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Both fashion and power are things people can possess and larger systems. How does power dress? The question is what power? The establishment? The opposition? From the Western suit and tux to the Eastern turban and bisht, socially established men tend to dress in similar dark, full coverage clothing codes. Various types of subcultural groups modify and oppose these forms. Woman in socially powerful positions display variation in fashion codes. Female power through clothing also evokes the questions of objectification and seduction using a feminine language of forms. Fashion is used to reinforce and negotiate power; it can be used to unite and separate, and to command authority and attention. There is also the potential for fashion to influence society by advancing cultural values. In the words of Oscar Wilde, “A history of dress would be a history of minds; for dress expresses a moral idea; it symbolizes the intellect and disposition of a nation."

by Rahkua Ishakarah "The phenomenon of fashion is essential to understanding today's individualistic democratic society, because it is an integral and constitutive part of modern western society, and therefore a central and permanet phenomenon" (Fuentes and Quiroga 384). Fashion exercises its spectacular task in its global division with its own set of commodities and the hieroglyphic instructions with which the consumer society discerns its place. It asserts cultural, economic, aesthetic hegemony through the homogenization of image that the social being follows. What complicates and, quite frankly, justifies the relationship between fashion and its consumer as mutual symbiosis, is the fact that identity can be discerned through the employment of these fetishized commodities, which are at once tools of capitalist society producing artificiality/image for consumption and tools actually lending an individuality and empowerment of identity: "The final twist ... [is that]...

b y Sara Johenning The House of Balenciaga is one of the most esteemed and directional fashion brands working today. Initially founded by a Spanish designer, Cristobal Balenciaga, in 1937, the House has progressed into the modern day fashion frontier under the creative direction of Nicolas Ghesquiere, a young French designer who has had control of the House since 1997. The House of Balenciaga was built on and is still associated with impeccable craftsmanship, the play of fabric and color, and exaggerated/structurally baffling silhouettes (i.e. the “tonneau”, or barrel-shaped line). Although some of the notions of power that Cristobal built his House on have shifted in recent years due to Ghesquiere’s redirection of the brand, Balenciaga has managed to become a major force in the Parisian fashion scene, while still paying generous homage to its Spanish routes. More specifically, by analyzing Ghesquiere’s FW07 collection for the House closely – in relation to the brand’s history, visua...

by Alex Hess “They play up their otherness, ‘happening’ on the world as aliens, inscruables” (Hebdige, 121) My essay explored the ideals behind the bondage chains and black lipstick associated with Gothic fashion and look at the fragile power structure between the Goth subculture and the ‘straight world’ in contemporary European society. I propose that it can be interpreted through two different lenses: the fetishism of objects and the employment of fantasy clothing. In looking at ‘fetish parties,’ we can see examples of fetish wear being brought to the surface. Marx asserts that “fashion itself is only another medium that lures (sexus) even deeper into the material world” (Lehmann, 434). In other words, fashion’s act of covering up the body leads the unconscious association of certain items, such as the high heel, with sexuality. These leather corsets and dangerously high heels manipulate the power of associations apparent in today’s society by magnifying them. By becoming the physica...

by Emily Kearns While she certainly holds power as the editor in chief of one of the most, if not the most, influential fashion magazines in the world, Carine Roitfeld clearly exhibits power in other ways. First, she has shown that by simply endorsing a designer or model, she can make or break their career. She has launched the careers of countless designers by putting their clothes in Vogue and has turned models into supermodels by featuring them on the pages of the magazine. Roitfeld also displays her power as both an editor and a stylist, dictating trends and, ultimately, deciding what is fashionable. Her willingness to take risks as an editor and stylist has, in turn, helped Vogue as a business, as advertising revenue has increased since she took over. Moreover, Roitfeld’s willingness to be unconventional plays a large part in her power. While the position of editor in chief is inherently powerful, French vogue’s Carine Roitfeld is one of the most powerful figures in the fashion i...

by Tribbie Nassikas Bernard Arnault, founder, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy Aristocratic power of the French nobility from the late sixteenth to eighteenth centuries reveals the emergence of an essentially modern culture, one that has maintained a consciousness of the responsibility to give back to the community. This notion of benevolent acts of stewardship by those of a privileged social standing is known as nobles oblige, and is continued to be carried out today, evident in powerful individuals like Bernard Arnault, founder, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), and François Pinault, owner of Gucci Group. François Pinault, owner of Gucci Group As two figures literally at the head of the fashion industry, each at the control of two of the world’s leading multi-brand luxury companies, Arnault and Pinault naturally can be typified as leaders solely concerned with dominating the luxury goods market. However, Arnault and Pinault are not just single-min...

by Nicole Schloss Louis-Leopold Boilly, "The Singer Chenard as a Sans-Culotte" 1792. Musee Carnavalet, Paris “ It is a useful garment spiritually. If you wear a suit you show the world you belong. Why? Because you are wearing a form of dress for men which…has come down to us from 1670, gradually altered to show the change from aristocratic to democratic rule, to show, by allowing it to be affected by sport, that man is free to exercise his body” (Amies 44). The male suit today is the most ubiquitous and standardized style of dress for men. Government leaders, job seekers, middle class businessmen and storeowners alike have all conformed to this seemingly drab uniform, but this has not always been the case. The suit is a product of both modernity and the Western world’s shift away from monarchical rule, a trend that can be observed through art, without which, we would have very little knowledge of these rapidly changing styles. The French suit, in particular, is implicitly ali...

by Alex Goldman Promostyl Women’s Spring/Summer 2010 Print Directions Within the fashion industry exists a complex hierarchy of power relations. The hierarchy is made up of all the players that live within the fashion world. These include the designers, models, photographers, fashion house owners, magazine editors, graphic designers, marketing and public relations firms, advertisers, journalists and more, all the way down to the retailers and consumers. When it comes to fashion and power, who has the power in the fashion industry to decide what is fashionable each season? It is important to predict early on which trends will be popular, because fashion designers, buyers, and marketers need direction to reel in consumer interest. “The ability to forecast fashion trends is necessary because the design, development and production of most garments takes several months, so product concepts are usually initiated anywhere between two weeks and a year prior to going on sale” (Goworek, ...

by Danielle Auerbach Are all high-heels created equally? Perhaps to the untrained eye they are, but there is certainly a social hierarchy which exists depending on what designer you are wearing on your feet. In the consumer oriented Western World a high heel fetish, as Karl Marx defines it, surely exists which provide the wearer of the designer shoes with an unspoken but socially accepted superiority. Christian Louboutin, F 2009 Before addressing Karl Marx’s theory of fetishism of the commodity it is first necessary to distinguish it from Freud’s theory sexual fetishism. Freud addresses the shoe as a sexual object of fetishism in his essay Fetishism in which he defines a fetish as “a substitute for the woman’s (the mother’s) penis that the little boy once believed in and—for reasons familiar to us—does not want to give up” (Freud). Freud continues to more specifically address the shoe as an object of fetishism as he explains “[…] the foot or shoe owes its preference as a fetish—or a p...

by Jenny Seo Counterfeiting items leads back into the idea that imitation dominates social groups so the lower groups stay with the trend. Fashion would only survive as a social system when formal societies with class structures exist. The Chanel “Double Overlapping C’s” logo allows this hierarchy to form. This hierarchy creates a trickle down theory with imitations and counterfeit items shadowing the desired power brand. While counterfeiting items poses a threat to the moral standards of society as well as the original designer, there is also an opposing yet mystifying side to the other spectrum. Would brand names be as desired as they are now if it was financially impossible for the masses to obtain them? People purchase these counterfeit imitations only because they cannot afford the authentic item. Many covet the real merchandise, but it is not financially feasible for the masses. The Chanel “Double Overlapping C’s” Logo will always stand as a desired symbol of status and represent...

Nora J. Daly Gazette du Bon Ton Today there are four types of fashion media: the magazine as hegemonic power, media as reporter of street style and cultural trends, the magazine as art object, and media as a tool of individual expression. The magazine as hegemonic power is the historical form of the fashion magazine as dictator of both trends and lifestyle to its readers. This was the role of the fashion magazine for the earlier half of the twentieth century, during which time publishers and editors were at the height of their power within the fashion system. Media as a reporter of street style and cultural trends has both an historical and a contemporary connotation. The earliest fashion magazines reported on trends established by wealthy aristocrats, this remained the magazine’s role for much of the nineteenth century. During this time magazines existed to empower wealthy elites and established dressmakers and fashion authorities. Today modern media, both magazines and blogs, devoted...

by Emily Kaufman Credit: UK Telegraph May 2009, Foreign Staff Question: How has this, power that is vested in the objects that we buy and wear, developed? How is it that such little and seemingly insignificant objects are used to communicate such important sociological ideas? With jewelry comes the luxury market and Theodore Adorno makes clear assertions about the luxury market the way in which it appeals to the client. The argument that Adorno formed is ever yet overwhelmingly true. Upon conducting my field research, which included visiting these types of luxury market stores and attempting to speak to personnel I was jarred. Photo by Emily Kaufman Adorno states that, “as radiant things give up their magic claims, renounce the power with which the subject invested them and hoped with their help himself to wield, they become transformed into images of gentleness, promises of a happiness cured of domination over nature”(Adorno, 245). Despite the fact that man is now intellectually a...

by Simone Miller Olivier Zahm and Terry Richardson on Purple Diary The concept of fashion blogging may seem relatively new but its roots lie in the 19th century idea of the flâneur. Like the flâneur, the French fashion blogger is all about seeing and being seen. Though the blogger's and the flâneur's territory, the internet and Paris respectively, seem endless, they are both confined by what Walter Benjamin refers to as the "phantasmagoria of space". Mallarmé is also at the roots of blogging because he created, wrote and published La Derniere Mode on his own. By self-publishing, French fashion bloggers such as Olivier Zahm of Purple Diary and Garance Doré of Garance Dor é operate outside of the fashion system which gives them power. Carine Roitfeld and Mario Testino on Purple Diary Garance Doré's blog However, both bloggers operate within the fashion system when they attend shows or contribute work to fashion magazines or feature important editors, models and...