Articles
The Transformation of Fashion Designers' Social Position in Japan:
A Sociological Analysis of Subjects and Arrangement
2016 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 56-72
Details
2016 Volume 67 Issue 1 Pages 56-72
This paper aims to analyze the transformation of fashion designers' social position in Japan, and to clarify the effects of this transformation. We will conduct an analysis based on the subjects of fashion designers, as understood from their narrative and practice, and the arrangement of fashion designers as understood from the industry and discourses surrounding fashion designers.
Fashion designers of the 1980s expressed independent subjects through their narratives concerning design and through their practices, such as the creation of works by individuals and the establishment of designer associations by groups. Further, concerning the arrangement of fashion designers, limited production of a wide variety of products and transformation to a short cycle were realized by the industry. Concerning discourses, the reputation of fashion designers was supported by references to them by critics and philosophers. In this manner, fashion designers created their social position in Japanese society.
However, from the 1990s, the fashion industry reorganized through “SPA” (“Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel”) businesses and luxury brand conglomerates. Consequently, discourses shifted to references made by sociologists and marketers concerning consumers. Meanwhile, although fashion designers criticized this kind of arrangement, they practiced grouping and collaboration in their businesses. Thus, the social status of fashion designers collapsed due to the transformation of their arrangement and inconsistencies in their subjects.
This transformation in the social position of fashion designers suggests that individual designers became subsumed within organizations. Therefore, in addition to the problem of inconsistency in the subjects of fashion designers, references to designers and brands are diverging. Furthermore, while creation of fashion itself is being made increasingly difficult, it is being supplanted by marketing.
