Loschek I. When Clothes Become Fashion: Design and Innovation Systems

Berg, Oxford, 2009. — 224 p. — ISBN: 1847883672,
9781847883674.Recent years have seen the start of various thought processes which are changing the relevance of fashion decisively, considerably advancing its scientific aspirations. Cultural sciences and theories of art, design and media, as well as sociology including gender studies, provide key impulses to innovative starting points of research and help to push progress from costume studies towards a science of fashion. At the same time, however, fashion runs the risk of being presented exclusively as an example of the continuity of change, or for its everyday quality.When, how and why do clothes become fashion? Fashion is more than mere clothing. It is a moment of invention, a distillation of desire, a reflection of a zeitgeist. It is also a business relying on an intricate network of manufacture, marketing and retail.Fashion is both medium and message but it does not explain itself. It requires language and images for its global mediation. It develops from the prescience of the designer and is dependent on acceptance by observers and wearers alike.When Clothes Become Fashion explores the structures and strategies which underlie fashion innovation, how fashion is perceived and the point at which clothing is accepted or rejected as fashion. The book provides a clear theoretical framework for understanding the world of fashion - its aesthetic premises, plurality of styles, performative impulses, social qualities and economic conditions.Contents:

Fashion Theory
Does Fashion Need a Theory?
extiles as Material.
lothes as Form.
Fashion as System.Invention and Innovati on
When Is Invention?
When Is Creativity?
When Is Innovation?When Clothes Become Fashion
When Is Fashion?
When Is Fashion Art?
When Is Fashion Design?
Epilogue.
Notes.