Fashion industry essay

From time immemorial, fashion has been found to have a relation with the entire country’s economy. With this relation, the designers have been able to come up with trends that act as economic indicators such as the sale of men’s underwear or the ‘lipstick index’. Constant changes in fashion help the manufacturers, retailers and distributors to have continuity in exercising their clothing and footwear businesses which results to a growth in economy. With such a change, more jobs are created such as media advertisements and models in the new fashion so as to popularize it (Campbell 12). Fashion industry in particular is as a result of modern and postmodern age since a rise in adoption of new technology such as in machines used for sewing, continuous development in factory production systems and rise of global capitalization has made fashion and particularly in clothing to be produced in mass numbers and different standard sizes with different fixed prices.

In today’s society there are still a lot of problems going on in the fashion industry; from their fetish for skinniness to their obsession for youth. However, discrimination is becoming a bigger problem ("Fashion Accessories Presentations" 11). However, the industry claims it has been trying to focus on becoming more diverse, yet it still has a long way to go before the fashion industry fully embraces diversity. Some fashion agencies might argue there isn’t discrimination going on, but a preference of what they want to see. Because of this preference, there is a low percentage of minorities that makes up for the total population of models. So, to bring the ideas Watanabe got from the people of Uganda and “decorate” it on white models shows that the culture and traditions were only used to express, what many would people call “exotic and unfamiliar”.

There are many boundaries that have been pushed because of discrimination and cultural appropriation. From struggling to participate in the fashion industry because of your skin color, to emulating a culture as your own; there are a lot of problems in the fashion industry society is unaware of or choose to ignore. However, discrimination and cultural appropriation isn’t just happening in the fashion industry; it is happening everywhere, but putting a stop to it in the industry can be influential to the media and the citizens of society. Discrimination and cultural appropriation is a learned trait that has caused a huge amount controversy, but that trait can be unlearned if designers, celebrities, and/or influential people in general uses their platform to create harmony instead of contention (Niinimäki 16). The economy influences the decision made by the designer as during tough economic periods the prices of material shoot up hence greatly reducing the purchasing power of the consumer.

On the contrary, a rise in the economy results into an increase of more people being able to afford more as their purchasing power increases. Designers make decisions that motivate more consumers to buy their product with reference to changing economy. For instance, the rise of women’s hemlines was the result of the rise in the economy. This implies that in times of good economy, women had enough money to buy what the fashion industry provided (Niinimäki 17).  Rethinking Historical Distance, 2013, pp. Fashion Accessories Presentations.  Portfolio Presentation for Fashion Designers, "Introduction: Approaching Fashion, Identity and Celebrity Culture.  Fashion on Television, Niinimäki, Kirsi. Fashion in a Circular Economy.