"Fashion is the bastard child of capitalism and female vanity"
Valerie Steele (2003)
Fashion as a market came to its starting point with the change of the 19th to the 20th Century. Through the creation of arcades and especially department stores, the Parisian flâneurs* of the time had a place to observe and be observed, and mainly to inspire the airs of a modern city: a place where trends were constantly being set at every given opportunity.
At a time where only men and prostitutes could walk in the streets alone, the department stores took the role of being a safe environment for women of its time. A place where working class women could have a respectable job, and higher-class ladies could not only shop but mingle around and socialize. This made an even greater leap in the fashion market. Wives couldn't work as it indicated their husbands didn't earn as much to support them. To confirm this, men wanted their better halves to show off their power and wealth with the latest fashion.
Fashion was the only way women could communicate their ideals and make a statement. It is to this day, a way in which people can show their status, and include themselves in a category, yet it was still a mean to build up their own identities and authenticate their individualism.
"Fashion is a tension between individualism and conformity"
Georg Simmel (1820-1903)
Soon, London came up to speed with Paris, by building Selfridges with the same concept as the Au Bon Marché in Paris. There was always space for women in fashion but not so much for men: as men's clothing stayed the same, women's became more edgy and stylish as ever. With the arrival of the mid 20th Century, gay men found their spot in the luxurious and hip markets of fashion. Carnaby Street was set as the alternative, most in vogue shopping spot, opening its doors for lads and blokes who too wanted to innovate their styles.
The Fashion world, more than any other is entirely based on innovations, and recreating the new. For some time now, Fashion reaches out into the art world as means of promotions of their own products. Yayoi Kusama's shop window design for Louis Vuitton in 2012 is one of the several example to illustrate this point - it brings prestige to the brand as it reaches out for the people who study and admire art, making them identify themselves in a part of the fashion world. A prestigious artist like her
sells for millions, and it only adds up to the brand's name. In Kusama's case, it has even worked both ways - people who had little knowledge of her role in the arts became interested in her activities.
Artists use their productions to explore their personal views of life. Independent of subject matter, they will communicate a feeling, a way of seeing. Art enthusiasts, in the other hand, feel the need of exploring the artist's intentions. Whether placing art in its historical and social context or to the pure extent of appreciation of its visible sense, it has a way to permeate our minds. This too is a determining factor in the way a people perceive themselves.
To summarise the difference between the two, "fashion speaks to the body, the way art speaks the mind"**. Art is often seen as an intellectual material, where not necessarily one has to purchase to show their understanding, but rather study it in greater depth. To manifest fashion, it is implied that one must be seen in that certain standard - in other terms, you are bound to consume it. Both disciplines vary in the way its spectators approach it, nevertheless, they aim to fulfil a psychological need, and to demonstrate understanding of a topic that determines one's identity.
* Flâneurs is a term which describe wanderers of the streets. People who wanted to be seen in certain places but at the same time being a trendy outcast. Possibly the best known flâneurs are Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin.
** Nathalie Khan, restating the idea posed by O. Knight.
This article was based on the lecture given by Nathalie Khan, at Central Saint Martins, on Fashion and Consummerism, and its discussions in class.
