FASHION INDUSTRY

FASHION INDUSTRY

The fashion industry worldwide is one of the most glamorous, having its reach from New York to London to Paris and Tokyo. All over the globe the latest trends travel so fast that designers are busy making forecasts for each and every season and occasion they can think of. India, which has always been a centre for the textile and garment trade, is also growing into a centre of innovation in garment and accessory design. The economic potential is so huge that designers and apparel houses worldwide are trying to streamline their operations to reach the maximum consumers with the latest products at the best possible prices. But of course, to satisfy everyone`s tastes is just not possible. In order to reach the right audience, apparel houses have created different brands for different segments. Apart from foreign countries, even India has major players like Weekender, Tamarind, Peter England, Pantaloons and a host of others.

In the last decade, fashion in India is slowly coming of age. Training institutes that teach novices the basics of design and fashion are proving to be a hothouse of talent. Although, one must be wary of spurious institutes that are mushrooming all over trying to lure unsuspecting students with the glamour and hype that surrounds fashion. The fashion industry too has developed over time with functions becoming more specialized and distinct. Training, qualifications and experience in the field are of prime importance if one is looking for a job in this dynamic field.

Fashion has a wide scope for choosing a career. Fashion design as a career combines colour, shade and tone of textiles, fabrics and ornamentation. It involves areas like creative design and drawing, pattern making, sewing and embroidery, garment-manufacturing technology, apparel construction methods, textile science, fabric dyeing and printing and computer-aided design. Now the fashion industry has become so specialized that it encompasses a vast field of studies in design concept, fashion design production management, quality control, planning, fabric design, printing, fashion merchandising, textile science, colour mixing, marketing and so on. The primary areas of work in the fashion industry are market research, designing and manufacturing of garments and textiles. Fashion design career is the most important area of work in fashion industry. Designing involves creating original designs after studying the changing trends of the market i.e. market research. It has various fields of specialization like garments, footwear, jewellery and even shoes. It is a challenging field as it requires the coordination of various crafts of fashion, though in small firms it is usually a one-man show but in big organizations the jobs are specialized and allotted to different people. There is scope for a lot of careers within the fashion industry itself and with the right requisites one should find no problem establishing himself/herself in the field. Apart from being a fashion designer, one can even opt for the various career paths as given below:

Merchandiser

There is vast scope for fashion merchandising in the local and export market. It involves working for retail and wholesale organizations in buying, merchandising, sales, store operations, management, distribution, merchandise planning and sales support. One needs to have a good background in textiles and possess effective communication skills. Of late, merchandisers are also conducting the market research within the fashion industry. Most merchandisers require traveling extensively throughout the country and abroad. There are no fixed timings and merchandisers often work late into the evenings. This job requires a person to be on the job, on the spot to crack the right deals. It involves a lot of determination, patience and an eye for detail. A junior merchandiser may start with a salary of Rs 2,500, but can be promoted within a couple of months to senior merchandiser if he is hardworking, has the aptitude and can deliver. If he continues on such a growth curve, within a couple of years (depending on the size of the company) may be appointed as Director of the company, where he takes home Rs 25,000-35,000 with perks and other facilities. There is always the option of quitting the merchandising-fashion business and opting out to join a big, corporate textile company where the pay and perks are commensurate with your experience and expertise.

Fashion coordinators arrange and supervise the marketing of fashion clothing for manufacturing houses, textile firms and retail stores. It is a highly competitive job involving a variety of functions. They advice on latest fashion trends, organize fashion shows, assist in advertising i.e. promoting sales and liaison with fabric dealers to ensure that the fabric, buttons and colours are of the correct shade, quality and design. Coordinates may be required to travel widely to get an idea of the fashion trends.

Illustrator

An Illustrator draws free hand sketches of designer`s ideas. He not only needs outstanding sketching skills but at the same time require excellent communication skills. Illustrator at times has to discuss with customers when new collection is introduced and this requires ability to interact. He/she is a much sought-after person by big garment houses and organizations.

Fashion Consultant

A fashion consultant must be aware of the trends and transitions in the fashion market along with knowledge about fashion designing. He is expected to offer ideas regularly on how to further develop a product to be readily absorbed in a market. He/she should be a sharp observer sensitive to changing trends.

Cutting Assistant

He has to cut samples according to specifications of the designer. A cutting assistant cuts samples, makes and alters patterns to see that the design visualized can be converted to a real dress.

Sketching Assistant

A sketching assistant makes the technical sketches of the garments and makes drawings for presentation. It is from these specification sketches, that one decides how a garment has to be fabricated. The sketching assistant sometimes has to the select the fabric also.

Fashion Stylist

A fashion stylist has to coordinate the entire wardrobe for a fashion show or programme to promote the sales of the products. It involves coordinating the dress, accessories, make up, hairstyle, even the colour of the nail polish of the model according to the theme and the overall look of the show. Sometimes a stylist is even involved in fabric selection. He/ she has to be well versed in the trends and happenings in the industry and also have a keen sense of current fashion trends.

Colourist

He plays a vital role in the textile-printers, artist team. He is involved in block printing or machine printing. He must keep a record of colour samples and fabric pieces and have to work in a high paced environment, to meet deadlines. The colourist has to be very organized and must carefully follow precise instructions.

Textile Designer

Textile designer does the design and styling of textiles for apparel-related industries. A person should possess technical skills required to serve the textile industry in both surface and structural design. People, who specialize in this subject, work as textile or embroidery designers, as well as print, woven and embroidery stylists. They can also be involved in the sales and purchasing of fabrics and trim. Another allied field is textile technology, which lays emphasis on the analysis of fabric performance.

Pattern Maker 

Pattern making introduces people to industry procedures like the development of the basic block and operation of the sewing machine. Pattern makers have to draft various components of garments and develop professional blocks to create patterns for specific design problems. It involves producing a finished garment from a working sketch and thus a course in pattern making and apparel construction is the ideal preparation for eventual ownership or management of an apparel manufacturing facility. However, good pattern makers can also wing it themselves. Those equipped with experience and skill are in great demand in export units and can easily make anything in the range of Rs. 40,000 per month.

Accessory Designer

Accessory design involves designing accessories for the complete fashion image. It would encompass the design and possibly manufacture of millinery, jewellery, handbags, shoes, belts, hosiery, hair ornaments headgear, etc.

Window Dresser

This is a concept that is catching on like wild fire in the country with haute couture outlets opening up all over. Window dressers are appointed on a contract basis at Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 per contract. High fashion boutiques need to change their displays at least every three weeks with the emergence of new styles and designs. Besides these boutiques, there are also other garment and apparel stores that contract window dressers during the festive season. Exhibitions and fairs also call for the expertise of these personnel who can make a killing dressing up stalls and counters depending on their experience and bargaining skills.

Quality Controller

As a quality controller one needs to have a thorough knowledge of pattern making and apparel construction, finishing treatments, textiles among other things. His function in a production unit would be to establish standards of quality for design, fabrics and manufacturing. Fresh graduates start with a salary of Rs 2,500 and can reach right to Rs 15,000 when one becomes supervisor.

Fashion Journalist

A fashion journalist is an overall in-charge of a fashion magazine. It is through them that the general public gets to know the latest fashion trends. He/she should have excellent taste for fashion and keep themselves abreast with latest fashion news, consumer reaction to new collections, fashion shows, current and future trends in colour, design and fabric. Today fashion journalist has a bright scope for employment, as there is a need for exclusive articles and programmes with the development of fashion industry.

Fashion Photographer 

This is an extremely creative and well-paid profession. Fashion photographer needs to have a keen eye for aesthetic detail, a thorough knowledge of cameras and the technicalities involved in taking pictures, of light, distance and perspective to be successful. He/she should be inventive and able to visualize and communicate his ideas, at the same time must be sensitive to the moods of the models and interact freely with them. Fashion photography is one of the choices that photographers can diversify into. They can do freelancing and find employment with fashion houses, designers, fashion journals and newspapers.

FASHION

SHORT HISTORY OF FASHION

For as long as I can remember, Indians in general and Indian men specifically have never been associated with being fashionable.

That praise has, for over half a century, been strictly reserved for the male population of Italy and a handful of other European countries.

Not many are aware that style and design is in fact deeply ingrained and woven into the fabric of Indian culture. But when it comes to men’s fashion, as an integral component of any sophisticated Indian man’s savoire faire, beyond the celluloid, fantasy world of Bollywood, there's still a long way to go.

The root cause of this ‘unfashionably’ slow progression might have something to do with the depressing levels of poverty, lack of understanding, education and interest amongst the world’s second largest population.

And it is truly unfortunate, that with a culture and heritage as rich and imbued in the royal and mythical as ours is, that any existential sartorial sensibility should have been so heavily diluted over time.

A few good, and stylish, men

The true origin of India’s fashion industry as we know it today is not a fairytale of extravagance and splendor as many would like to believe.

Twenty years ago, there was no fashion industry as such in the country, much less a specific industry for menswear.

A handful of designers (icons today) like Arjun Khanna, Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, among others, laid the seeds for what is a more structured but unfortunately highly political and somewhat bastardized Indian men's fashion industry today.

According to leading menswear designer Arjun Khanna, “The sort of politics that is running and ruining the industry today did not exist when we started out; it was more cut-and-dry in a sense, at the time. It is unfortunate that over two decades of hard work on the part of us all has still not really borne fruit for the Indian fashion fraternity as a whole. You still can’t compare any of the fashion weeks in India to those in Milan, Paris, New York or London.”

And yet Indian designers have a unique design sensibility that taps into the deep-rooted royal heritage and rich history of our country.

“We take pride in this heritage of ours and the fact that we are willing to truly express it through what we do sets us apart,” says Khanna.

The Nawab collection re-arrives

Today, more western or European designers than ever before are using the dress heritage of India as a key influencer and inspiration for their collections and campaigns.

The famed Italian brands Canali and Ermenegildo Zegna are the perfect example of this.

Canali launched their ‘Nawab’ collection in 2009, which is essentially tailored bandgalas or the erstwhile ‘Nehru Jacket.’

“Indian heritage is so rich that you can come up with a collection that will fascinate the world," asserted Paolo Canali during the Mumbai launch. "This Indian-inspired bandgala collection is likely to be proposed for other international cities as well,” he said.

Ermenegildo Zegna’s Spring Summer 09 collection also included similar designs which claimed to evoke ‘the colours, sights and sounds of the Indian subcontinent.'

The entire Zegna SS/09 campaign was also shot and styled in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The boy's bandwagon

Only in the last decade has India emerged as a growing menswear market with a host of international labels from Ermenegildo Zegna, Canali, Hugo Boss and more recently Brioni, Armani, Zara and Burberry setting up shop in India.

Très chic fashion designer and global icon Tom Ford, opened his first boutique in New Delhi a few weeks ago and is of the belief that India is the next hotbed of fashion.

In an interview with GQ India (January 2011), Ford asserts: “…like China, India is the future of the 21st century. It would be foolish not to cultivate a business there."

He’s right on the money and many more are swooping in to take advantage of the menswear market.

In an effort to woo Indian men, revered British women’s accessory brand Jimmy Choo is venturing into men’s footwear nine years after exiting the men’s shoe business.

And that’s not all

The past few years have seen tremendous evolution, with fabled international men’s fashion and lifestyle magazine GQ entering the Indian market in 2008 bringing with it a much needed sartorial edge and editorial sophistication.

In 2009, the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and menswear brand Van Heusen collaborated to launch the first-of-its-kind focused menswear fashion week in India called Van Heusen India Men’s Week, establishing India’s position as only the fourth city, globally, to host an independent men’s fashion week.

Model Chirag Bajaj who was discovered by Khanna and has done campaigns for Raymond, The Ahuja Group, Arjun Khanna and others, asserts, “Not only does a men’s fashion week provide a stage for a host of extremely talented menswear designers in India, it also gives the hugely underrated male models a distinct and much needed platform to showcase their talent and skills.”

On a recent trip to Mumbai, I noticed an increasing number of men paying more attention to detail in terms of their fashion, from the cut of a suit jacket or bandgala, the fit of a pair of tailored jodhpurs or trousers, fabric and pattern on ties, the color and metal of cufflinks and even an improvement in personal grooming.

I believed for a moment that Indian men were becoming more discerning and developing an inherent sartorial sensibility.

Khanna agrees, “The conscious, contemporary Indian male is taking an active, much needed and long overdue, interest in appearance, grooming, fashion and style.”

indian fashion history

HISTORY OF INDIAN FASHION

In the indigenous Indian tradition, stitched garments were not known or used at all. The art of sewing was unknown to the early Indians, and that it was an import from outside. Serious and early students of Indian costumes, like Forbes Watson, have stated, mostly on the authority of other scholars, that the art of sewing came to India only with the coming of the Muslims.'

The 'timeless' Indian dress of men, thus, consists of garments that use no stitching, garments in other words that, as Forbes Watson says, "leave the loom, ready for wear". The Dhoti, the Scarf or Uttariya, and the Turban, which have never really disappeared from any part of India, belong to this category, and their marked visibility in India could have led one erroneously to conclude that the early Indians did not use any sewn garments.

Likewise, for women, the Dhoti or the Sari as the lower garments, combined with a Stanapatta or breast-band for covering the breasts, forms a basic ensemble, and once again consists of garments that do not have to be stitched, the breast-garment being simply fastened in a knot at the back. And the Dhoti or the Sari worn covering both legs at the same time or, in the alternative, with one end of it passed between the legs and tucked at the back in the fashion that is still prevalent in large area of India.

The Amirs and the Maliks and other officers at the Sultanate courts are described as wearing "gowns (tatailyat),jakalwat and Islamic qabas of Khawarizm tucked in the middle of the body" and short turbans which did not exceed five or six forearms. Of other Amirs we learn that they were as well dressed "as the soldiers except that they did not use belts and at times they let down a piece of cloth in front of them after the manner of the sups.

From the earliest period of Indian proto-history, the Harappan culture, the evidence about textiles and dresses is scant but not unimportant. The survival of an actual fragment of cotton cloth, and the upper garment draped around the body like a shawl as seen in a sculpture, offer interesting examples, although it is difficult to give to these pieces any kinds of names.

The veil that women still use so extensively in India, something like the dupatta or odhani of modern times, has its early prototype in the Vedic period, and various words signifying the same article of apparel are used, with differences between one and the other that may not be easy to identify. Minor differences and modifications apart, this dress seems to remain as a standard 'for women for an uncommon length of time, not only because women's dresses tend to be more conservative but also because these garments together belong to the 'timeless' garments of India.

When it comes to head-gears, there are many names that one comes upon, including usbnisba, kirita, patta, veshtana, vesbtanapatta, sbirovesbtana. The manner of wearing the turban evidently varied as much in ancient India as it did in medieval. The range of turban-styles that we encounter is reminiscent of the many styles in the 19th century, each style having a specific name for it as recorded by Forbes-Watson." However, there are close-fitting caps that one finds soldiers and some foreigners wearing in Indian sculptures and paintings. Exceptionally every head was covered by a turban.

There are specific references to the clothing of religious men, special mention being made of the sanghati or double chadar that the Bhikshuks of the Buddhist orders were meant to wear. This was combined with an antarvasaka or loin-cloth and a dupatta or loose upper garment, also called the uttarasanga. Short tunics are also heard of, but not seen too often. At the same time, drawers of the kakshya types, stitched and worn quite tight around the loins, especially by soldiers and men needing to be active in their movements, the prototypes of the later jangbias, make frequent appearance.

fashion :the blast

What is European fashion..??
European Fashion is a best practice network co-funded under the CIP ICT-PSP program and composed of 23 partners from 12 European countries, which represent the leading European institutions and collections in the fashion domain. The consortium will provide European with outstanding and rich material about the history of European fashion, including more than 700.000 fashion-related digital objects, ranging from historical dresses to accessories, photographs, posters, drawings, sketches, videos and fashion catalogues. The European Fashion project started in March 2012 and will end in February 2015


The European Fashion project started in March 2012 and will end in February 2015
The European Fashion best practice network aims to:
Aggregate and harmonize existing digital content coming from the most important and interesting public and private European fashion collections by then ingesting this fashion-related content into European.
Improve interoperability between scattered and heterogeneous collections, promoting the use of the European Data Model and developing tools, such as a specialized Fashion Thesaurus, to best handle the multilingual nature of the collated content.
Provide access to this digital content through the creation of a dedicated fashion portal that will serve as a specialized access point to heterogeneous fashion collections across Europe.
Develop tools and services for the integration of user generated content that will enrich and complement the standard metadata descriptions and will support the contextualization of the aggregated content through the connection with open content sources like Wikipedia.
Actively engage the European fashion community in museums, universities and in the private sector and raise awareness of best practices involved in digitization, IPR issues and semantic interoperability developed inside the BPN and in the European family of projects.

fashion page

This Spring is defined by clothes with an unstudied ease and a casual elegance. Mens Spring Style Eeease in Spring The single-breasted suit, reminiscent of the early 60s, reigns supreme. The jacket has a boxy shape with narrow lapels. Flat front, narrow trousers balance the suit's soft silhouette.In natural fabrics like cotton, lightweight wool, mohair and silk blends, the suit is more relaxed in fluid silhouettes for this season. Colours for Spring range from light caramel to the darker hues of navy and olive. This easy suit can be worn with an open-neck shirt in sky blue, gold and apricot or with a body-fitting v-neck, turtlenecks or a basic T-shirt for an informal take on tailored dressing.For a more formal look add a plain or patterned tie with an irridescent finish. Combinations to look out for: Windowpane checks with striped shirts, plain tie and brown loafers. A mid-blue linen suit, navy v-neck and sky blue t-shirt. Mid-brown suit, worn with a buttery yellow shirt and gold tie. Wear the same brown suit, but give it a nautical feel with a navy and white striped polo shirt. A casual shirt in navy, worn with an olive suit is an unusual but striking combination. For the occasion when you are not sure where the day will take you, try a cream coloured cotton suit and a light blue shirt, carry a tie in your pocket in case the need arises. For your casual days and not just your lazy days, sportswear has taken a new turn. Athletic influences mix with American classics for a low-tech, comfortable approach to casual dressing. Designers have turned your old weekend favourites into handsome streetwear. They have come to realize, what you have probably known all along, that your 'sweats' are warm and comfortable, but best of all they're easy to wear. Jogging pants are more stylish in a fine knit wool and are dressed up with a slim-fitting navy v-neck sweater, worn with jackets in cotton canvas. This is a comfortable look. The new sportswear can be part of your everyday wardrobe, not just thrown into your gym bag for workouts. Classic hoodies have been given a new lease of life paired with fine knitted pants and some ready-to-go sneakers. Thermals have come out of the closet and are stylish enough to be seen on the street. Solid colors of navy, grey and white or bolder red and electric blue are accented with sporty details of reflective stripes, hoods and streamlined logos for a feeling that's collegiate, with an unmistakable athletic flair. All the garments shown in this article are from Nautica

true meaning of fashion

It's all about the the creation of a new trendy bottle of perfume: 

" The final achievement is nevertheless a true fashion symbol"

FASHION

  An old adage goes “Beauty covers what lies within” gauges a message that has been distributed in time. We tend to live with the thought that we would neither live pretty outside to cover our pains and struggles inside. It covers our real world. Experts often exemplify and continues to dig up and nurture a world where we can see on outer self.

We behave in accordance with how other people react in our outlooks. We make it sure that we are fashionable enough to go with the trend....Oh so well..what can fashion do to us? In the world of fashion, a mean and an escape to our anxieties, a door to happiness and a key to inner peace? How can a man be fashionable?

There are, but a few questions fashion has something to do about. Fashion ultimately describe why people, office workers, students and even performing artists keep and do daily care regimen, share pieces of information and techniques so as to look sophisticated, well-groomed and appeal corporate image that a person tend to look up to.

Magazines, brochures, and other informative details were distributed and aired on radios and TV’s to continually share and acquaint everyone to be able to answer queries and tips to be applied about. And we can even browse on different websites to gather the said information. Fashions also reveals a productive venture for business-minded person for it already shows the real world bringing people the art which experts have researched and studied on time that is applicable to daily undertakings.

Fashion is not merely wearing make-ups, sporty get-ups, new gadgets and new mood of styles. It also draws a person’s attitude, seems so broad right? Well, attitude signifies the total personality of a person, on how he put out over simple things, practicing etiquette on public putting emphasis in every behavioral practices.

The industry of fashion nowadays portrays how talented people are, how magnificient their simple act making it too stunning. A lot of opportunities awaits to those who draw himself and get into fashion.

A total appealing person not only describes that he is to wear expensive outfits, even facncy apparel will do. What’s important is how you certainly and uniquely carry yourself. We would dare say he is out of fashion for not wearing environment’s trends. He can be fashionable enough as ling as he behave in accordance with what is proper to be worn. He can be fashionable in any reason he can.  He’s of being unique is more importantly to consider and be adhere into.

The idea of being so fashionable is like drawing your own self, making a portray when you can see yourself so confident and beautiful not just over the touches of color you applied but the inner description you have and the combination of strokes on your canvass.

We should bear in our mind that being fashionable is revealing your real self equipped with principle and giving importance to everything he dealt with.              

TRUE FASHION BEGINS HERE…..
Established in 1978, Fashion was an English band that formed in the dying days of punk. This was also a period of music history when bands frequently changed names. 'Fashion' started out with the name Fashion Music, but dropped 'Music' a few years later. Just to keep to keep the French mistranslations rolling, they released an album in 1982 called Fabrique. Beautifully chosen, this French word doesn't mean fabric, but factory.

As a footnote: Fashion toured in 1980 with bands such as Duran Duran (who opened for them), The B52s, The Police and U2. However we can't find any evidence that they ever toured with Depeche Mode. If they had also joined up with the very short-lived band 'News', the headline could have been Fashion, News, Depeche Mode.

You are here: Depeche Mode - the real meaning of the name (it's not Fast Fashion) 

1.    Views of my friends n mine about the sameI

I recently had an epiphany a few weeks while chatting with one of my friends. The conversation somehow landed on the topic of grotesque runaway fashion shows. He made a comment about how the fashion designers design clothes and not something better. I asked him what he meant by "something better" to which he replied "looking good."
I thought that a rather strange response at the time, but later, thinking on what he had said it occurred to me what he had meant. Such fashion designers design clothes as "Art" meant to be controversial, or to simply be different, etc. But people originally invented the idea of fashion and style to make a person look good. I think that is an idea that has been quite lost in the anything goes world of today's fashion. People nowadays will essentially dress to wear clothes, rather than dressing to look good. here are some examples courtesy of balcktieguide.com
I'm not worried about the relative correctness of impropriety of either persons dress, but rather the aesthetic implications. The gentleman on the top simply looks better, and there are specific reasons that the mixture of colors work together to frame his face and flatter his body. As for the bottom picture, that young man only wears the clothes because they are clothes. If you could make a painting out of these two photographs, and blur the clothes, the person on top would still look better because he isn’t wearing a mixture of unharmonizing pieces.
I believe that clothing and fashion in today's world have lost their way a bit, and certainly what looks good is no longer on the minds of many clothing retailers and fashion designers. It would be interesting to see what creative minds like that could come up with if they stopped modifying already existing garments and started to work to create new things that would create new ways to flatter the body, or look good - form an aesthetic viewpoint, thinking in reference to colors, fit, the geometry of the pieces, etc.

If anyone has any thoughts to share on this issue, please do so, I am interested to hear what the people's opinions on this are.

Reply With Quote

I've found this to be an easy distinction, and one that friends in the fashion industry agree with.

Fashion is seasonal and ever-changing. What is fashionable today, this month, or this year, may not be fashionable tomorrow, next month, or next year. However, style is timeless. It may lead to comments about dressing like you're from another era when taken to a certain point (spectator shoes or a fedora for example), but the consensus will be that you are stylish, not necessarily fashionable. I'll take stylish any day.

What’s missing? That part of this box where I said I'm always looking for......and I've yet to get a single freaking' PM. So, let’s go with my email signature quote:

Drive thy business or it will drive thee

I agree with you TheGreatTwizz but my point was slightly more than fashion versus style - I believe that issue has been put to rest by many before us. My point was more in line with the idea that clothing should be made for an aesthetic purpose that blends the pieces together. Rather than just donning clothes to wear clothes, one should dress to enhance his natural physique. If someone looked at a man who was well-dressed from far away, and (for example) the person in the bottom picture above, He the man who was well-dressed would appear better looking by the color and cut of his clothes, while the other would simply appear as a splotch of unrelated colors.

Agreed. This is a point I've made a number of times in the past. The "designer" clothing industry is fundamentally flawed, because it is mostly geared towards self-gratification of the "artiste" designer and his/her incestuous circle of like-minded friends; it has little to no regard for flattering or improving the appearance of the average person. Of course, it would be difficult to do anything so wildly new as to satisfy an "artiste" if flattering a wearer were the objective, since men's clothing got fairly optimal in that regard about 80 years ago. The only way to "innovate" and "create" is to either tinker at the edges, execute with better craftsmanship, or move downward from that optimal point.

Thus the reasons that fashion houses come and go but Sayville Row tailoring firms rumble along for centuries. Some designers never outgrow the 'Look at Meeeeee . . ." stage of adolescence, whether their first customers do or not. Antony Price is a prime example of this. I rather suspect that a fair percentage of his earliest clients no longer patronize him because they have outgrown Fashion and now prefer Style.

Half fashion plate, half slob.

"You have to care.
Only in that way
can you look as if
You do not."--Flanderian

Style is a bedrock concept that changes rarely (though how it's applied can be less durable). It's based on more firm concepts like masculinity, femininity, sociology, psychology, geometry/biological architecture, etc.

Fashion is the temporary applications, evolutions, and engineering of these things for the purposes of modernity, of-the-mementoes, exploration, or change for change's sake. It's a way to adapt and toy with things in a temporary way.

Think of style like macro evolution, and fashion as micro evolution. Both are important in their context, but in the hierarchy style is the thing you want to be wisest about. It is the foundation.

"Take a simple idea and take it seriously." --Charlie Monger

fashion ka jalwa