can fashion exist without capitalism ?
Discussion
No. Neither can a comfy economy with luxury options.
seems like it, was reading on fashion conversion from socialism to capitalism in the 70s in Hungary, the impact on the fall of West Berlin in the 80s
I’m sitting in a diner right now having a nice breakfast, everyone here using fake cash from a fake credit company and everyone seems comfy and happy at the moment
Love how avant-garde started as a way to oppose mass culture, political resistance and dumbing down society - enabling people to think different - but over time got steered into mass market. Does the idea still hold true ?
Not sure but I did find information about how in most instances the wealthier countries dictate what fashion is.
could you share some references when you get a chance? would love to read more on this
Need some time on this. It was about 10 years ago while I was taking a class at NYU. Havent thought about it in a while. Your note reminded me
no worries! and glad it triggered thoughts. Historically fashion transcends from upper class and the noble as they could afford it seen vividly in the 16th / 17th century. Fast fashion pushed middle class forward but at the expense of humanity (landfill waste, labour cruelty etc).
Country wise, France (King Louis the 14th I think) advance fashion through the manufacturing industry. Italy advance fashion through creative exploration. US, post world war II, advanced fashion through its marketing abilities.
Would be interesting to know how wealthy countries sets precedence on fashion these days especially with digital advances.
That was what we focused on. Showing examples of how these countries used things like colour print first then radio then TV. The upper class spent lots of resources promoting their ideas of what ‘should be’. They became the first ‘influencers’.
I remember one example. The first distributed NY newspaper sold almost double the amount of newspapers outside of NY to other US states to push ideals. With little other information people emulated these to try to be ‘cool’
I looked up some stuff and found these. Interesting topic. I hadn’t looked at it in years.
https://ceoworld.biz/2019/09/09/ranked-the-worlds-most-fashionable-countries-for-2019/
https://fashioncoached-com.ngontinh24.com/articles/how-the-economy-affects-fashion
https://www.elle.com/fashion/trend-reports/a44053718/old-money-clothing-trend-summer-2023/
No, because without capitalism there is no innovation. So fashion will die or is domed to repeat endlessly.