Fashion as Communication

Sarrah Passe Senior Seminar 2014 Nicole Keating Woodbury University

as

Table of Contents Fashion Industry Fashion Infographic Nonverbal Medium Cultural Cases Mass Media Advertisements Marketers Fashion Cycle Geography Works Cited Images Cited Reflection

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The Fashion Industry Background

“FASHION reflects

The global fashion industry is conservatively estimated to be worth over 1.3 trillion dollars; that is around 2% of the value of the world economy (Öhnfeldt, 2010, p.1). The fashion industry is a product of the modern age. Prior to the mid-19th century, most clothing was custom made. The term fashion was first used during the fourteenth century. The word was, as it is today, connected to people’s appearance according to established norms and customs (Easey, 2009). Fashion reflects our society and our culture; likewise it reflects how people define themselves. Fashion can be found in almost any human activity. The term involves change and can be defined as series of short term trends (Solomon). Additionally, fashion reflects social consensus and to achieve consensus we must have communication. Generally, people are affected by fashion both psychologically and socially. If you have a "good" sense of fashion, you are more socially accepted by your peers and others around you. People tend to equate fashion with clothing and accessories even though fashion processes affect all types of cultural occurrences like political statements, economies, and technology.

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social consensus and to achieve consensus we must have COMMUNICATION”

http://www.pamorama.net/2013/04/21/the-role-of-color-in-marketing-infographics/

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We communicate even further on a

NONVERBAL level by what we chose to cover our bodies with.

When we think of communication, the first way that comes to mind is verbally speaking to one another. The body is an instrument of message; not just because the mouth speaks, the hands articulate, or the feet move, but because of all the nonverbal cues that influence each message. We communicate even further on a nonverbal level by what we chose to cover our bodies with.

Fashion, just as any other language, has its own syntax. There are unspoken rules about what matches, what is appropriate, what to wear in certain situations, and what is unacceptable. And similar to spoken language, these rules are learned from our family, friends, groups to which we belong, and from the media.

Choosing the right vocabulary to express yourself is vital in making sure you get your message across the way you want it to be interpreted. Saying the wrong thing can cause a lot of damage to you, the speaker, and the listener. While most times more formal way of speaking is used with teachers and employers and a more casual form of speech, including slang, is used with family and friends.

Fashion plays the same role. Certain garments, hair styles, or make-up may be appropriate at specific times and places, and yet offensive at others. For example, a mini skirt, revealing top, and heels are perfect for a night on the town, but may be unfavorable for Sunday church. Choosing the right attire to give off the impression you desire is just as important as finding the right words to deliver a message. Personal presentation is the first thing another person sees; before you have even spoken a word, an impression has been given (“Fashion�, 2011).

Additionally, individuals communicate a society’s beliefs and values through practices and artifacts, which in this case are clothing and fashion. That means that clothes are used to help separate groups in our society, which turns culture into a general signifying classification. Many fashion rules develop from deeply rooted religious beliefs, and serve as a form of identification for individuals who are members of that community.

Fashion and clothing are used to separate and distinguish different cultural groups in society. Fashion and clothing are cultural in the sense that they are some of the ways in which a group constructs and communicates its identity and also that they are communicative in that they are nonverbal ways to express values (Dyer).

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Clothing is specifically human. We view dress as a product and as a process that distinguishes human beings from other animals. How we dress our bodies has significance that has intrigued people for centuries. “Human beings, in every society on the globe, dress themselves for many and varied reasons, including protection of the body, extension of the body’s abilities, beautification, and nonverbal communication about the wearer. However, great variation exists from one society to another in the forms of dress and their meanings” (Eicher, 2008). U.S. anthropologists Fletcher and La Flesche analyzed the meaning communicated by different ways of wrapping enclosures (blankets, or the historically earlier buffalo robes) within Omaha cultural practice: bystander observing a transaction, young man waiting for his lover, man addressing the tribe, and man admonishing the tribe.

Dressing the body involves actions undertaken to modify and supplement the body in order to address physical needs and to meet social and cultural expectations about how individuals should look. Dress is a major form of material culture and it is influenced by cultural ideas standards, and beliefs. The dupatta, often translated into English as ‘veil’ is worn by women in South Asia with the salwar and kameez, or other two-garment ensembles covering the upper and lower halves of the body. Yet it differs greatly from the English language meaning of the word veil. A dupatta can be worn in a variety of socially prescribed ways, depending on cultural region and social context. These range from completely covering all but the wearer’s hand and forearm, to covering only the head, breasts, shoulders, to covering only the shoulders and bun of hair on the back of a woman’s head.

The manner of the veils’ physical construction also differs and seldom includes the netting that is commonly used for brides’ veils in the United States (Eicher, 2008). Furthermore, During the 1980s, rebellious teenagers in the United Kingdom, adopted a style of hair dubbed ‘the Mohawk’, which originated among American Indians, both as a hairstyle and headdress silhouette. Such adoptions into contemporary dress across cultures or across time periods confound the categorization of this style of dress as either fashionable or ethnic dress. Ethnic dress relates to what people from a particular heritage or tradition wear at a specific time, as well as to the history of the people wearing it (Eicher, 2008).

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A. Amish

B. Christian

C. Hindu

Modest apparel is used to prevent “vanity and boastfulness�. They believe dress to be an expression of humility and faith that distinguishes them.

Women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with moderation. It is also important to maintain malefemale distinction.

Sari is considered the official clothing of Hindu women.

The chastity of a woman is of utmost importance. A woman must always maintain and guard her virtue.

D. Jewish

E. Mormon

F. Muslim

A married Orthodox Jewish woman wears a wig or scarf (tichel) in public to ensure their modesty under Jewish law, but still allows them to fit into American Culture.

Maintain a high standard of modesty. Clothing should not draw attention to any body part and be feminine and professional.

Women are believed to have sexual powers that may tempt males. Veiling can be used to communicate nationalism and/or anti-western sentiment.

A

D

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B

C

E

F

M

94% read at least one magazine and average more than 11 different issues a month

agazines were truly America’s first national

mass medium, and like books they served as an important force in social change. The mass circulation of magazine grew with the nation.

Between 1900 and 1945, the number of families who subscribed to one or more magazines grew from 200,000 to more than 32 million. Magazines are an integral part of the fashion industry, helping to

How people use magazines also makes them

publicize trends, sell beauty and fashion products,

an attractive advertising medium. People report:

and promote designers and labels. Magazines spread

Reading magazines as much for the ads as for the

fashion through their editors, articles, images, but

editorial content, keeping them available for up to

also through their advertisement. The history of

four months, passing them along to an average of

magazines makes them a reliable source. Even in the

four similar adults, and being very loyal, which

early 1900, “Women saw what they liked in the

translates into increased esteem for those

pages of fashion magazines and were no longer

advertisers in the pages of their favorite

satisfied with dresses that were not identified with

publications. In 1950 there were 6,950 magazines

the style of a particular fashion designer“(“How

in operation exceeding 22,000 in 2002, 12,000 of

Magazines”). Industry research indicates that among

those being general interest consumer

people with at least some college, 94% read at least

magazines. Of these, 800 produce three-fourths of

one magazine and average more than 11 different

the industry’s gross revenues. Ten new magazine

issues a month. Nearly the same figures apply for

titles are launched every week (Magazine

households with annual incomes of over $40,000 and

Publishers of America, 2000).

for people in professional and managerial careers, regardless of educational attainment.

The typical magazine reader is at least high school graduate, is married, owns his or her own house, is employed full time, and has an annual household income of just under 40,000. Advertisers find magazine readers an attractive, upscale audience for their pitches” (“Cultural”).

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Readers give

Fashion magazines are

The ‘pretty women’

commitment to their

huge commercial and cultural

that are seen in magazines

magazines. Copies tend to be

force and it would be a mistake

are fake. A girl you see in a

read repeatedly, often picked

to treat it lightly. According

magazine probably looks a

up more than once during a

to the National Association of

lot different in real life, but

day and on more than one

Anorexia Nervosa and

when girls of such young ages

day. Readers take action as a

Associated Disorders, nearly

are reading magazines they

result of seeing advertising in

70 percent of girls in grades

do not know that the females

magazines. Targeting with

five through 12 said magazine

they are suppose to identify

precision and without expense

images influence their ideals of

with are not real. Through

is a key strength of magazines.

a perfect body. 48% of teenage

social media and

There is a fine line, which

girls wish they were, “as

communication, awareness

sometimes gets crossed when

skinny as models” (cite).

campaigns are being started

magazines try to push the

Magazines are filled with

to teach about the harmful

limits to their readers; it is

images of gorgeous models

effects that magazines

often confusing if they are

who’ve been airbrushed and

unintentionally promote.

entertaining or trying to

Photoshopped to have perfect

highlight a serious issue. There

skin and bodies.

is much that gets lost in translation…

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http://rebloggy.com/post/suicide-fashion-health-thin-eating-disorder-women-model-body-television-heart-we/659362

Banned in France A depiction of a modern “The Last Supper” was seen as sacrilege.

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Controversial With the perfume named Lola, seeing the young Dakota Fanning with the floral bottle in a deliberate placement caused uproar.

Marc Jacobs

Marithé Francois Girbaud

Controversial

Banned in UK

Using wafer thin models to express their fashion addiction as a drug was too far for most.

This ad featuring Hailee Steinfeld from True Grit was banned in the UK because they said it looked like she was going to commit suicide.

Sisley

Controversial

MIU MIU

Controversial

Hair salon in Canada glamorized domestic violence to try and entice women to get their hair done.

Fluid

Instead of selling jeans, the public took this campaign as a portrayal of gang rape.

Tom Ford Jeans 11

Banned in Italy Spring 2008 brought numerous controversial ads for Tom Ford. The over sexually explicit images got many of them banned.

Tom Ford Eyewear

Controversial Audiences were upset when a child was over sexualized in this women’s clothing campaign.

Cadeau

Controversial No stranger to making a statement, Kenneth Cole is always ready to make people question what is politically happening.

Kenneth Cole

Designers and manufacturers produce clothing and accessories in accordance with the culture of a particular region. People adopt a trend in clothing only if it is in accordance with the society. Then, it becomes the style of the region. Fashion has a profound role in human culture and measuring the effectiveness of different fashion marketing strategies and analyzing consumer behavior can help answer the question: Who controls fashion: the marketers or consumers?

When clothes are made from the fabric they are merely garments. It is not until the marketers get hold of them that they become fashion. “In 2010, households spent, on average, $1,700 on apparel, footwear, and related products and services” (“How Much”). Fashion Marketing works by using current trends in fashion to analyze, develop, and implement sales strategies.

Successful fashion marketers work by taking that data and recognizing consumer trends.

Strong branding and a desirable product image are all essential elements to build an effective and meaningful campaign to bring to the public. Fashion reflects social consensus and to achieve consensus we must have communication.

Generally, people are affected by fashion both psychologically and socially.

Additionally, fashion can reflect political statements, economies, technology, and individual personalities. As there are many phases to fashion from ideation, design, production, distribution, sale, consumption, and ultimately disposal, there are numerous instances where communication plays a role.

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Once a fashion begins the downward slope of its life cycle, it is soon on its way to obsolescence. Marketers cannot change this direction, no matter how much they advertise, display, mark down, or otherwise promote the fashion. They might be able to extend the life cycle if they add new colors, fabrics, or prints to the line before sales begin to decline. However, the downturn in sales generally signals the ultimate demise of the fashion and marketers should focus the limited resources of the promotional budget on advertising and promoting new fashions.

Some of the latest trends are the result of stepping outside the norm to create something different and unheard of. A runway designer introduces a unique style in the hope that it might become the starting point of a new fashion. They can only introduce it as a worthwhile style, but its ultimate popularity depends on the public’s discretion. Unless a majority of a given group wears a style, the style never becomes a fashion; it simply remains a style (Fashion Cycles).

An important structure of communication is used establish this cycle. There are categories of adoption that help move garments through the whole cycle. The fashion innovators, individuals who respond early to an introduced item into the market, become desirable because they have controlled communication with reach and authenticity. Seeing the Innovators in magazines, blogs, and through social media outlets they have created room for the early adapters to pick up the rising trend. As the garment travels through the fashion cycle it is being pushed along with communication from peers in similar cohorts.

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Understanding the motivations of consumers to engage in relationships with marketers is important for businesses. It is necessary to understand what motivates consumers because marketers are then able to reduce their available market choices and engage in the relationship. This happens because consumers want to, “simplify their buying and consuming tasks, simplify information processing, reduce perceived risks, and maintain cognitive consistency and a state of psychological comfort.

They also engage in relational market behavior because of family and social norms, peer group pressures, government mandates, religious tenets, employer influences, and marketer policies� (Sheth, 1).

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/look-how-geography-affects-shopping-habit

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150145?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=06-122013&utm_campaign=technology_today

Barnard, Malcolm. Fashion as Communication. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Berger, Arthur Asa. The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Print.

"Cultural History of Mass Communications and Magazines” Jason Roering Publishing. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Damhorst, M. L., Spillman, K. A., & Michelman, S. O. (2005). The meanings of dress (2nd ed.). New York: Fairchild Publications.

Dyer, Mary H. "What Is the Amish Dress Code?" People by Demand Media. Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Easey,M. (2009). Fashion Marketing (3 ed.). United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.

Eicher, Joanne Bubolz., Sandra Lee. Evenson, and Hazel A. Lutz. The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture, and Society. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Fairchild Publications, 2008. Print.

"Fashion as Communication." Fashion as Communication. 13 May 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

FASHION CYCLES. FASHION CYCLES. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.fashiondesignscope.com/?p=117 "How Magazines Spread Fashion." Dashing Communication. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

“How Much Do Consumers Spend on Apparel?”. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/fashion/ Öhnfeldt, R., & Holberg, J. (2010, April 1). The female Fashion Consumer Behavior. . Retrieved April 14, 2014, from https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/22658/1/gupea_2077_22658_1.pdf Pegg, Brian. "List25." List25. N.p., 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Sheth, J., & Parvatlyar, A. (1995). Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: Antecedents and Consequenes. Sage Journals, 23. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from http://jam.sagepub.com/content/23/4/255.short

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http://www.partfaliaz.com/photographers/very-exciting-fashion-photography-by-paco-peregrin/ http://fashionmedium.blogspot.com/ https://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/category/fashion-2-0/ Sari: http://www.pbs.org/thestoryofindia/gallery/photos/4.html Burka: http://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/tag/burkas/ Amish: http://martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/oct2006/amish1.html Mormon: https://missionary.lds.org/dress-grooming/sister/guidelines/?lang=eng Color: http://www.pamorama.net/2013/04/21/the-role-of-color-in-marketing-infographics/ Nonverbal: http://www.nonverbalgroup.com/2011/08/how-much-of-communication-is-really-nonverbal/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02500169008537718?journalCode=rcsa20#preview http://www.examiner.com/article/clothing-is-a-mode-of-non-verbal-communication-too http://www.refinedguy.com/2013/09/10/35-controversial-fashion-ads/#33 http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/look-how-geography-affects-shopping-habits150145?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=06-122013&utm_campaign=technology_today http://rebloggy.com/post/suicide-fashion-health-thin-eating-disorder-women-model-body-television-heartwe/65936290353 https://www.flickr.com/photos/43285434@N04/6963425537/in/photostream

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Going into this semester, I felt that I would have been really overwhelmed with my other classes plus senior seminar. I am delighted looking back now, that was not the case. I started unsure of what my topic and project would be, but I am satisfied with my end result. My original proposal was a research paper discovering how fashion marketing and consumerism is connected, but quickly lost steam on that original idea. Due to the fact they are both so intertwined, it became hard to clearly define an accurate argument. I knew from the beginning that this would be a time consuming project and at the end I wanted the end product to be something I was proud to show off. I got an early start on my research, but quickly became bored of the content and presentation. I put the project aside for a couple weeks and then approached with a new perspective and energy. The final topic narrowed fashion as a form of communication and I was happy to be able to blend my major with my love for fashion.

This is a project that I think would be interested in continuing to expand and even possibly make more specific. A way I would like to improve is by interviewing professionals with fashion industry, as well as adding to my communication knowledge. Having their insight could have taken me down other paths that I did not even know to explore. I struggled to find people to quote that directly related. Many books I found focused on fashion or communication; very few blended the topics in a way I really understood. Furthermore, I know some sections are stronger than others and could be related back to communication better.

Overall, I am satisfied with the presentation of my research.

Being able to express myself through the format really helped keep my attention on the project. I feared that I would put it off to the last minute and not be as satisfied with the end result. I worked hard to pace myself; which allowed me to take breaks when I became frustrated.

Additionally, I have been able to spend time editing to make sure it is the best it could possibly be. Although this was time consuming and put the practice of time management to the test, I feel I have successfully created a project that I would be proud to share in an interview.

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