Fashion & Marketing †Individuality vs Conformity Essay

A seemingly intractable paradox underlies Hesperianers excerpt of singular(prenominal) manner in the twenty-first century. On the one hand, the democratic and tender progress make in the West in the past fifty old age has led to radical revaluations of, and profound r eversals of attitudes towards, issues such as sex activity, break up, race, social stereo fibres, cultural individualised identity and so on in short, the Western citizen of 2005 has far greater in the flesh(predicate) freedom for manner than could perk up been conceivable for a Westerner in 1905 or even 2005 (Craik, 1994).The late student of Western fashion trends might therefore reasonably expect to nonice in the habilitate wefts and fashions of twenty-first Westerners ever greater diversity and individuation to notice a kaleidoscopic and multi-coloured efflorescence of individual(prenominal) freedom in fabric and cloth. And, indeed, in many instances in Western society there is a extravagance of individual geniuss mirroring briskly liberated individual personalities.Yet, on the opposite hand, condescension this potential for individuality, the fashion student notices, paradoxically, that Westerners ar exhibiting an ever greater homogeneity and similarity in their clothing choice for instance, the omnipresent presence, amongst certain definable social groups, of trendy brands desire Tommy Hilfiger, Zara and FCUK. The principal force behind this homogeneity is argued to be (Miles, 1998 & Radford, 1998) the massive and all-consuming baron of giant global fashion houses and their resources for mass branding and publicizing.To many fashion critics and scholars these hugely powerful companies know come to swamp the potential for personal and individual expression that was made viable by social changes in Europe and America in the past fifty old age. In a further paradox, it was these really changes themselves, and the liberation and emancipation of consumer powe r and choice which they released, which provides the consumer markets and spending-power which make these huge companies possible.In other words, for the gender, class, and social revolutions of the twentieth century to happen this required the protests and emancipation of Western masses but this very freedom itself created a mass homogeneous market that could be exploited by fashion corporations themselves made possible by these changes. In a final paradox, Rosenfeld (1997) and Davis (1993) argue that modern man is free to strike the clothes he wears and so is himself responsible for submitting himself and his individuality to temptations of mass production and consumerism that surround him.The fascinating top dog forwards this belles-lettres review is then why is it that Westerners, granted at hold water a queen-size measure of personal freedom for expression, choose nonetheless to submit themselves to mass trends and to enslave themselves to perhaps an ever greater extent t han when such freedom was not obtainable? Of further interest is the query how digest particular cultural groups, and fashion trends, resisted mass consumerism of fashion, and gone on to use these new freedoms to establish elicit and original expressions of their personalities? partition 2 SourcesA few words nearly the origin and authority of the sources apply for this literature review atomic number 18 perhaps necessary before turning to the main themes of the review. The principal type of source discussed in this literature review atomic number 18 academic books and journals in addition, some internet sources atomic number 18 employed also. The academic books referred to in this review are amongst the seminal texts in the literature of fashion and marketing, their authors beginning(a) experts in their fields, and therefore the reliability and authority of their material is extremely senior senior high.The fashion student prat have high, if not complete, confidence in his employment of these sources to illustrate his themes and arguments. Likewise, those texts from other fields in this review, such as Freuds The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900) or Lacans Language of the Self (Lacan, 1998), are usually included by critics and scholars in their lists of the most important works of the twentieth-century. They too then may be utilize by the fashion student with a high degree of trust in their authority and reliability. A product line of caution might be sounded however ab prohibited the employment of internet sources in any literature review.Whereas the process of publishing work in an academic book or journal is a drawn-out one, requiring considerable cost and numerous stages of scrutiny by fellow scholars and experts, thus ensuring the quality of those sources, nonetheless, the standards required for exit on the internet are often lower and less vigorous. The vast profusion material released everyday on the internet requires the conscie ntious student to subject the internet sources he employs to greater scrutiny and enquiry than might be the case with academic books or journals published in the traditional paper-based way.Consequently, the internet sources used in this literature review have been vigorously scrutinised and tested for their reliability in the fashion exposit above. Section 3 Review The following literature review is discussed according to the following thematic system in five parts (1) The Paradox of Individuality and submission, (2), Global Trends and World Markets, (3) semiotic Theories of way of life advancement & Visual Communication, (4) Popular Cultures and Distinctive Identities, and, (5), Sociological & Philosophical Views of Class, Gender, fond Stereotypes and Cultural Identity.The Paradox of Individuality and Conformity The contemporary situation in Western fashion and personal clothing choice is one of seemingly irresolvable paradox Westerners are today endue with ever greate r personal freedoms, extending naturally to their choice of personal clothing and one would expect this freedom to lead to a plethora and profusion of individual styles and politeness of adjust these freedoms should result in less submission of style than was present in say 1905 when gender, class and social prejudices compelled and forced a person to dress in a particular way and style.Yet, despite these abundant new-found freedoms, Western clothing choice in 2005 seems to display ever greater concurrence and homogeneity. That is, Westerners are choosing to dress more and more alike one another Westerners expression of their personalities through their choice of style is showing ever greater similarities to one another. How then could this be possible? This question is discussed at the command level in great depth by F. Davis (1993) personal manner, Clothing and Identity and by Fiske (1990) in presentment to Communications Studies.Global Trends & World Markets The most pers uasive and frequently given answer to the above question is that the rise of huge fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani, Prada, Zara, amongst many others along with their massive resources for branding and announce, have drowned-out the recently attained freedoms of Western individuals to meditate their personalities in their choice of clothing. This show up is powerfully made in D. Cranes seminal text Fashion and the Social Agenda Class, Gender and Identity in Clothing. (Crane, 2004).Crane argues that just at the critical historical moment (the end of the 20th Century) when Westerners were finally endowed with greater personal freedoms in fashion and personality expression than ever before, that these freedoms were immediately smothered by forces such as globalization and capitalism which gave birth to vast fashion corporations whose financial resources and advertising capability have become too great and powerful for individual expression to poke throu gh and flower. This point is corroborated and reinforced by numerous other scholars and authorities in fashion and marketing.F. Davis (1993) in Fashion, Culture and Identity, L. Rosenfeld (1997) in Clothing as Communication, and J. Craik (1994) in The Face of Fashion Cultural Studies in Fashion all licence Cranes central premise that individual freedom of personality expression through clothing and style is suffocated by the capitally fuelled force of the major fashion brands to oerwhelm this expression through relentless psychological pressure, carried by advertising, to conform to the style and choice bring downd and decided by these companies and not by individuals themselves.M. Barnard in Fashion as Communication (1996) makes an interesting refinement of this basic premise by suggesting, in a further paradoxical assertion, that it is the very freedom of gender, class, social status etc. , of the past fifty years which has led to ever greater conformity to popular styles and to an even greater trickery of style than existed before such freedoms were possible.In other words, to echo a sentiment expressed by Nietzsche in 1888 (Nietzsche, 1888) and Freud in 1900 (Freud, 1900) human beings have natural crowd instincts which are present whether people are free or not, and these instincts generate the need for leadership and imposition from one source or another.Thus, whilst before the 1960s style conformity was forced upon Westerners by gender and class stereotypes, nonetheless, after the 1960s when these stereotypes were lifted, Westerners became susceptible to a new authority, imposition and leadership in the form of vast fashion corporations whose choice of style and expression is propagated through intensive branding and advertising.According to this philosophical view, endorsed by Bruce Stella and Pamela Church Gibson (2000) in Fashion Cultures Theories Explorations and Analysis, the personalities of Westerners today and their choice of expression of th eir personalities through clothing, is largely decided by fashion corporations and advertising companies thus resulting in the uniformity of style and expression which is so intelligible from a casual glance at our high-streets today.Semiotic Theories of Fashion Promotion & Visual Communication A interesting example of the practice of a semiotic theory of fashion promotion is that discussed in A. Rhodes and R. Zuloagos paper A Semiotic Analysis of towering Fashion Advertising published in 2003. The chief motif of Rhodes and Zuloagos work is that Fashion advertising is an excellent example of identity-image producing media (Rhodes & Zuloago, 2003 p8).They state at the outset of their paper that The nature of the product is tied promptly to identity those objects with which we encase our bodies for public display - and fashion is acknowledged as a cultural delivery of style a little further on they add Taken as a whole, high fashion media and advertising describe a spectrum of i dentity, unified in general types of signifiers young women, high status, high sexuality and through the constant repetition and variation of images on these themes serve to create this identity spectrum. (Rhodes and Zuloago, 2003, p1).Thus, in their paper, Rhodes and Zuloago seek to define the symbiotic relationship betwixt high fashion and the cultural and social identity of one particular social group young, rich and sexually confident women. Rhodes and Zuloago argue that the advertising campaigns of companies like Prada, Donna Karen, Armani, Dolce Gabanna and others like them, speak so powerfully and seductively to these women, and that the images employed penetrate so profoundly into their consciousness and social orientation, that they come to identify their personalities almost wholly with the product.Rhodes and Zulago recognise, nonetheless, that whilst the influence of major fashion brands all over social groups like the one mentioned above is immense that these group s too, by their social characteristics and newly liberated personalities, constantly force the fashion brands to invent new styles and designs that evolve to reflect the changing consciousness of these particular and individualist groups (Rhodes & Zuloago, 2003 p5).The symbiosis is nearly total and similar relationships between major brands and other social groups are evident throughout modern Western gloss. Popular Cultures and Distinctive Identities R. Radford points out in Dangerous matter Art, Fashion and Individualism (1998) that the mass conformity of modern fashion style and personality expression is not of crinkle universal, and many original and fresh styles punk, gothic, heathenish, etc., have arisen from the social freedoms of recent decades, both in response to the preceding centuries of restricted expression and also in reaction to the monotonous uniformity of the mass-branded and consumer-based style. As suggested in the last sentence, Radford distinguishes betw een styles which are (1) a reaction to the restrictions of former centuries, (2) those which are defiances of the modern branded uniformity, and, (3), those which are a reaction to neither, but rather are well-grounded and original efflorescences of cultural uniqueness and individual expression.In the first category Radford places the astonishing growth in popularity of gender-liberated products like bikinis, short-skirts and casual clothing which were, in other centuries, repressed by the authorities either because of gender prejudices or inequalities, or because of antiquated ideas about the morality or sexual imprudence of certain items and styles of clothing. To take an instance of gender discrimination cited by Radford (Radford, 1998 pp. 142-148), it was not socially or morally permissible for women in former times to wear beach caparison (bikinis, swim- lawsuits etc.,) that revealed or celebrated anything of the sensuousness or beauty of the female figure women were therefor e universally condemned (in Western countries) to wear a single type plain, non-sexual beachwear. But since the lifting of this social prejudice and stigma, there has been a profusion of designers, from Gucci and Dolce & Gabana to Zara and BHS, who have produced modern designs which allow women to celebrate the sensuality and beauty of the female figure.Women today know the same rights as men to wear what they like either to the beach, to the disco or to work thus, in this instance, despite the domination of the fashion brands, women now have the opportunity to, and do indeed exhibit in practice, a greater expression of individuality of personality than was possible or permissible before the last decades. In the second category, Radford places fashion styles like punk and gothic styles which rebel against the conformity of modern mass-consumer culture and relish in the controversy and upsetting of convention induced by the difference of their style.Studded clothing, fluorescent co loured hair, male make-up, cross-dressing etc. , are rebellions against the usual fashion paradigm and make the personality statement that some people disagree with popular sentiment and convention and express this in clothing styles that are often shocking and scandalous (Barthes, 1983). In the third category are individualistic styles, such as ethnic, which are neither reactions to historical repressions or to modern mass conformity, but which are rather healthy flourishing of individual personality or philosophy.For instance, contemporary Western style permits a greater order of ethnic clothing or pride in national dress than was acceptable fifty years ago. F. Davis argued as early as 1988 in Clothing and Fashion Communication that clothing could be a vehicle for greater racial tolerance and for multi-culturalism and racial integration in modern Western society. A concomitant of this toleration is a celebration and pride in the wearing of clothes of national dress clothes that d isplay part of the persons personality repressed for decades.Sociological & Philosophical Views of Class, Gender, Social Stereotypes and Cultural Identity Jacques Lacan in Language of the Self (Lacan, 1997) gives a fascinating philosophical and psychological recitation of the individuality vs. conformity paradox, filtering it the prism of class, gender and social stereotypes, to argue that human beings are essentially language-animals and can be manipulated if one finds the key to the use of this language.Lacan argues in his seminal text Language and the Self (1997) that the social freedoms attained by Westerners in the past half(prenominal) century have given them Westerners unprecedented opportunities to reflect their innermost self, their basic human constituency, through new cultural media such as television, the arts, and by derivation, fashion and our choice of media.Lacan argues further that the self of previously repressed groups such as women, homosexuals, African-Americ ans and so on is now able to manifest itself in cultural forms that had previously been repressed for centuries, and which are now bursting out in the diversity of artforms prevalent in our society today. Nonetheless, through his principal scientific and philosophical investigating into the language-animal, Lacan argues that Westerners have been seduced by the clever and innovative marketing campaigns of the major fashion brands, who use slogans and images to target limited social groups.Thus Lacan explains the phenomenal seduction of modern Western man to the worded slogans of designer labels and celebrity endorsed products. Lacan suggests that the advertising campaigns of major fashion brands seduce the consumers unconscious directly and that this explains the phenomenon of mass conformity to such a homogeneous type of personal expression through fashion as is evident in our society. Section 4 Conclusion In the final analysis, the literature of the fashion and marketing texts on the subject of individuality vs.conformity, and the influence of branding upon this relationship, reveals the following points. Firstly, that a curious and complex paradox deeply underpins the dynamics between individuality and conformity. To the one side, the liberation of women, homosexuals, formerly repressed racial groups, underprivileged classes and others, in the second half of the twentieth-century, has led to a huge mass of people in Western society who have previously unimaginable freedom to wear whatever styles and types of clothing they believe best express their individuality and uniqueness.For instance, gender prejudices removed, women can now wear trousers race prejudices declining, repressed groups can wear a city suit or opera tuxedo in many other instances Westerners are free to dress as however their mood, philosophy and occupation inclines them. On the other hand, the ceaseless ascent to prominence and immense power of the great fashion houses and fashion brands has led to a blanket of homogeneity being spread over the personal expression of many Western consumers.Philosophers like Lacan, and psychologists like Freud and Nietzsche, suggest that man has an innate herd instinct that compels him to conform to the trends of the crowd and to seek a higher authority and leadership to decide and impose his personal expression upon him. According to this view, despite the newly attained freedom of Westerners, they have substituted for the old imposition of gender and class barriers the new authority of the mass product and the famous brand. Thus personal choice and freedom of expression of personality through clothing are merely illusions that do not hit to modern reality.Furthermore, the conformity of modern Western dress is, according to D. Crane (Crane, 2004), even more exquisite today than in other centuries, since in 2005 particular styles and mass produced clothing items Crane gives Levis jeans as an example permeate all classes and gend ers of society and therefore have a total sphere of conformity and influence in other centuries a particular item or style of clothing would plainly dominate one social group today brands like Nike, Zara, Levis, Armani and so on, can penetrate the personal expression of every social group from top to bottom.Nonetheless, the flourishing of reactionary and rebellious fashions expressions such as punk and gothic, as well as the profusion of small individualistic designers and such styles as ethnic suggest that the mass produced fashion items have not and will not dominate totally and may even be forced back a little as personal expression is allowed to flowering in the new forms and clothing styles of the twenty-first century. Our final words might be these that the question of conformity vs.individuality now hangs in a delicate balance and equilibrium, that Western society pivots at a vital moment in the history of its ability to be able to define itself. The opportunity exists for Westerners to bedazzle the world with an efflorescence of new styles of clothing that reflect the cultural diversity, racial integration, and class assimilation achieved in the past fifty years. The danger remains nonetheless that these achievements and potential expression will be swamped by the relentless march of mass consumer fashion and our seduction to it.Section 5 Bibliography Academic Books, Journals & Articles Barnard, M. (1996) Fashion as Communication, Routledge Barthes, R. (1967, 1983). The Fashion System, New York Hill and Wang. Bruzzi Stella & Church, P. G. (2000). Fashion Cultures Theories, Explorations and Analysis, Routledge Craik, J. (1994) The Face of Fashion Cultural Studies in Fashion, London Routledge. Crane, D. (2004). Fashion and Its Social Agenda Class, Gender and Identity in Clothing. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Davis, F. (1985).Clothing and fashion as communication, in Solomon, M. R. (ed. ) The Psychology of Fashion, Massachusetts Lexington Boo ks. Davis, F. (1993). Fashion, Culture and Identity, cabbage, IL Chicago University Press. Du Gay, P. (1996). Consumption and Identity at Work, London Sage. Fiske, J. (1990). trigger to Communication Studies, London Routledge Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. Penguin, London. Lacan, J. (Reprinted 1997). Language of the Self, Baltimore, MD. Johns Hopkins University Press Mead, G. H. (1934).Mind, Self and Society, From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviourist, Chicago, IL. University of Chicago Press Miles, S. (1998). Consumerism as a Way of Life, London Sage Publications Nietzsche, F. (1888). Ecce Homo. Peter Gast Books, Basel. Quirk, R. (Et al. ). (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Radford, R. , Dangerous Liaison Art, Fashion and Individualism, Fashion speculation, vol. 2, issue 2, Oxford Berg, 1998, pp. 151-64. Rosenfeld, L. B. and Plax, T. G. (1997). Clothing as communication, Journal ofCommunication, 27 24-31. Sm ith, A. (1759/1976). The possible action of the Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh. Internet Sources Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, Self and Society, From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviourist, Chicago, IL. University of Chicago Press http//www2. pfeiffer. edu/lridener/DSS/Mead/MINDSELF. HTML Smith, A. (1759/1976). The Theory of the Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh. http//www. adamsmith. org/smith/tms-intro. htm Rhodes, A. & Zuloago, R. (2003). A semiotic Analysis of High Fashion Advertising. www. garhodes. com/Semiotics_of_Fashion. pdf