1,721,217 research outputs found
From Production to Consumption: The Cultural Industry of Fashion, Inter-disciplinary
No full textThe hardbook aims to collect a selected number of papers presented at the Third Global Conference on fashion, organized by IDnet and held in Oxford from the 22nd to the 25th of September 2011, exploring the world of fashion as a cultural industry as a point of convergence between two poles: the one of production, in which we include every process of ideation, designing and manufacturing carried out by professionals working in the fashion companies, and the one of production, an expression we use to identify the complex and heterogeneous group of social actors who face the apparel proposals, by buying (or not buying) clothes and - in so doing - putting them into their everyday lives as generators of meanings.
Our perspective is grounded in socio-anthropological literature that has shown how the material culture and its objects are a magnifying glass to better understand the immaterial values rooted in the whole society. We are especially referring to the works of Paul Hirsch (1972) and Wendy Griswold (1986). The first author, analyzing the media industry, has developed an interpretative model - known as Hirsch???s scheme - that breaks up the cultural industry in four phases (design, manufacture, communication, and consumption), whilst the second one has proposed a «cultural diamond» to underline how cultural meanings are the result of a relationship between social world, creator, receiver, and cultural object. Both approaches can be applied to fashion to describe it as being a cultural industry and to affirm the perpetual connection between material contents and immaterial values in this field.
Starting from these remarks, and promoting an interdisciplinary comparison between scholars afferent to various disciplines, the hardbook intends to deeply explore the concrete and material expressions of fashion that connect producers and consumers making the materiality a door to join the immaterial horizons of fashion.
The organizational scheme of the book tries to reflect both this objective and Hirsch???s model.
PART I is devoted to the designing and manufacturing processes. Molloy???s paper will explore work patterns and research ethics from the point of view of New Zealand fashion industry professionals; Bruggeman will analyze the purpose of embodying a strong identity in a fashion collection through the case of the Dutch designer Marlies Dekkers; Kirecci will deeply go into the side of fast fashion business and manufacturing model considering the experience of the Turkish chain LC Waikiki; Payne will take into consideration the mass market design practice in Australia.
PART II focuses on fashion communication, investigating the point of view and the practices of: consumers, confused when facing to the increasing semiotic saturation of the fashion market (see Mora???s essay); fashion victims with their desire to get informed about fashion news (a desire that pre-exists the modern fashion media, as Taylor illustrates); designers using new media and social networks; fashion journalism, challenged by the rise of trickle-up ways of communication as fashion blogging is (Pederson).
PART III completes the scheme by tackling the issue of fashion retailing, assuming that the selling is the ultimate part for the building of fashion immaterial values. Pedroni will trace a general overview on the phenomenon by mapping the new sales channels, whilst Winterhalter will concentrate on luxury malls and guerrilla stores, and Nobbs/Shearer on the vintage market; finally, McClendon???s chapter takes into consideration the online retail with its implications not only commercial, but also political
La questione della creatività. Un'introduzione
No full textIl contributo delinea l’evoluzione degli studi sulla creatività, che nel corso del Novecento hanno completato un percorso semantico dall’idea di crea- tività come straordinarietà (tipica della divinità o di individui divinamente ispirati) a una nozione di creatività laica, professionale e sociale, vale a dire ordinaria e diffusa, tipica in qualche misura di ogni attore sociale. La tesi di Richard Florida sull’ascesa della classe creativa, cui va il merito di aver spostato la riflessione accademica sul tema delle professioni creative, è discussa nei suoi passaggi principali, con riferimento alle critiche che le sono state mosse. È questo il punto di partenza per una rassegna delle pro- spettive di studio della creatività, con particolare riferimento ai paper pre- sentati nel volume e alla doppia prospettiva dei ricercatori interessati al tema della creatività e dei creativi che di tali studi sono oggetto
Pratiche e retoriche della condivisione. Operatori della sharing economy e forme di innovazione economica, sociale e normativa
No full textThe lack of a shared definition of «sharing» is a recurring subject in the academic literature. In this article sharing economy is investigated as an umbrella term that refers to social innovation experiences in the context of the economic crisis that began in 2007-2008. In this framework there was a convergence between several processes: technological (the development of web 2.0 and the availability of apps that disintermediate the relations between producers and consumers), socio-cul- tural (the emergence of new forms of collaboration based on trust) and economic (in the form of new markets for investors and professional opportunities for individuals and families distressed because of the crisis); this convergence created the premises for the development of the sharing economy as an industry and as a cultural phenomenon.
This contribution critically investigates the way industry operators are building, through their so- cial practices, an operational definition of sharing economy. The sample consists of 47 providers of goods/services belonging to 32 cases of sharing economy, interviewed with non-directive techniques in the frame of a national research that this special issue is devoted to.
The analysis of empirical material draws on the following research question: through what practices and discursive forms do the sharing economy operators shape the theme of sharing? The results highlight the emphasis of operators on the theme of trust as consumer motivation, while economic reasons are underestimated; their self-presentation as carriers of economic, social and normative in- novation; a fideistic attitude towards sharing as a force of socio-economic change; an ideological view of the sharing economy. Criticism in the sharing economy is raised by small-scale service providers, while large platform operators show an acritic attitude towards the many problematic issues related to the sharing economy (tension between relational and commercial aspects, regulation, injunction to share, quality of the innovation produced by the sharing economy)
Sellers of Experience: The New Face of Fashion Retail and the Role of Consumers as ‘Store Readers’
No full textMost scholars agree in affirming that fashion is about two main phenomena: changing and creating. Both actions concern the production or renovation of products but also new ways to sell them. In recent times, the categories of periodicity and obsolescence have spread from fashion production to fashion distribution, turning the retail spaces into something that requires a continuous rethinking in order to fulfil the desires of the consumers. Fashion retail is nowadays not just a mechanism through which the clothes reach customers but a key tool for creating the brand image. This need has been translated into a wide range of distribution options. The main fashion retail formats could be described by positioning them in a two-axis map that considers the nature of the store (multi- brand vs. single-brand) and its ability to offer an exciting experience to the customer (high experience/symbolic power vs. low power). This paper will focus on the variety of fashion retail formats, with particular attention to the most innovative ones (e.g.: concept and flagship stores, temporary shops, e-commerce), by discussing trends impacting on fashion retails. Finally, the evolution of fashion retail will be examined by proposing a three-stage timeline: (a) the shop as a point of sale (in a Fordist and product-driven market); (b) the shop as a point of purchase (in a Postfordist and consumer-driven market); (c) the shop as a point of experience (in the contemporary market driven by experience and consumption as a part of citizens’ lifestyles). Through this examination, I shall reconsider fashion retail in a sociological perspective by exploring stores as places where people have meaningful experiences in their everyday life, but also as texts that the consumer- reader can read and interpret by accepting (fully or partially) or refusing the meanings incorporated in the store-text
Moda e web 2.0, i fashion blog cambiano la comunicazione?
No full textI fashion blog sono la peculiare declinazione che il fenomeno del blogging ha assunto nel campo della moda. Nati come ‘diari personali’ di operatori, professionisti e consumatori per condividere con altri utenti i propri personali gusti in materia di abbigliamento e tendenze, si sono presto contraddistinti per un prevalere della componente iconografica su quella testuale, tanto che sono spesso indicati come ‘fashion photoblog’. Esempi opposti ma ugualmente paradigmatici di questo universo composito sono, da un lato, The Sartorialist, blog del fotografo statunitense Scott Schuman, che nei suoi post ritrae persone dal look particolare incontrate nelle capitali mondiali della moda e fotografate per strada; dall’altro non può non essere citato Style Rookie dell'adolescente americana Tavi Gevinson, tipico esempio di blog nato ‘dal basso’ e capace di fare di una consumatrice, per di più giovanissima, un punto di riferimento degli appassionati di moda. Le fotografie del professionista Schuman e gli autoscatti della giovane Tavi hanno ben poco in comune, fatta eccezione per i milioni di contatti mensili. Mostrano, dunque, quanto varie possano essere le fonti di informazione sulla moda nell’epoca del web 2.0.
Una prima classificazione dei fashion blog può essere fatta individuando tre categorie di contenuti. In primo luogo gli ‘outfit’, vale a dire l’insieme dei capi e accessori indossati da una persona. Il più seguito blog italiano è quello di Chiara Ferragni (The Blonde Salad), che propone quasi quotidianamente fotografie della sua autrice con mise sempre diverse, nel tentativo di proporre e sperimentare soluzioni vestimentarie sempre inedite e aggiornate. Esistono poi blog dedicati allo ‘streetstyle’ e ispirati al capostipite The Sartorialist, in cui l’attenzione si concentra sui passanti e sui loro intriganti look; blog che hanno creato una sorta di database globale sugli stili urbani, in un panorama che, da Hel Looks a Manyla Style, trasforma le città in passerelle aperte 24 ore al giorno. Una terza tipologia di blog si occupa invece di ‘vintage’ e va alla ricerca di capi usati o nuovi, ma con una patina piacevolmente retro. I tre generi possono ovviamente ibridarsi, ma molti blog seguono da subito una di queste strade e la mantengono nel tempo. Accanto a questa tripartizione dobbiamo però osservare la nascita di fashion blog aziendali, promossi da imprese produttrici di moda per stabilire un contatto dialogico con i propri consumatori; un approccio molto spesso non orientato alla vendita e alla promozione del brand, capace di affrontare temi di discussione più ampi, come accade in Benetton Talk
L'ispirazione industrializzata
No full textIl controverso legame tra moda e arte è radicato, tra gli altri elementi, nella retorica dell’ispirazione e della creatività, miti fondativi della figura dell’arti- sta così come del fashion designer. Nella moda, tuttavia, le esigenze produtti- ve dettate dalla temporalità breve delle collezioni, oggi esasperata dal fast fashion, hanno in una certa misura codificato e strutturato le pratiche di ricer- ca di ispirazione da parte dei creatori, che non possono peraltro non tener conto dei gusti dei consumatori e dei mutamenti degli stili di vita. La prassi della «ricerca tendenze», che si fa strada tra anni Sessanta e Settanta del secolo scorso con la nascita del fashion forecasting ed evolve fino all’affermazione del coolhunting negli anni Novanta, «industrializza» l’ispirazione, ne sistema- tizza i contesti e i metodi di individuazione, allontanandola dall’idea di un in- tervento soprannaturale che feconda l’ingegno umano: al contrario, un insieme di attività che spaziano dai viaggi di ricerca all’osservazione degli stili di stra- da mostrano un umanissimo e attivo lavoro di raccolta di stimoli da tradurre in idee progettuali. Da questo punto di vista, la moda sembra allontanarsi in ma- niera decisa dall’ideale dell’art pour l’art.
In questo capitolo mi propongo di utilizzare la pratica professionale del coolhunting come chiave di lettura della relazione tra moda e arte. Il primo paragrafo isola quattro possibili modi di interpretare il nesso tra i due mondi, evidenziando la singolare capacità della moda di generare pratiche al confine tra ispirazione e tendenza, termini esplorati rispettivamente nei paragrafi 2 e 3 e posti a confronto nel paragrafo 4 alla luce delle esperienze professionali dei coolhunter. Il percorso argomentativo porterà, nelle conclusioni, a riconoscere nell’«industrializzazione dell’ispirazione» un punto di equilibrio tra istanze artistiche e commerciali nella moda, compatibile con la definizione di moda come arte sui generis segnata da un legame imprescindibile con il mondo del consumo
Got to be real: An investigation into the co-fabrication of authenticity by fashion companies and digital influencers
No full textThis article investigates how fashion companies build their relationships with digital influencers (DIs), a new group of cultural intermediaries who are increasingly central to brand communication strategies. Scholars have mostly studied DIs' role in influencing the market, but largely neglected the process through which they build their work. Through a qualitative inductive research directed at 21 Italian fashion companies, we describe the process through which companies fabricate the authenticity work, while collaborating with DIs. By taking the overlooked perspective of the company brand owner, we identify the underlying dynamics of achieving co-fabricated authenticity, unpacking the mechanisms through which companies select DIs, shape the connections and regulate the reciprocity with them. Our findings highlight how companies and DIs' practices become intertwined, with the commodity of authenticity being constructed at the crossroads between the former's commercial needs and the latter's grassroots narratives and practices. 'Co-fabricated authenticity' ultimately emerges as the result of the work of those actors who are engaged in managing the authenticity or processes of authentication of marketable goods: the intangible and ephemeral value of authenticity is made tangible and co-produced through the collaboration between brands and cultural intermediaries such as DIs
Dignità dell'effimero, ambivalenza e violenza simbolica. Tre lezioni da Die Mode
No full textDie Mode, apparso in forma definitiva nel 1911 all’interno di Philosophische Kultur, rap-presenta un classico di enorme valore teorico per la sociologia della moda, che nel corso del XX secolo non ha mai smesso di confrontarsi con le riflessioni simmeliane sul signifi-cato sociale dell’abbigliamento. Partendo dal saggio di Simmel e dalle sue tracce nel pensi-ero successivo, il paper intende mettere a fuoco tre lezioni che Die Mode lascia in eredità ai sociologi contemporanei. 1. Attraverso il saggio microsociologico e l’attenzione per i temi apparentemente più superficiali, come la moda, Simmel mostra la dignità sociologica degli oggetti privi di «importanza» sociale o politica. 2. Leggendo la moda come mecca-nismo sociale in cui coesiste una duplice tensione all’imitazione e alla differenziazione, Simmel invita a una lettura ambivalente e non monodimensionale dei fenomeni sociali. 3. L’accento sulle donne come vittime della moda richiama la necessità di analizzare anche gli oggetti sociali a prima vista più effimeri come forme di potere e di potenziale dominio, nelle quali è implicita la possibilità di una violenza simbolica nei confronti dei gruppi so-ciali subalterni
La teoria della violenza simbolica in P. Bourdieu
No full textSymbolic violence theory in Pierre Bourdieu. Pierre Bourdieu’s thought is generally linked to the concepts of habitus, capital and field. On the contrary, his symbolic violence theory is not so well-known. Bourdieu coins this expression to point out a kind of invisible violence, by means of which some meanings are imposed as being legitimate, concealing the relations of power whose these meanings are an expression. Symbolic violence theory appears in Bourdieu’s studies on Kabyle society and it is treated in his works on school and education, crossing his more important books, until La domination masculine, where it is examined by considering the male domination over the women. In carrying out an analysis of Pierre Bourdieu’s works, the paper wants to illustrate symbolic violence theory by means of the formulations proposed by his author, and then it considers his limits and uses in the sociological literature, where the concept is often treated as being a simple opposite of physical or real violence. For sociology, it is a theory with a strong heuristic force, which can offer a model to interpret every field of human activity
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