Synopses & Reviews
From the catwalk to the high-style boutique, the common perception of the fashion industry is glamour and indulgence. Yet there is more than meets the eye in the industry known as the rag trade.
In British Fashion Design, renowned cultural critic Anglea McRobbie explores the tensions between fashion as art form and the demand of a ruthlessly commercial industry. Using interviews and research conducted over numerous years, McRobbie follows the flow of art school fashion graduates into the industry and details their attempts to reconcile training with the practical demands of business. Examining the careers of British fashion designers, notably John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, McRobbie analyzes the impact of fashion media in promoting new talent and its potential for job creation.
Synopsis
British Fashion Design explores the tensions between fashion as art form, and the demands of a ruthlessly commercial industry. Based on interviews and research conducted over a number of years, Angela McRobbie charts the flow of art school fashion graduates into the industry; their attempts to reconcile training with practice, and their precarious position between the twin supports of the education system and the commercial sector. Stressing the social context of cultural production, McRobbie focuses on British fashion and its graduate designers as products of youth street culture, and analyses how designers from diverse backgrounds have created a labour market for themselves, remodelling enterprise culture to suit their own careers.