Introduction to Fashion Overview and Chapter 1 Slide 1 Every week you will have a PowerPoint to look at and an accompanying

written and audio commentary in addition to your text book reading. You may know your personal learning style and find that one of these is more valuable to you than the other. If you have already purchased our textbook you will recognize the cover on our first slide. What is Fashion? This week on our discussion board DB you will be offering your idea of what fashion means to you and commenting on your classmates ideas. Your book defines a fashion as a style that is accepted and used by the majority of a group at any one time, no matter how small that group is. You had no idea how fashionable you were did you? A fashion is a result of social emulation and acceptance. Websters Dictionary defines fashion as a prevailing custom, usage or style of dress, etiquette, socializing etc. Fashion is both art and science Art: because much creativity is required all along the fashion chain from the development of fabric to selling to the customer. Fashion nurtures innovation and creativity Science: Almost every step of clothing production from design to delivery relies on technology. Fashion is both personal and public A Designer is one persons view of what fashion should look that particular season You have 3 featured designers to read about in your text this week. Customers choice of what they do with the finished product is also personal How do you want to represent yourself to the world is very public. Peoples perception and how they react to your choices in fashion are also personal. Slide 2 Part 1 The Changing World of Fashion This section covers our first 4 chapters. It is important to keep up with your text book reading as well as the lectures. Fashion is always changing. With the availability to see fashion as soon as it is introduced on the Internet it is even more important to work on or present what is new in order to stay ahead of fashion. Fashion operates in a different way today than it did years ago. It moves faster, reaches more people and is more businesslike. One of my bosses in New York would start every day in the design room with Whats new? Whats new? Isnt that what you want to see when you go shopping or flip open the latest magazine? It would be very boring if fashion never changed. If you are looking for a career that will never be boring fashion would be good choice. The other three parts of the book will take us through the different levels of fashion: The Primary Level where you will look at the materials used for fashion. The growers and producers of raw materials such as fibers, fabrics, trim The Secondary Level covering the producers of fashion (somebody has to make this stuff!) Product development Womens Mens Childrens The Retail Level talks about the markets for fashion which includes fashion services. Fashion services which work with all levels of the fashion industry Slide 3 Chapter 1 The Nature of Fashion How and why does fashion change and evolve? No, you dont have to answer that question ~ I will though out this first section. I like the description you book uses for fashion~ fun, fantastic, frivolous, frantic, fabulous, futuristic, flirtatious, fresh and financial. It is all of those and it is a business so if you are not making money your fashion business will not survive. Fashion is very dynamic and it thrives on change in fact it would not survive unless it changed.

Fashion business includes all of the industries, and services connected with fashion: design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing retailing, advertising, communications, publishing, and consulting ~ this covers any business concerned with fashion goods or services. Slide 4 Marketing and merchandising in the fashion business Marketing starts with identifying and understanding the customer needs. With that information businesses can: develop products or services to address those needs price them (to make a profit and to appeal to the customer) distribute them promote them so they sell Merchandising is the planning to have the 5 Rs of merchandising Right product or service Right Place Right Quantities Right Price Right promotion for the target customer This does not refer to the store Target but every business has in mind a target consumer to whom they hope to sell. Target the store has a target customer also. Terminology of Fashion or how to speak like a Fashionista/Fashionisto The terminology is printed in bold within the textbook where the concept is introduced and explained. Be sure to check out TRADE TALK at the end of every chapter where you will find a list of terms that you should be able to define or explain when you have completed the chapter and lecture. We will look at the Stages of the Fashion Cycle. You may be picturing a circle of fashion but since fashion is always moving forward you will see that it is more wave like as styles are accepted and then decline in acceptance. The Intangibles of Fashion Fashion is intangible. A style is tangible Slide 5 The Fashion business is an important business locally, regionally, nationally and internationally employing millions of people. Every one of you has been touched by the fashion business today in fact everyone in the world who put clothes on today was touched by fashion. Our book defines fashion as the style or styles of clothing and accessories worn at a particular time by a particular group of people. It need not be high fashion to be fashion. Slide 6 The fashion business includes all of the industries connected with fashion, design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, merchandising, retailing, advertising, communications, publishing, and consulting. Slide 7 Some of you may have some misconceptions about the world of fashion and hopefully this course will help you to understand in broad strokes what fashion is and is not. 1. Do you believe that designers and retailers dictate what fashion will be and then force it upon hapless or helpless consumers? Does anyone force you to take your cash or credit out of your wallet? The designers and retailers want to present consumers with something they want to buy ~ that is just good business.

2. Fashion acts as an influence on women only. Tell that to a young Bieber wannabe or to the tween/ teen target market or to the men who recognize quality and want this years new styles. 3. Fashion is a mysterious and unpredictable force. There are large successful companies whose business is based on tracking and predicting trends. We will look at some of the cycles of fashion trends and you will track a trend yourself to see if it is really mysterious. 4. This next one is one that I have come upon as a fashion Instructor and is not in your book. You cant make any money in fashion unless you are a famous designer. There are many opportunities to make a nice living working in the Fashion Industry and what you choose to do is up to you. Slide 8 Style (as used in apparel): the combination of features that make a garment different or distinguishable from other garments. Garments will always have their distinguishing features whether or not they are currently in fashion. Fashion a style that is accepted and used by the majority of people within a group High Fashion is a style that is accepted and adopted by a limited number of fashion leaders. We also call these leaders fashion innovators. Who would you consider to be a fashion leader today? Once the fashion has a broader appeal it is usually copied, mass produced and sold for a lower price than the fashion leaders purchased it for. Mass or Volume Fashion is fashion that has a wide acceptance, is produced and sold in large quantities. The pricing is moderate to low. This fashion generates the majority of fashion sales and is called the bread and butter of the fashion business. Design Within a style many variations and combinations of details can applied. For example: Bell bottoms are a style but they could have an endless variety of details like a high waist or low waist zipper or buttons, trim, pocket variations and any combination of these and more to create different designs. When companies go into production on a design they assign it a style number. This is the identifying number which is used to track the design throughout manufacturing, ordering by the buyers and on selling floor. Generally designers assign a design number to keep track of the designs and all the paperwork that is generated Slide 9 This picture depicts the giant Chanel jacket that was the focal point of the Chanel 2008 Haute Couture show in Paris. The word iconic seems a bit overused these days but this jacket is the iconic look representing Chanel. Chanel is a brand that created by Coco Chanel and it still a strong fashion brand today. When we talk about taste in fashion we are referring to the popular opinion of what is acceptable for a given occasion. The Chanel jacket is considered a classic style. Other classic items include denim jeans, cardigans, turtle necks button-down oxford shirts and more including accessories. Take a look in your closet and see how many items you have that would be considered classic. Fads come and go quickly. Once these fashions are introduced, they are accepted, flood the market and end quickly. What percentage of your closet would you say is based on fads? Trends are similar to fads in that they come and go and when they start it may be difficult to judge which it is. Think about trends as a change in direction of fashion. When you see leading designers introducing a change in the direction of fashion this may indicate a trend. You have an assignment to track a trend this semester. Fashion Forecasters track and predict trends in fashion. Slide 10 Components of Fashion Design Our text calls out 4 basic elements of design.

Silhouette What shape is created by the clothing? If you squint at a fashion design it may be easier to see the form without being distracted by the details. You can do this when looking at a picture or someone wearing clothes to determine the overall shape of their silhouette. Details Details include trimming, lengths and widths of different parts of the design, and how the shoulder, waist and sleeve are treated. You can update a classic look by changing the details. Texture This is where we get a little touchy. How does the fabric feel? Is it drapey, soft, rough, smooth, bulky, flowing.? Texture does not only effect how something feels but how it makes someone look. A silk charmeuse skirt cut from the same pattern as a corduroy skirt will look quite different. The corduroy will stand away from the body while the silk skirt will cling to the body and flow at the bottom. Texture will also affect the color as shiny fabric will reflect light and the colors will appear brighter. Rough textures tend to absorb light which makes the colors appear more flat. Color Color is so important to fashion not just as driver for selecting apparel but also packaging, advertising and creating an ambiance in stores. Start to pay attention to how you react to color. Do you gravitate to certain colors or consistently turn away from others? The color system shown on the bottom of the slide is Pantone. From the Pantone website:
Pantone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Incorporated, is the world-renowned authority on color and provider of color systems and leading technology for the selection and accurate communication of color across a variety of industries. The PANTONE name is known worldwide as the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer. http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone.aspx?pg=19306

Slide 11 The stages you see in this chart are the stages that every fashion cycle passes through. As a fashion professional it is important to be able to recognize and predict these stages. You will be making decisions like when to introduce a style, how to sell and ultimately when it is time to no longer sell or promote a look or an item based on this concept. You will get some practice at that this semester doing your Fashion Diary assignment. If you are good at this you might become a Fashion Forecaster and predict fashion trends for other companies. The 5 stages are: Introduction Rise Culmination Decline Obsolescence Lets take a look at each stage. Introduction: New Fashion could be a new style, texture, or color and may indicate a shift from what is currently in fashion. This is a time for caution and the new fashion will be tested to see if it is accepted. Usually the item is priced high enough to cover potential financial losses and only small quantities are produced until the item is proven. Rise: This is when the buyers will buy more to be sure their customers will find the new fashion in their store. They might decide that their customer wants an adaptation of the original style where something is changed but the fashion is recognizable. Knockoffs are copies of the original style which look the same but are made in cheaper fabric and produced in larger quantities which help to make it less expensive. Culmination: This is the height of popularity with high demand and most customers who would like this fashion can afford it at the mass prices. Some styles will become a classic and continue to be purchased as basics.

Decline Stage: This is the principle of fashion that all fashion ends in excess. No one is willing to pay full price for it at this stage. Obsolescence: This is where there is no demand for the product and you cannot sell it no matter how low the price. You cant give it away! Slide 12 As you would imagine the length of fashion cycles will vary and there will be overlap of fashion cycles. With instant communication it is important to get in and get out of a fashion in order to stay on trend. Some retailers choose to run their business based on fast fashion. Examples are H&M and Forever 21. Other companies choose a safer more classic approach like Talbots. Breaks in the cycle can be caused by outside factors so it is as important to pay attention to what is happening in the world as it is to watch your own business. Slide 13 You will notice that this slide looks a lot like slide 11 except that we have an additional line indicating to watch your business the consumer buying cycle. This points out that the consumers will continue to wear a style after the purchasing of the style has ceased. Most of us dont throw out our clothes just because they are not up to the minute fashion. If you do ~ thank you for supporting the fashion industry. Slide 14 The Intangibles of Fashion These are the things that are more challenging to put a finger on. When a group accepts fashion it is fashion although other groups of people may completely ignore it. The way that you dress is your personal signature. You may wish to express your personal style but also to show that you belong to particular group. Change You cannot force people to buy something that they do not want or like. If big designers try to introduce something which the consumers do not want they are not obligated to buy it. Fashion as mentioned earlier is changing faster than ever due to more information written and visual that is available instantaneously. Fashion is affected by changes going on in the world and can help people feel that they have a social bond with others. One of the changes you may have observed is the focus on eco-friendly products. On our discussion board DB this week everyone will share one eco-friendly website and tell us what it is you like about it. A Mirror of the Times How you chose to dress sends a nonverbal message to others that see you. This is what the industry of Image Consultants work with. This concept is clearer to see when we look back at what people wore in earlier times. It may be evident what the tastes and values of the era were when we look at what people wore. Lifestyle Your lifestyle may dictate what is appropriate for you to wear. Perhaps you have an active life ~ tennis and golf at the club would require appropriate clothing. Someone with an urban life would require different types of clothing than someone living in the suburbs raising children. Slide 15 Principles of Fashion These 5 points will serve as the foundation for fashion identification and forecasting. Keeping in mind how fast the world is changing and know that fashion is changing too. Slide 16 This is the same list of terms you will find in your text at the end of the chapter. Now would be a great time to review them to see which ones you already know.