Dualité

This book should be a lesson to everyone. In fact, I think it should be mandatory for anyone with a serious interest in fashion to read this amazing book that I gobbled up in a mere 3 days.

“The End of Fashion,” written by veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Teri Agins, feels like the equivalent of 100 NY Times or Wall Street Journal articles. Journeying through several examples of popular fashion designers, she shows an evolution in the business of fashion up until the very end of the 1990s. From the flamboyant Isaac Mizrahi to the brutally honest persona of Zoran, she details in great lengths of the struggles of fashion businesses throughout the last 20 years.

Establishing a fashion brand is more than crafting designs. In today’s standards, you have to be as much as a savvy salesman with great marketing skills in order to break even in the industry. Fashion magazines will rarely give you a look of the other side of the moon. Should you wish to further expand your knowledge on fashion, pay attention to the business section of your newspaper, you might find some interesting tidbits.

What I loved about this book are some of the spectacular failures and shortcomings of powerhouses who thought they would be unstoppable.

Here’s a breakdown of what the book talks about.

History
Not only giving a little background on featured designers, there’s a crash course on the history of fashion going back to the end of the 1800s.

Different strokes for different folks
The book illustrates in detail different business approaches some designers or companies have taken and the consequences of their actions.

Department stores
Once a prestigious place to shop has now become a boring staple in every shopping mall. Save for the likes of higher end stores like Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Holt Renfrew, when was the last time you were proud shopping at The Bay?

Hollywood
Celebrities have, in a way, bastardized designer fashion. Initially wearing a label from a designer was a great honor to a red carpet event, nowadays celebrities expect to be offered designer duds or even money in order to wear them to an event.

High End Fashion vs. Fast Fashion
With fashion globalization, people are no longer dressing up for work in business suits. You can thank the likes of Bill Gates for establishing the staple of today’s office look: chinos and a shirt.

Lessons on Wall Street
Venturing to become a public company is a huge risk. Playing around with Wall Street have cost companies like Donna Karan to lose millions for lack of profits, tarnishing her reputation as a desirable brand to invest in. For newbies like me who didn’t understand a pea about the stock market with get a crash course on what it means to lose your shirt.

The list goes on.

Numerous events have occurred since 1999, the year Agins ended her book. Calvin Klein left his own label, Hedi Slimane exited Dior Homme; and bumbling Prada Group which acquired Gucci, Fendi, Jil Sander, and Helmut Lang, had so many disputes with their creative directors resulted in losing them. The labels were eventually sold to other businesses since Prada Group couldn’t turn the labels into profitable entities without their head designers.

The business is no longer a question about quality or craftsmanship, it’s about who can make the biggest splash and capture their consumers with the lowest prices with the slickest marketing tactics. H&M anyone?

You can read a follow up recent interview of Teri Agins (from 2007) at The New York Social Diary, which I believe is a nice complimentary piece.

Borrow “The End of Fashion” at the Grand Bibliotheque near Berri-UQAM, it’s free and it’s free to sign up. Read it.

Image credit to Amazon.com.