How Fashion Works

How Fashion Works Gavin Waddett Blackwell Publishing 2004 £19.99 ISBN: 0-632-05752-1

Review DOI 10.1108/13612020610651178

Synopsis

This book explores the fashion industry from a new perspective. The author has eschewed an account of fashion history, instead examining the industrial processes needed to design, manufacture and distribute garments, and explains how the evolution of these processes has influenced the industry. Distinction is made between three levels of the fashion industry; couture, ready-to-wear and mass production. Indicating the characteristics of each level, the book shows how the fashion industry is an evolving, multi-faceted and global business reliant on often dichotomous creative, manufacturing and distribution procedures.

The primary distinctions between the three levels described are in the time and skill required to produce garments, and the number of items made. Couture describes the activities undertaken by exclusive design houses that produce limited numbers of expensive, high quality garments. Couture houses are organised according to long-established principles, with the couturier (or designer) providing an identity and direction, supported by assistant designers and a premier de l'atelier (head of the work room). Couture houses are regulated by national organisations which ensure that members meet stringent design, manufacturing and commercial regulations.

These regulations make couture garments affordable by very few consumers. Therefore, to be commercially sustainable, the fashion industry provides less wealthy consumers with cheaper garments. The antecedents of...