, Andrew Rossi’s Op-Doc, “Fashion vs. Art.” Many fashion designers and art educators discuss fashion as it overcomes the critique of the use of money to broaden its horizon through sales; nevertheless some would say it is degrading fashion as a form of art. The film “Fashion vs Art” claims that fashion is art through the use of the rhetorical appeals of pathos and logos; however the film unintentionally undermines this claim because of gender expectations.

An increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world experiences a rapid cross-border movement of goods, service, technology and capital. Luxury goods industry, serve as one of the most competitive industry, emerging and developing rapidly all the time. To a great extent, globalization promotes the development of luxury goods industry significantly in spite of the big shock hit by several times of economic crisis.

80-90 percent of people of the early twenties century spent most of their budged on food and basic needs, furthermore, luxuries were available only for a limited number of people who could afford them. These luxuries were main indicators of one’s wealth, and social group affiliation, that were not available to middle class, and poor people, but were very desirable. With appearance of discount stores, and new manufacturers ready to mass-produce luxuries at the affordable price, suddenly, it became affordable to look like rich. “It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed” [Veblen, p 107]. As a matter of fact, not only wealthy people were role models for newly-established trends, but also young indigent people, who were socially and politically active, inspired others to purchase brands of clothing companies they wore. These meanings are derived from bricolage, the process by which mainstream products are adopted and transformed by subcultures [Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, p.78]. For instance,

In the luxury goods industry, the rapid development has brought the market more brands and the latest design products. Industry matures has caused the accelerated development of a wide range of luxury goods (Chiari, 2009). However, one thing was constant, no matter how much increased production costs, the large luxury brand of origin will not be transfer. Long cultural history is an integral part of the luxury brand, and the origin of products have also brought a certain cultural value for luxury goods (Heine, 2012).Especially for Asian consumers, it seems that in the far west, craft superb tailoring and rich cultural history of the western area are the pursue of Chinese consumers (Sombart, 2001).Louis Vuitton 's president has said that (2013), “when customers buy our products, they expect Western quality. The mystery of the origin of our brand is closely linked with our brand”. Although with the close of trade, many luxury goods in the production and sales process will cooperation with other country’s companies, the final product definitely launch in the country of origin. Gucci is a legendary brand in Florence (Italy), and it will also strictly control the production done in Tuscany (Italy), to ensure pure and high-quality products (Gucci, 2015). Therefore, a regional feature has brought an intangible value and more local cultural characteristics to the luxury goods.

Milan, Italy 2007. In one of the leading and most influencing fashion cities of the world, the seasonal Milan’s Fashion Week is taking place. Glossy magazines, classic and extravagant designs by the most famous designers internationally, thousand of little light made by the shots of the photographers trying to have the best capture of what will be tomorrow’s dressing trend, angelic-looking models all over the runway, etc. are just some of the expectances that the public has for what is considered to be as the most important event for the fashion industry. At least these were the normal activities that used to happen in such an event, but what was offered to the public in Milan’s Fashion Week was definitely a

In nowadays, buying luxury brands is not only showing a sign of wealth, but also a kind of rewards for people’s hard working. Luxury products sell high market prices because of their designs, brand names, and the qualities. People want to buy luxury products because their quality is better than target brands. For example, the brand like Bottega Veneta is known for its traditional design of leather goods; their handbags are handmade in Italy. Comparing to Bottega Veneta to target brands, Bottega Veneta’s design will not easily out of style, but target brands will easily out of styles because their designs are relatively ordinary. However, in the recent year, some luxury brands’ reputation has gone done because those brands were shifting their factories to other countries and then shipping back to Italy just for the label. Technically, the phrase “Made in Italy” is not really manufacture in Italy anymore, sometimes this product 's qualities are not as good as before. There is a rising concern of whether these luxury goods really match with the expensive price tags.

The overall sales of luxury goods in the year 2009 is expected to be more than US$150 billion and Asia contributes 10% to it. The concept of luxury is now not confined to only to Europe and US, the Asian subcontinent contributes majorly to it, with India and China as the newly emerging markets. Professor James Twitchell (2002) comments on the democratization of luxury and the changing consumer psychology These new customers for luxury are younger than clients of the old luxe used to be, they are far more numerous, they make their money far sooner, and they are far more flexible in financing and fickle in choice. They do not

The passageway of modernism has introduced innovative components in the development of an individual's personality. The identity character as a social construct is highlighted through the effect that fashion has brought in, experimenting, producing and changing individual identity. The style and appearance of an individual is a portion of the fashion's period and usually refers to the possibility of people to utilize fashion industry products. This takes place just like any other consumer good that can be modified with respect to the prevalent societal codes. The modifications can be made either through surpassing or through copying them. Modern fashions are part of postmodernism. This is in the view of the fact that developments and growth in the fashion industry accompany and express development of the society through embracing postmodernism. Developments in the fashion industry offer options regarding styles, image and clothing through rejecting the options presented in modernism. This paper discusses Versace designs and their relationship to postmodernism.