The Global Network of Fashion Systems

Lecture notes from February 20, 2008
Yuniya Kawamura, Ph. D. Fashion Institute of Technology/
State University of New York

Yuniya Kawamura is the author of "Fashionology" - the book of fashion sociology, as she herself explains. She conducted over 60 personal interviews to get her research done and to construct this amazing system of networking in Paris Fashion System. Kawamura started her academic studies in English literature, then got a degree in fashion design, worked as a journalist and got her major graduate degree in Sociology. "I wanted to write about fashion," she says. Her dissertation (Ph. D.) was about fashion systems with the example of Japanese designers.

First, she provided the division of clothing versus fashion:

CLOTHING: A material production; Tangible/concrete; A necessity; Found in any society where people cover themselves
FASHION: A symbolic production; Intangible/ abstract; An excess; It has to be institutionally constructed and culturally diffused

To wear clothes and to wear fashion are totally different concepts, they are not interchangeable. Imagine someone saying to you "Oh, you wear clothes," versus "Oh, you wear fashion".

Fashion is full of symbols. A symbol always represents something. No-one would die without fashion, because fashion is not a natural phenomenon. Fashion professionals in Paris work very, very hard to construct the image of Paris as a fashion capital. They have to sustain the idea that fashion begins in Paris and therefore fashion in Paris is very institutionalized. This is her perspective on fashion. When you want to come up with your own definition of fashion, you must be able to explain that definition.

Read: Elizabeth Rouse "Understanding Fashion" (1989).
Clothes have to go through certain process to become fashion, someone must wear them and then the certain clothing must be acknowledged as fashion. Added-values make clothes fashion.

Read: Howard Becker "Art Worlds" (1982); Harrison and Cynthia White "Canvas and Careers: Institutional Change in the French Painting World" (1965/1993)
Becker and many other sociologists deny the concept of geniuses. Even being a "genius" is a social construction: you're not born a genius, you become one. You need the network, the work done for you to become a genius. You need a team, other people. You don't become a genius alone. Especially in fashion. Therefore, art (fashion) dealers and critics introduced this new system of spreading art (fashion). They were the ones who said: "these are great pieces". This was the beginning of marketization in art. Both of the books take the social constructionist point of view in art. Fashion also is a collective activity.

Even Dior, Miyake, Chanel are not geniuses. They have just become through the process of legitimization. And this is what "Fashionology" is about - the sociology of fashion.

The theoretical framework of fashion-ology consists of:
- structrural functionalism (macro-level)... manifest and latent functions. Each component of society has a function. Apply that theory to fashion culture. There are institutional networks
- symbolic interactionism (micro-level)... smaller scale individuals and how they interact; personal networks
- how do macro and micro intersect?

Read: Janet Wolff "The Social Production of Art" (1993) and you might find how macro and micro intersect

Fashion System
- different institutions, groups, organizations, events, practices etc. (fashion shows for instance)
- individuals; designers, publicists, journalists - involved in producing fashion culture (not clothing)
- how these two influence each other? - to study that one should interview those who are involved in that system! That is what Kawamura did, interviewed the people in Paris fashion system. Most people are interconnected to each other, in fashion system your friends are also in the same field.

The Federation - The French Federation of Courure... is an institutional network in the French Fashion System that connects couture/designers/houses with PR-companies with publishing companies and ministry of Culture (ANDAM). An important notion is that when there is no media people in the fashion system involved, there is no point to throw a fashion show.

YK stressed many times that to be in the system, to be legitimized by the system you must know people. As also mentioned above, French is the only country where government supports fashion; in the ministry of Culture they have Fashion Department.

1868 was the year when The Federation begun in Paris. In these times, in about 1911, there were over 1000 couturier' in Paris, today in The Federation the number is 11 (yes, eleven). To become a couturier is the biggest appreciation for a fashion designer; to be one is a very exclusive opportunity, this whole federation and couturier-thing is like a sub-system within the French fashion system. To the production (creation) of haute couture there are strict preceptions - one must have a collection of at least 75 outfits, all fabrics must be custom-made by at least 25 full-time working French national tailors. A piece of haute couture can cost around the price of a house in New York. And this is why there are only eleven couturiers left - it is so exclusive and expensive. To become a couturier, as I mentioned, is a biggest honour. Anyhow the industry is loosing its credit and couturiers are retireing therefore even the couture syndicate must relax their rules a bit.

Since 1973 there is also a pret-a-porter syndicate in Paris, to maintain the status of Paris as a fashion capital.

Members of La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (as of Jan 2008):
Official members: Adeline André, Anne Valerie Hash, Chanel, Dior, Lacroix, Dominique Sirop, Emanuel Ungaro, Franck Sorbier, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maurizio Galante.

Correspondent members: Elie Saab, Giorgio Armani (wants to become an official member), Maison Martin Margiela, Valentino

+ a number of guest members.

Japanese desingers in Paris Fashion system
Since 1970 - Kenzo Takada (Kenzo)
1973 - Issey Miyake
1981 - Yohji Yamamoto
1981 - Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons

1977 - Hanae Mori

YK was interested in how non-Westerners got into this system in Paris. For now they all are legitimated, but how did they do that, she questioned? Fashion in general is a Western phenomenon (at least it was in the 1970's).

Kenzo is known for mixing garments. He is like a god for other Japanese designers in Paris. Miyake, Yamamoto and Kawakubo are kind of similar, but different cuts than Western designers. Hanae Mori in turn is very traditional. Now about 20 per cent of Paris' designers are Japanese - they still don't go to New York or Milan, they go to Paris. There is even the network of Japanese designers in Paris that is based on different relationships - school, friendship etc. You just go to Paris, to spread your name globally.

Fashion Culture
Fashion culture is supported by fashion system with individuals and organizations involved. The fashion systems in West consist of New York, London, Milan and of course, Paris. They all have similar systems as in Paris. In these cities fashion companies have to launch two woman and two men's collections per year, in Paris the total number is six because of the couture collections.

Why a fashion show? - one aspect is to introduce the collection to the world, to media, to make clients buy. But there is another invisible aim - four or six times a year the fashion 'gatekeepers' the fashion 'insiders' mobilize, come together and sustain the system. In Paris they sustain the image of Paris as a fashion capital. Everyone goes to Paris for fashion - it's a city of fashion. There is this consensus within fashion-cities that Paris is the capital and they have rules to sustain the systems. Without the system no-one is gonna be there.

Fashion systems in Asia
Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing - all trying to create a similar system, to produce fashion culture, but it's still weak, they are not that structuralized.

The sign of power of fashion culture is how many fashion shows are thrown in a fashion week. For example, Tokyo is structrurally weak, as well Seoul and Beijing. But in Paris there are over 100 shows during a fashion week, sometimes running simultaneously. Therefore, so what fashion can be produced in China, they don't have the culture of fashion. Moreover, fashion production as we see is nothing to do with fashion culture.

The Global Network of Fashion Systems?
- is it possible?
- is fashion going global?
- are the fashion systems around the world becoming global?
OR
- is there a different kind of fashion system?
OR
- street fashion as an independent system?

Street fashion versus Haute couture
She brings an example of a Japanese designer who lost its credit after entering the Paris' system - he became mainstream instead of remaining marginal and that is bad in street fashion.

STREET FASHION: Breakdown of occupational categories; Cheaper than high fashion; Used as symbolic/ethnic identity; Emerges out of street subcultures; Limited disseminations; Street fashion magazines (Elle, Marie Claire…); Trickle-up/across-theory
HIGH FASHION: Clear occupational categories; Expensive; Emerges out of professional designers; Used as status symbol; Disseminated through the French System;
Conventional fashion magazines (Vogue); Trickle-down theory

You don't have to be trained to work in street fashion - you must have taste and eye to catch what other kids want. Some street fashion brands come out with a new collection 16 times a year. But still - is high fashion disappearing?

Japanese Street Fashion and Subcultures
Tokyo street style is characterized by kiddos, who dress up and go to streets. The image of Tokyo street-style is represented by kids, not models. You don't find those kids in the magazines, but in Fruits (also the magazine, turned into at least two books now). Subcultures are fragmented into sub-, and sub-sub-subcultures.

Shibuya District: characteristics: tanned face, high platforms, heavy make-up
- Ganguro 1998-2000
- Yamamba 1999-2002
- Mamba 2003-present; embraces celemba, cocomba, lomamda

Harajuku District: characteristics: Victorian Doll-style, curly hair
- cartoon characters 1997-present
- Wamono 1997-present
- Lolitas 1999-present; embraces Gothic-Lolita, Princess-Lolita, Conventional-Lolita

All these kiddos leave home dressed regularly, then they reach to their destination, go to McDonald's change their dress and go out to chat and stand for people to watch and photograph.

The Breakdown of Occupational Categories as a New Business Model: Teens as fashion producers
- teen salesgirls as designers and merchandisers
- teen consumers as designers and as tastemakers
- teen readers as magazine models

In Tokyo there are 8-storied department stores selling street fashion. There we find this business model - teens selling, shopping, choosing, trying on, dancing in the shops. Loud music, colors, kids. Subcultures in Japan are male-dominant. In Europe they might not be - for example, punks in Britain are mostly represented by men. But Lolitas and other characters in Tokyo are represented by females. In general, Japanese (kids) spend a huge amount of money on clothes, more than other cultures do. And also on fashion.

Street fashion is a world apart from high fashion. To study street fashion is much more difficult than to study high fashion. High fashion is just so much more out there, exposed. But in the streets you don't know all those kids, but to study them you must know them.

In New York (but in other places as well) there is this sneakers-subculture. This is also a particular subculture within which there are insiders and outsiders. When you are an insider sneakers have a social meaning to you, when you are an outsider, they are just sneakers. Some kids stand a night in the que to get three pairs of limited-editon sneakers. One pair to wear, one for a backup and one for selling in E-Bay in the Internet.

Conclusion
To spread fashion there must be people trained to do that. To what extent fashion divides class?