Field Guide: How to be a Fashion Designer

(Ray)

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FIELD GUIDE: HOW TO BE A FASHION DESIGNER

There are also three primary purposes

of dress: to make visible the social

distinction of a person, to express

one’s taste and personality, and to

seduce, that is, to fit into a social

group. The priority of these functions

has changed over the course of his-

tory as a consequence of the evolu-

tion of society. Until the French Revo-

lution, dress explicitly defined the

social position of an individual, with

very little room left for expressing

one’s personal style, while beginning

in the twentieth century, and espe-

cially since the 1960s, the affirmation

of individual identity has become the

most important function of dress.

Seduction has always been present,

as it reflects the need to connect with

a determined social group.

ORIGIN AND

EVOLUTION OF

FASHION

Fashion is a particular system of pro-

duction and organization of dress that

emerged in the West with the advent

of modernity during the fourteenth

century, subsequently expanding with

the rise of mercantile capitalism, hand-

in-hand with technological processes.

Pre-modern societies were traditional

—based on worship of the past, of

tradition—perpetuating the same forms

of dress with negligible alterations.

The system of fashion took root when

a rupture from the past (from the

old) in benefit of the future (the new)

occurred. Which is to say, when new-

ness became a constant and general

principle, highlighting a predilection

typical of the West: modernity.

The evolution of the fashion system

can be divided into three stages:

– Aristocratic fashion appeared in

the second half of the fourteenth

century and lasted until the mid-

dle of the nineteenth century. Its

dominant figure was masculine, with

men exhibiting the full range of their

power through a fashion based on

ornamentation.

– Centennial fashion emerged in the

second half of the nineteenth cen-

tury and extended up to the 1960s.

Men were eclipsed by women, who

drew attention to themselves with

haute couture designs.

– Open fashion was born in the ’60s

and continues to this day, charac-

terized by the great interest of both

sexes in their appearance, coin-

ciding with the rise of consumer

society.

(Ray) Text

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