The relatively backward status of fashion manufacturing stands in marked contrast to the aggressive and innovatory profile of modern fashion marketing and advertising. From the nineteenth century fashion consumption was further stimulated by the development of increasingly sophisticated marketing, advertising and retailing techniques, as epitomised by the new overwhelming luxurious department stores of the era.
And what do I think of this?
The manufacturing of technologies has greatly and vastly improved since the 1800's, but has the quality of the clothes on our backs really improved along side this?
We can see that advertising of the textiles industry and department brands has changed direction along with the trends of fashion. Long ago did women consider a fashionable item, full skirts with wire frames, puffy arms and undergarments layering, and layering... and more layering.
We all remember and still laugh about those women in their "gym" fashion, fluro patterned tights, leg warmers and lycra... everywhere. Vibrant colours like this are now a thing of the past, where black, grey and neutral tones took over. Grungy, edgy and "original" fashion trends took to the catwalk. All fashion conscious women wanted to do was have the latest, most expensive and to fit in... but with that extra edge that made them unique Advertising showed up everywhere, magazines and newspapers at first but after those technological advancements, colour television and websites spanned from country to country.
As the fashion trends jumped to era to era, so did the quality in machinery and workplace employees. This is where sweatshops started to be discovered. As more and more fashion feuds between designers occurred, where did all these mass produced clothing come from? Surely the manufacturing of the 1800's wasn't still going on. Hand sewing and slow stitching a full gown just wasn't heard of anymore. Mass producing sewing machines now operated mainly in Asian countries. As governments cut down on the rights of workers, mass producing was still happening... but the quality of these garments was lessening more and more.
It is quite obvious in the advancements in Camera gear and equipment, computer technologies and even knowledge in using these items greatly improves the quality of advertising. The consumer is influenced of advertisements in garments and products, showing something so surreal it makes a product look glamourous, expensive and ideally something that they "need".
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