Design Contextual Studies (Case study) by XINYI FAN

The Cultural Value of Artistic Collaboration In the Postmodern Society

MA Design Management for Fashion Industry STUDENT NAME: XINYI FAN (CAROLINE) STUDENT ID: FAN13401890 UNITE TITLE: Contextual Studies UNITE LEADER: DR. ALESSANDRA VECCHI DATE: 03/07/2014

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Summary: In the postmodern era, when garments are reproduced in a large numbers for a commercial purpose, fashion designers have embraced various artistic collaborations for their collection in order to meet the increasing aesthetic demand. This paper offers consumer perspective as well as designer perspective on the impact and value of artistic collaboration in terms of the postmodern consumption pattern.

Table of Content:

1. Abstract.…………………………………………………………………………..3 2. Introduction………………………………………………………………………3 3. Literature Review.………………………………………………………………..6 3.1 Consumption Revolution in Postmodernism…………………………………. 6 3.2 Artistic Collaboration…………………………………………………………. 9 4. Methodology…………………………………………………………………….. 9 4.1 Questionnaire………………………………………………………………...13 4.2 In-depth interview…………………………………………………………….15 5. Findings………………………………………………………………………… 16 5.1 The impact of the Artistic Collaboration……...………………………………16 5.2 The Value of the Artistic Collaboration…………………….…………………19 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… 22 7. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….25 8. Appendix………………………………………………………………………...28

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Abstract Purpose—The paper aims to examine whether fashion designers can avoid uniformity by collaborating with artists to create cultural value. It also seeks to produce a framework to verify the potential value through collaboration.

Methodology—A pre-selected group was investigated to evaluate the impact of the artistic collaboration. The in-depth interviews with fashion designers were also conducted to analyze the value of artistic collaboration and the nature of fashion design through collaboration within the postmodern society.

Main Finding—Result of the exploratory study reveals that the fashion design could institutionalise aesthetic perception of their design through artistic collaboration in order to create cultural value and avoid uniformity.

Key words: Postmodernism, Artistic Collaboration, Fashion Design, Cultural Value

1. Introduction The contemporary period has been characterized as ‘mass’ age, which usually refers to ‘mass production’, ‘mass consumption’ by sociologists and cultural scholars, and this is considered to be fueled by the technological advancement (Crane 2000;

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Breward 2003). In addition to this situation, the society has moved into a stage of consumer capitalism as well as postmodernism, where an increasing uniformity is perceived as tendency in terms of the contemporary fashion industry (Featherstone 2007; Breward & Evans 2005). Diversity and heterogeneity are evident in the proliferation of fashion styles produced by designers to meet the demands of a bi-annually consumed market (Taylor 2005). However, once those design are reproduced at every levels of quality, through diffusion line and high-street line, it ultimately result into uniformity or homogeneity and does nothing to refresh the pre-existing pattern of fashion design in order to create really innovative approaches to fashion (Breward & Evans 2005).

“Fashion must maintain a relationship with the extra-disciplinary, it must be open to every sort of innovation and unexpected development” –Celant 1998: 18 Simultaneously, fashion is not only communicated in the commercial domain as a cyclical industry but also has become analyzed within a framework of cultural thought, owing to its controversially widespread placement in the other new areas of culture (Taylor 2005). Fashion design as an aesthetically driven system nevertheless has a subsequent lack of the conceptual depth and lasting progress in creative development, in comparison, art specialises in both and deserves its institutional status (Taylor 2005). In order to develop fashion design beyond its commercial ties, fashion at some

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level attach itself to the partnership of art. They seem to address the dual partnership by considering collaboration between fashion designers and artists, which indeed endow the garments with high cultural values and elevate it to art form (Taylor 2005).

In 2011, the show ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ broke the attendance record of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York with more than 650,000 visitors (Smith & Kubler 2013). McQueen was a British designer who mastered melodramatic 16th Century pattern cutting and the razor sharp tailoring from theatrical costumiers Angel and Berman (McQueen 2014). During the lifetime, he was employed by avant-garde designer Koji Tatsuno and aristocratic romanticism designer Romeo Gigli respectively, which followed by completing MA Fashion Design at Central Saint Martin (McQueen 2014). His collections are always regarded as postmodern, destructive and conceptual through narrative inspiration referenced beyond fashion into art, film and theatre, which may not only attribute to those studies and experiences but also to those artistic collaboration for his collections (Smith & Kubler 2013; Watt 2012).

The purpose of this study is to examine whether artistic collaboration can be conducted as a process for fashion designers to endow their design an intellectual framework to not only better adapt to the consumption pattern of postmodern society but also create cultural values by taking Alexander McQueen as a case study (Smith

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& Kubler 2013). Literature reviews of consumption revolution in terms of postmodernism as well as the artistic collaboration are presented in the second section. This paper also seeks to •

Investigate the terms of artistic collaboration and consumption revolution in the context of postmodern era.

•

Evaluate the impact and value of artistic collaboration through questionnaire and drawing insight from the in-depth interview.

The paper concludes with the future challenges and opportunities in the final section.

2. Literature Review 2.1 Consumption Revolution in Postmodernism “Postmodernism is a world of culture in which tradition, consensual values, normative control, absolutist forms of knowledge and universal beliefs and standards have been challenged, undermined and rejected for heterogeneity, differentiation and difference.” –Jenks 1998: 364 Fashion as a medium is commonly regarded as crucial construction of signs for the consumption patterns or the quintessential postmodernist consumer practice in the contemporary era (Wilson cited in Breward & Evans 2005; Dolfsma 2004). Within the postmodern society, the fashion designs seem constantly being plagiarized, adapted and reproduced from the existent content to adhere to the market demands, which might due to the widespread information available on the social media and internet,

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trends that being disseminated to the mass-market and the critical comments of fashion being publicized through the blogs and magazines (Magdanz 2000 cited in Taylor 2005). The production in fashion system, which presents new design biannually to keep in cohesion with the Baudrillard’s postmodern consumers, is indeed with noting new is shown (Taylor 2005). Fashion designers could be argued that they lose their power getting inspirations to be a genius, while design becomes a co-production between creators and consumers during this era (Vinken 2004).

Meanwhile, although there is no doubt that an increasingly large numbers of products are being produced on the market compared to it used to be, the regularity and predictability that science looks for to explain the consumption pattern seem lost (Dolfsma 2004). In “Paradoxes of Modernist Consumption—Reading Fashion”, Dolfsma cited Kaiser et al.’s (1991) argument about consumption revolution in postmodernism that strongly persuading people to reflexive and reassess meanings, which cannot reasonably explain why the product’s life and times are entirely incomprehensible, especially towards fashion industry. The following issues might be contribute to the causes of consumption revolution: •

It might attribute to the consumption pattern changing with the advent of mass consumption, which came with the mass production (Kawamura 2004). The mass consumption referring to reaching all regions and all social classes by the similar merchandise ultimately transformed people’s value systems. Fashion,

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which used to be the epitome of luxury, was democratized by the economic transformation and technological changes lowering the cost of the existing design and products (Kawamura 2004). •

Historically, people who could afford to consume fashion were usually own high standing and substantial fortune. To the days when consumers are no longer fashion-victims, designers and manufacturers tried to manipulate the public even though the public often refuses to accept their suggested style changes (Kawamura 2004). In postmodern society, every population present a number of different patterns of consumption linked to geography, age, lifestyle and financial status etc., which has been criticized as the egoistic materialism by Millar (Svendsen 2006). However, Gills Lipovetsky argued that consumption in present-day is not controlled by the ambition of social recognition any longer, it shift to be more motivated as a practice to experience well-being and pleasure (Svendsen 2006).

•

Simultaneously, the everyday life of the cities becomes aestheticized (Morss, 1983; Jameson 1984; Featherstone 1991; Lash & Urry 1994). The utopian and positive moment that Benjamin emphasized within the mass-produced consumption indeed liberated creativity from art into the multiplicity of everyday objects (Featherstone 2007). Commenters who stressed the transgressive and playful potential of postmodernism have taken up the celebration of the aesthetic potential of mass culture and the aesthetic perceptions of people (Hebdige 1988;

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Chanbers 1986,1987 cited in Featherstone 2007). It seems that the new ‘aesthetic paradigm’ should be taken into account for the future consumption (Maffesoli 1988 cited in Featherstone 2007).

It would appear that postmodernism is a double-edged sword for fashion design with regards to the fashion consumption revolution. The latter need a new tool to not only better adapt to postmodern society but also foster opportunity for potential consumption patterns.

2.2 Artistic Collaboration With the changes that postmodernism brought to the environment in which the fashion designers are led by the fashion organization operate to develop new strategies for presenting design to the consumers (Crane 2000). In this ephemeral and so-called ‘image-driven’ society, fashion design has at some level attached itself to the partnership of the art and fashion, where some designers undergo the similar ideological and cultural circumstance as that of the contemporary artists (Taylor 2005). The accessibility of fashion taking its advantage of manifestation is able to communicate the idea to the mainstream; however, art is limited in its communicative capacity due to its high-cultural status (Taylor 2005; Guinness 2013 cited in Smith & Kubler 2013). In this case, the collaborations between the artists and designers, which seem accidental, are indeed inevitable. The nature of such relationship is also

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considered to be a dually beneficial nature, as fashion seeks to attach itself to the value system of art (Taylor 2005). The main issue is whether the outcome of the collaboration deserves of an artist’s status rather than whether it is created as art form (Guinness 2013 cited in Smith & Kubler 2013).

The terms of artistic collaboration are actually not a new phenomenon, as early as 20th century, the couturier Paul Poiret employed graphic artists including Paul Iribe and Erte to design textile print for the collection; in addition, the ‘Lobster’ dress designed by the Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiapareli with contemporary artist Salvador Dali and famously worn by Wallis Simpson (Smith & Kubler 2013). In the intensely profit-driven postmodern era, some of the luxury brands and fashion houses such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Prada collaborated with artists to reinvent their brand for existing clientele and make them relevant to the potential audience at the same time (Smith & Kubler 2013).

Although adequate discourses have been analyzed about the topic in art and fashion circles respectively, the artistic collaboration is seldom mentioned as a uniform definition by the social theories or culture theories, even in the fashion theories. Additionally, there also has been no systematic examination of the specific project, which may able to prove whether the nature of fashion design has been changed through collaboration (Smith & Kubler 2013). In the book Art/Fashion in the 21st

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Century, the notion of artistic collaboration in fashion is defined as the way fashion designer employs an artist’s work for the purpose of designing and decorating its signature design or products (Smith & Kubler 2013). Aside from the potential profits perspectives, artistic collaboration simultaneously offers other benefits for fashion label such as a marketing tool to reinforce the notion ranging from the concept of authenticity to the brand recognition so as to be economic justification; the prestige that associate with the contemporary art; of-the-moment relevance which is essential for the historical luxury brand; the fresh irreverence and additional gravitas to the functional products line (Smith & Kubler 2013).

Nevertheless, there still left a question for those fashion designers in Britain who have been trained in the fine art tradition. Unlike the fine artists, they must be able to follow the design into production and consider the consumption issues at the same time (McRobbie 1998). So far, little attempt has been made to debate about the ‘the status of artistic designers like John Galliano or Alexander McQueen and the value of their work’ (Bruzzi & Gibson 2000). In this case, whether fashion design can be endowed an intellectual framework to create cultural value in terms of postmodern society through being collaborated with art works will be examined in this paper.

3. Methodology The logic of deduction, which justifies theoretical structure into the facts through

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empirical observation by data collection, was adopted as methodology for the study (Gill & Johnson 2010). The Dolfsma’s theory of ‘The Social Value Nexus’ was selected as it investigated the experiential and socio-cultural dimensions of consumption in the context of the post-modern, is depicted in Figure 1.

Socio-cultural Value

Institutional Setting/ Institutions

Value –Figure1: The Social Value Nexus Source: Dolfsma (2004)

Socio-cultural value in his paper denotes the strong underlying convictions that most people in a group or in society hold sometimes could be regarded as an ethical or philosophical nature (2004). Dresses are obviously more prone to having symbolic meaning than others by communicating message to the relevant “audience” (Cosgel 1992,1994 cited in Dolfsma 2004; Crane 2000). Among postmodern consumption patterns, fashion indicates a continuously changing sense of style emphasizing different socio-cultural value in an unconventional way (Thompson & Haytko 1997 cited in Dolfsma 2004). On the other hand, the institutionalised consumption on the whole creates identity referring to those socio-cultural values (Dolfsma 2004). The values as outcomes are the terms of trade or exchange established in society for

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specific goods or services differing between different institutional settings where different socio-cultural values are expressed (Dolfsma 2004). Based on the concept of the social value in terms of the postmodern society, the new objectives had been added into the figure for the empirical testing. Artistic Collaboration

Fashion Design (Socio-cultural Value)

Questionnaire

Aesthetic Perceptions (Institutional Setting/ Institutions)

In-depth Interview Cultural Value (Value) –Figure2: The Social Value Nexus Adapted from Dolfsma (2004)

3.1 Questionnaire A sample of 40 pre-selected students including 25 of who possessed visual art professional background as well as 15 of who were studying fashion related specialisms were selected to research the impact of artistic collaboration on institutionalising the aesthetic perception of design, on the basis that they have keen aesthetic recognition more than averages. Although the socio-cultural values change

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less quickly than institutions do according to Dolfsma’s paper, in fact, people usually take times to gain aesthetic perceptions to the certain design of fashion. Compared to average people, art/fashion design students who have been training as artist tradition react quicker to the aesthetic value of fashion and art, which indeed make a judgment sample appropriate for this study (Zikmund & Babin 2010).

Simultaneously, as young consumer, they tend to have a long purchasing life and represent future high-income earners and spenders (Mintel 2009). The questionnaire was chosen to investigate the phenomenon within the context of British Students in light of the country’s central role in fashion design and its privileged perspective on this phenomenon. The questions, which investigate from both creators’ perspective and consumers’ perspective, tended to prove whether uniformity of fashion is considered as a phenomenon in postmodern society; explore their aesthetic perception towards those collaborations; evaluate the influence of the collaborations by taking Alexander McQueen as an example.

British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was selected to be case study since the design of his garments were always imbued with the recognition of the fine artists and long-term collaboration with the artists including jewelry designer & fine art artist—Simon Costin, textile designer—Simon Ungless, milliner designer & fashion designer—Philip Treacy, accessories designer—Shaun Leane, choreograph &

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dancer—Michael Clark, dancer—Les Child, portrait designer—Gray James and fine artist—Damien Hirst (Watt 2012), even the design now is commercially reproduced in large numbers (Smith & Kubler 2013).

3.2 In-depth Interview Aside from questionnaire, in-depth interview was also conducted as the data collection instrument in order to investigate the inner thought of the artistic collaboration from fashion designers. Since Alexander McQueen was chosen to be the case study, fashion designers who have worked in their fashion house would be prior and advantageous. The follow-up interviews actually provided opportunity for capturing the professional ideas for the specific issues, which had been identified in the literature reviews (Burawoy 1991 & Morgan 1997). The questions of the in-depth interviews mainly focused on the issues whether such collaboration would change the nature of fashion design or not and to what extent do they think that artistic collaboration would endow fashion design the value such as cultural sophistication, art status or institutional status which have been mentioned by fashion theorists, sociologists and economists.

It seems recognised that analysis basing on the theoretical concept is usually qualitative (Ross & Harradine 2010). Nevertheless, the adoption of the quantitative data in relation to the framework was created specifically for this essay. The data of

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questionnaire intended to give the visual depiction that to what extent artistic collaboration could be institutionalised to create cultural value. Even though the students who have already possessed advanced aesthetic perceptions would be more contributed to verifying the framework and cognizing the aesthetic value, they cannot represent the public groups. It should be noted that this research is merely designed for the specific module, but this could form the basis for the further study.

4. Findings 4.1 The impact of Artistic Collaboration In the postmodern society, as a result of technological reproducibility, the mass fashion marketing and mass communication of information on new trends seem homogenize and standardize consumer aesthetic perception (Kawamura 2004).

Do you think there is an increasing uniformity in fashion industry? Consumer Perspective

Creator Perspective 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% No, I don't think so Yes, I do think so

Creator Perspective 58.8%

Consumer Perspective 14.7%

41.2%

85.3%

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN Figure 3: Survey result—In term of the postmodern society, do you think there is an increasing uniformity in fashion industry? (Choose from both creator perspective and consumer perspective)

Although there has been a tremendous amount of social visibility as well as the constant motivation for designers to differentiate their design from the others, there seems merely a slight different according to the Figure 3 (Kawamura 2004). Almost 85.3% of responds pointed out that these is an increasing uniformity in fashion industry from the consumer perspective, in comparison, half of them stand for the uniformity as creator. Such results not only indicate the importance for fashion design to dissociate itself from the situation of mass production, dressmaking tradition and the manufacture since the consumers seem unwelcome the connotation of the “rag trade”, but also remind designer that it’s time to break the existing trajectory of design history and create new approach to locate itself within postmodernism in order to avoid the uniformity (Bruzzi & Gibson 2000).

“This whole situation is such a cliché. The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I think that is a big part of the problem. There is no longevity.” —Alexander McQueen 2008 Simultaneously, fashion designer strive to gain aesthetic recognition as artist even though they have never managed to gain (Svendsen 2006). Alexander McQueen as a fashion designer, however, could be regard as a model of success achieving status as kind of national cultural-icon (McRobbie cited in Bruzzi & Gibson 2000). As early as

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1992, he started the long-term collaboration with the textile designer Simon Ungless, who used to study architecture before transferring to fashion, for the MA graduation show in Central Saint Martin (Watt 2012). For the Spring/Summer 2005 collection, he collaborated with choreograph and dancer Michael Clark assisting by dancer Les Child for the second time. The show basing on his favorite films ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t they?’ attached dance as a way of using film in his collection.

For him, art imbues fashion with longevity, which he would not be able to find in fashion despite the perpetual trends for vintage, typically depreciates (Smith & Kubler 2013). The statistic in Figure 4 illustrates that all the collaborations that Alexander McQueen used which resulted into spectacular and theatrical displays of sartorial splendor institutionalised the aesthetic perception towards his shows and his design (McRobbie 1998). The longevity, which has also been proved by McQueen, could be achieved through the artistic collaboration so far.

The investigation of the questionnaire has proved the mass production and mass consumption in postmodern fashion industry ultimately resulted into an increasing uniformity. Meanwhile, the contemporary era also witnessed an increasing aestheticizing process in terms of personal fulfillment and beauty obsession, which can be also speculated from the figure 5 that people tend to embrace the artistic fashion in order to get rid of the “rag trade” (Featherstone 1991; Entwistle 2000).

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Alexander McQueen as an Artistic designer, do you think his design and his fashion shows are memorable? 0% 3% Yes, I do remember most of them 32%

Only part of them which is often shown on the magazine 65%

No, I don’t like his design

Who is he?

Figure 4: Survey result—Alexander McQueen as an Artistic designer, do you think his design and his fashion shows are memorable?

4.2 The value of the Artistic Collaboration

Which kind of fashion collaboration you would prefer to buy?

28%

Fashion designer and Artists (Bine art artist & Bilm maker& photographer) 82%

Fashion designer and High Street Retailers

Figure 5: Survey result—Which kind of fashion collaboration you would prefer to buy?

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On the other hand, the interviewee Sheraz and Mori are fashion designers who had experience working in Alexander McQueen fashion house, their answers seem contribute to verifying the value framework of artistic collaboration. Kubler (2003) defined the nature of fashion design as changing and moving forward, while all the looking back is for going forward. However, the artistic collaboration, which varies from altering a product’s physical proportions, construction and style to applying the print that is sold or licensed for a negotiated price, did not change the nature of fashion design for them (Smith & Kubler 2013).

“No… they did not change the nature of fashion design but completely valued the artistic credit. It is all about breaking the rules and creating the uniqueness.” (Sheraz)

“Not really… all forms of artistic collaboration is just change or bring inspiration through different disciplines and design something new. But it by no means changed the nature of design itself...” (Mori)

The associating fashion design and art is merely a way of conferring meaning on fashion products and acquiring cultural capital for the occupation without changing the nature of fashion design (Bourdieu 1993 cited in Crane 2000; McRobbie 1998). Aside from the fact that fashion theorists believed those values would bound to get through the collaboration, fashion designers seems confirm that the value is also linked to the justified economic consideration of reaching a specific, potential clientele who are able and willing to purchase the design (Graw 2009; Crane 2000).

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“Well, it completely depends on the artist value and credit. For example, the collaboration between Raf Simon and Sterling Ruby, the garments remains the same price as purchasing Raf Simon. However, the collaboration between Damin Hirst and The Row, they use the strategy of “exclusivity” along with the high price. You cannot tell that Damin Hirst endow the design an institutional status so that it worth the price… But for the audience and buyer, they did.” (Sheraz)

“… I guess the purpose of collaboration will decide the value... The fashion industry in the contemporary era is democratic, people expect to see the “new” design that represent the inspiration from different disciplines. If you could collaborate with artists who of a grate institutional status, that might…offer you a wider space. For me, that’s the point why we need to collaborative with artists.” (Mori)

The context crossing of fashion and fine art, nevertheless, does not express a desire for fashion to become art but acquiring cultural value and status in the fashion world by emphasizing the aesthetic value of their design and claiming the status of the artist and artist-craftsman, which indeed prove the value framework of the artistic collaboration (Loschek 2009). According to the result of the in-depth interview, ‘Value’ in Figure 6 as the final outcome would not only be decided by the aesthetic perception of the institutions but also by the nature of the artists such as his cultural value or credit.

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Artistic Collaboration

Fashion Design (Socio-cultural Value)

Nature of Artists

Aesthetic Perceptions (Institutional Setting/ Institutions)

Cultural Value (Value) –Figure 6: The Value Nexus of Artistic collaboration Adapted from Dolfsma (2004)

5. Conclusion The textual analyses highlight this paper’s contribution to the understanding the concept and cultural value of collaboration between fashion design and art by providing a theoretical framework. Under the pressure of the postmodern consumption revolution, in order to establish themselves in the competitive markets, designers sometimes project images of avant-garde or postmodern (Crane 2000). Nonetheless, no matter how unconventional they are or the designer creates as un-wearable pieces from the outset, the design without cultural sophistication or institutional status will ultimately result into the uniformity (Loschek 2009).

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No matter how fashion theorist keep questioning “Are artists and fashion designers counting on a mutual gain in prestige, once both have become global players?” or “Are fashion and art both ostentatious forms of conspicuous consumption, a means for power to quickly dispose of large amounts of cash?” (Vinken 2004), the truth is the “marriage” would be one form of mutual gain taking advantages the ‘price’ of fashion and ‘cultural value’ of art (Smith & Kubler 2013).

Although the value framework through questionnaire and in-depth interview proved to be valid, it still has it’s own limitation. The value of art has usually been decided by criteria instead of the economic, whilst the importance of art also has never been measured by the sales figure, likewise, it would be also hard to evaluate the accurate value of the artistic collaboration in a limited time (Graw 2009). For Alexander McQueen, those one-off “artwork” outcomes, which metaphorize issue including gender, identity, politics, and religion with the audience in a storytelling way rather than a commercial purpose, would not always be commodity ordered by stores. Such a designer who always collaborate with the diverse artists and inspired by art, his 2011 exhibition show “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” attracted unprecedented number more than any previous exhibition in any artistic genre, this is undoubtedly proved a litmus test of fashion cultural value (Smith & Kubler 2013). However, in the moment of collaboration, such value would not be able to evaluate.

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“They are not thought out, they do not expand the argument of art and fashion, and they are too simplistic.” —Andrew Bolton, 2013 There have been an enormous number of artistic collaboration in fashion industry, nonetheless, majority of them is solely based on the commercial purposes and be considered as banal. Although the values seem to be the inevitable outcome of the collaboration, it still depends on the nature of your design and the nature of the artists you have chosen. The artist choices will be main issue for the collaborations; designers should pick the one who can provide the cultural and scholarly perspective rather than the ‘new’ and economic perspective (Celant 1998 cited in Talyor 2005).

Since the problem of crudely promotional and collaborative strategies has been learnt by the consumer and audience, it better to collaborate basing on the inspiration, idea; sell the garments along with a combination of ideas; deployed your kind of art vocabulary as a means of branding (Bruzzi & Gibson 2000). Mastering the principles of the value within the artistic collaboration process also will help designers better adopting it as an efficient ways to differentiate themselves in order to avoid uniformity. Simultaneously, with the evident of digital technology, new media should be also considered as discipline to collaborate with, such as fashion film, which could reach audience through disseminating online medium. Word account: 4075

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Evans, C. 2009, Fashion at the edge: spectacle, modernity and deathliness, Yale University Press, New Haven. Featherstone, M. 2007, Consumer culture and postmodernism, Sage Publications, Los Angeles, Calif. Jenks, C. 1998, Core Sociological Dichotomies, London, Sage Ka Ming Law, Zhi-Ming Zhang & Chung-Sun Leung 2004, "Fashion change and fashion consumption: the chaotic perspective", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management,vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 362-374. Kawamura, Y. 2004, Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies, Berg Publishers, Oxford, GB. Lockwood, T. 2010, Design thinking: integrating innovation, customer experience and brand value, Allworth Press, New York, NY. Loschek,

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Appendix

Study Specialism

32% Art/Visual Art Others 68%

Figure 1: Survey result—Have you studied art/visual art before (including design, architecture, film, photography and costume)?

How do you define fashion? Cultural Phenomenon Aesthetic Medium/Art Clothes/Commodity 0%

Which option you think is more accurate?

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Clothes/ Commodity

Aesthetic Medium/ Art

Cultural Phenomenon

16%

35%

48%

Figure 2: Survey result—Which option you think is more accurate for Fashion Definition?

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Do you think there is an increasing uniformity in fashion industry?

Consumer Perspective

Creator Perspective

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% No, I don't think so

Creator Perspective 58.8%

Consumer Perspective 14.7%

41.2%

85.3%

Yes, I do think so

Figure 3: Survey result—In term of the postmodern society, do you think there is an increasing uniformity in fashion industry? (Choose from both creator perspective and consumer perspective)

In the following kinds of designer, which one do you think shows more valued impact on audience/consumer? Artistic Fashion Designer

44.1%

Contemporary Fashion Designer

Commercial Fashion Designer

32.4%

23.5%

0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 40.0% 45.0% 50.0% Figure 4: Survey result—In the following kinds of designer, which one do you think shows more valued impact on audience/consumer?

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Alexander McQueen as an Artistic designer, do you think his design and his fashion shows are memorable? 0% 3%

Yes, I do remember most of them 32% Only part of them which is often shown on the magazine 65%

No, I don’t like his design

Who is he?

Figure 5: Survey result—Alexander McQueen as an Artistic designer, do you think his design and his fashion shows are memorable?

Which kind of fashion collaboration you would prefer to buy?

28%

Fashion designer and Artists (Bine art artist & Bilm maker& photographer) 82%

Fashion designer and High Street Retailers

Figure 6: Survey result—Which kind of fashion collaboration you would prefer to buy?

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

For Fashion Designer, What is more important for you? Please rank from most to least important factor to you. [1 = most important, 6= least important] 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Creativity/ Innovation

Fashion show/ Acceptance Performance

Tailoring/ Sartor

Metaphorical thinking/ Functionality Critical thinking

0.0%

3.2%

22.6%

0.0%

54.8%

19.4%

3.2%

16.1%

38.7%

6.5%

12.9%

22.6%

6.5%

38.7%

12.9%

16.1%

6.5%

19.4%

6.5%

9.7%

12.9%

29.0%

16.1%

25.8%

16.1%

3.2%

41.9%

9.7%

12.9%

67.7%

16.1%

9.7%

6.5%

0.0%

Figure 7: Survey result—For Fashion Designer, What is more important for you?

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

In the following collaborations, which one you have bought before? 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Fashion Fine Art Designer Artist Responses

41.2%

29.4%

High Mass Jewelry Street Celerities Market Designer Retailer Retailer 70.6%

2.9%

26.5%

35.3%

Figure 8: Survey result—which collections you have bought before?

What kind of collaboration you expect to see in the future? 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0%

Responses

Dancer/ Costume Choreogr Musician Designer apher 17.7%

35.3%

38.2%

Painter

Interior Designer

Communi cation Designer

50.0%

20.6%

35.3%

Figure 9: Survey result—What kind of collaboration you expect to see in the future?

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Interviewee Name: Sheraz (Menswear)

Do you find that working across various artists influence Alexander McQueen as a designer? To some degree, design relates to their research points and his aesthetic as a designer. I guess it is an eclectic mix of influence, such as artists, emotional and imagery.

As consumer, do you have aesthetic perception for his show? Yes, his show, which can be considered as performance art, produced a story that clearly explained his personal mood and perception, which usually provoke the audience including me.

Do you think that Alexander McQueen went through the similar ideological and cultural circumstance as the artist? I feel like the line between the fine artist and designer is blurring since they do have something in common—communicate with the audience. But the fashion collection for me is that they can be bought or worn, it should be provide a link to reality and consumer. However, for artworks, it is not necessary.

Would you agree that artistic collaboration bring the potential audience for McQueen’s show? I agree, it somehow gave him a form of growth in more than two industries and enable a wider audience for sure.

As designer, will you view yourself as artist? Are you likely to integrated artists into your practice?

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

I wouldn’t consider myself as an artist. Fashion for me is not art but a conceptual form of expression. However, I will not refuse such collection to approach my design from personal perspective.

Is it important for you as a designer to engage in projects outside the regular commercial presentation of fashion industry? I suggest that it is important as it enables changes through your design, which would allow designer to develop our ideas and creativities in order to keep a creative flows.

Do you think that artistic collaboration indeed changed the nature of fashion design? No, take Olsen Twins’ collaborating with The Row as an example, they did not change the nature of fashion design but completely valued the artistic credit. It is all about breaking the rules and creating the uniqueness.

If you work with artists on collaboration in future, do those clothes become art? It depends, the fashion industry thrives for the changes, if the idea behind the design is not come from a commercial point of view, and then it could be art.

To what extent do you think that collaboration would endow fashion design the value such as the cultural sophistication or institutional status? Well, it completely depends on the artist value and credit. For example, the collaboration between Raf Simon and Sterling Ruby, the garments remains the same price as purchasing Raf Simon. However, the collaboration between Damin Hirst and The Row, they use the strategy of “exclusivity” along with the high price. You cannot tell that Damin Hirst endows the design an institutional status so that it worth that price, for me, I don’t think his work is of a high institutional status. But for the audience and buyer, maybe yes.

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Interviewee Nam: Mori (Womenswear)

As consumer, do you have aesthetic perception for Alexander McQueen show? People absolutely do have aesthetic perception for fashion shows, I mean show do not necessarily aim to shock audience or theatrical, but it should different to what we’ve seen everyday otherwise there is no point having a show each seasons. Someone said that McQueen was well known for his spectacular and provocative, I was totally agree, fashion show should integrate design into the music, film, even the theatrical arts to give audience an unforgettable effect in order to develop their aesthetic perception towards the design.

As designer, will you view yourself as artist? Are you likely to integrated artists into your practice? If I make commercial collection to be sold in store, then I’m the fashion designer. But I will also make pieces that could be worn for performance and shown in exhibitions as an artist, it depends the purpose for the collection. The collaboration between the artists and designer can be considered as dual relationship, so I would not say no to that.

Is it important for you as a designer to engage in projects outside the regular commercial presentation of fashion industry? It is always of great importance to have diverse creative projects to develop divergent thinking. Explore any medium or forms of creativity no matter if it is fashion or art, work with those who really have something that can challenge and inspire me would be a push for myself to step out my zone.

Do you think that artistic collaboration indeed changed the nature of fashion design?

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Not really, since I’m such a subjective person that all forms of artistic collaboration is just change or bring inspiration through different disciplines and design something new. But it by no means changed the nature of design itself for me.

If you work with artists on collaboration in future, do those clothes become art? It will totally depend on the inspiration or the idea behind my collection. I would not purpose to create some garments as artworks, for me fashion design is really about designing wearable garments. However, at same time, I appreciate the artistic designer such as Alexander McQueen, his design is more than just clothes.

To what extent do you think that collaboration would endow fashion design the value such as the cultural sophistication or institutional status? It is a hard question, I guess the purpose of your collaboration will decide the value you would get from it. The fashion industry in the contemporary era is democratic, people expect to see the “new” design that represent the inspiration from different disciplines. If you could collaborate with an artist, who of a grate institutional status, might not only institutionalize your design but also offer you a wider space. For me, that’s the point why we need to collaborative with artists.

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Alexander McQueen show-collaboration List: Taxi Driver (1993) Nihilism (Spring/Summer 1994) Banshee (Autumn/Winter 1994-1995) The Birds—Groves and David Kappo (Spring/Summer 1995) Accessorized by jewelry designer and artist Simon Costin, with prints by Simon Ungless—“McQueen’s early creative family” Highland Rape (Autumn/Winter 1995-1996) Acc: Simon Costin The hunger (Spring/Summer 1996) Acc: Simon Costin, Support from Onward Kashiyama Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996-1997) Headwear: Philip Treacy Acc: Simon Costin Bellmer la Poupee (Spring/Summer 1997) Acc: Shaun Leane, Simon Costin Sponsor: Tanqueray Gin Givenchy Haute Couture (Spring/Summer 1997) Stylist: Katy England Art director: Simon costin Animal Instincts (Autumn/Winter 1997-1998) Eclect Dissect (Autumn/Winter 1997) Art director: Simon Costin The London Collection Untitled (Spring/Summer 1998) Sponsor: Amex Jewelry: Shaun Leane Simon Costin Stylist: Katy England Jon (Autumn/Winter 1998-1999) No.13 (Autumn/Winter 1998-1999) The Overlook (Autumn/Winter 1999-2000)

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Jewelry: Shaun Leane The Eye (Autumn/Winter 1999-2000) Sponsor: American Express Jewelry: Shaun Leane Eshu (Autumn/Winter 2000-2001) Voss (Spring/Summer 2001) What a Merry-Go-Round (Autumn/Winter 2001-2002) The Gucci Years Photographers: Richard Avedon, Nick Knight The Dance of the Twisted Bull (Spring/Summer 2002) Sponsor: American Express Super califragilistic-expialidocious (Autumn/Winter 2002-2003) Irere (Spring/Summer 2003) Headdress: Philip Tracy Scanners (Autumn/Winter 2003-2004) Headdress: Philip Tracy Deliverance (Spring/Summer 2004) Choreograph: dancer Michael Clark, Les Child Pantheon as Lecum (Autumn/Winter 2004-2005) It’s Only a Game (Spring/Summer 2005) Choreograph: dancer Les Child The Men Who Knew Too Much (Autumn/Winter 2005) Neptune (Spring/Summer 2006) Windows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006-2007) Sarabande (Spring/Summer 2007) Headdress: Philip Tracy In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692 (Autumn/Winter 2007-2008)

Contextual Studies Essay-‐XINYI FAN

Stylist: Katy England La Dame Bleue (Spring/Summer 2008) Headdress: Philip Tracy The Girl Who lived in the Tree (Autumn/Winter 2008) Jewelry: Shaun Leane Natural Dis-Inction, Un-Natural Selection (Spring/Summer 2009) Portrait designer: Gary James The Horn of Plenty (Autumn/Winter 2009) Headdress: Philip Tracy Plato’s Atlantis (Spring/Summer 2010) The Last Days and The Legacy Angels and Demons (Autumn/Winter 2010-2011)