Eleni Mouratidou - Re-presentation Policies of the Fashion Industry

1 1 The flagship store is the largest and most prestigious of all the shops of the same commercial name.

2 2 Article published on January 16, 2006 in the “Blogs” page of the electronic edition of Le Monde, written by Lunettes Rouges: http://lunettesrouges.blog.lemonde.fr/2006/01/16/2006_01_bernard_arn_van/.

3 3 Article published on October 11, 2005 in Libération, headlined: “LVMH met l’art en tête de gondole”.

4 4 Not in the physical sense of the term but in the pragmatic sense, including a whole area of skills and specific actions. The art space is neither a museum nor an art center, but the virtual deployment of works and values related to the field of art.

5 5 The video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INQLTKtEAx4.

6 6 An excerpt of the parade is available at: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26yehx.

7 7 These words were given to Karl Lagerfeld, artistic director of Chanel, and relayed by Le Figaro, on October 1, 2014, in an article entitled “Fan des ‘seventies’”.

8 8 “Lagerfeld et Chanel dans la rue”, Le Bien public, article published on October 1, 2014.

9 9 Yves Saint Laurent for any element resulting from the brand’s communication strategies and marketing policies until the end of 2011 and Saint Laurent Paris from 2012, when the brand’s artistic director for this period, Hedi Slimane, changed the name of the brand.

10 10 According to the online edition of the weekly business magazine Challenges, in 2014, Dior sold approximately 826,000 bottles of J’adore “with a turnover of 55 million euros, up 3% over last year”: https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/classification-j-adore-de-dior-reste-numero-1-des-ventes-de-parfums-en-france_162670.

11 11 Which I present in Chapter 3of this book.

12 12 This is also called textuality. This difference is analyzed throughout Chapter 1of this book.

13 13 While luxury is traditionally described as a sector that escapes industrialization, the so-called market luxury fashion belongs to this segment whose goods are produced in a semiindustrial or industrial way and are even threatened by a trivialization of their usage values. Its vocation is the democratization of some of its goods. See also Chapter 5.

14 14 “La fortune de Bernard Arnault dépasse les 100 milliards de dollars”, Challenges, article published on June 19, 2019: https://www.challenges.fr/classement/classement-des-fortunes-de-france/la-fortune-de-bernard-arnault-depasse-les-100-milliards-de-dollars_659109.

15 15 I refer here to the essence of Greek tragedy as defined by Aristotle (1980): “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear affect the proper purgation of these emotions” (p. 53).

16 16 Without specifying it at the time of its use, the phrase “fashion industry” now refers to commercial luxury fashion.

17 17 See also section I.4.

18 18 I use this neologism in place of the term counterfeiting to refer not to the manufacturing practice and its result, which we call counterfeiting, but rather to a position that emanates from a communicational approach and an axiological aim. Throughout this book, I will use this term as well as the term “counter-fashioned” to further mark the position of imitation and simulacra adopted by the fashion industry with respect to the fields of art, religion and politics. The reason why I maintain this form instead of the verb “to counterfeit” is also to mark the irony that results from a process that is called mise en abyme: the fashion industry is threatened by counterfeiting; but the fashion industry counterfeits art, religion and politics through its communicative counterfeiting processes.

19 19 Even if counterfeiting, copying and imitation are processes that are both praised and decried by the same industry (see also Chapter 6, section 6.2.2).

20 20 Although there is a great deal of scientific work today, as well as film material, showing how commercial logic influences the creative production of the work of art. I refer, for example, to Menger’s book (2002) or Nathaniel Kahn’s documentary, The Price of Everything, 2018.

21 21 According to Jeanneret (2008), polychresis is a process that affects practices and objects undergoing “constant reappropriation” (p. 83).

22 22 According to data published by Hoovers in 2016 and cited by Godart (2016, p. 99). Thus, LVMH is in first place, with sales of $37,234.41 million, H&M Hennes and Mauritz in sixth place ($20,672.41 million) and Kering in 11th place ($12,655.74 million).

23 23 According to the article “Vuitton accélère l’ouverture d’ateliers en France”, Le Monde, published on March 29, 2018.

24 24 However, reducing manufacturing costs is not the only motivation for outsourcing practices. The authors of the article also put forward the argument of seeking know-how that has become rare in France but which can still be envisaged in other countries, in particular for the manufacture of men’s ready-to-wear clothing and trunk work (see also Chapter 5).

25 25 Public testimony of an American model, initially published on her personal Instagram account, then relayed by the media. The excerpt is quoted in the article “#YouToo. Que fait l’industrie de la mode face au harcèlement sexuel?”, Vanity Fair, article published on October 25, 2017: https://www.vanityfair.fr/style/mode/articles/que-fait-lindustrie-de-la-mode-face-au-harcelement-sexuel-/57292.

26 26 See, for example, the brief from L’Express Style, “Un mannequin taille 34 renvoyé au défilé Louis Vuitton”, published on May 23, 2017: https://www.lexpress.fr/styles/mannequins/ulrikke-hoyer-mannequin-jugee-trop-grosse-pour-le-defile-louis-vuitton_1910874.html.

27 27 According to a study published by the Danish Fashion Institute: http://danishfashioninstitute.dk.

28 28 See, for example, the France 2 Cash Investigation document of October 9, 2018 entitled: “Luxury, les dessous choc”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IRtRnV92AMeature=youtu.be.

29 29 For a detailed approach to the notions of formal and material formats, see Chapter 1.

30 30 See, for example, the mediations proposed by the LVMH and Kering group during the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris and the media coverage and debates that ensued.

31 31 See below, section I.8.1, the presentation of the semio approach.

32 32 Even though the majority of the advertisers studied are part of the two French groups LVMH and Kering.

33 33 Exceptionally, I chose to analyze the collaboration of the H&M brand (Hennes and Mauritz group) with the artist Jeff Koons for the retrospective exhibition devoted to him at the Whitney Museum in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2014). This choice is based on the fact that although the H&M brand is part of the so-called fast fashion segment, its collaboration with the artist in question enabled the brand to reconsider its merchandise.

34 34 This is not absolute in that we can ignore the socio-symbolic and economic issues that arise from the industrialization of luxury fashion and remain a mere spectator of the sector’s staging.

35 35 For example, Louis Vuitton’s Instagram account has 33.4 million followers compared to 35.7 for Gucci, 1.9 for Celine, 9.8 for Balmain, 26.7 for Dior and 10.2 for Balenciaga (observation made on August 3, 2019).

The re-presentation policies appropriating the field of art and culture are studied throughout this part 1 as artifices . This term has a dual dimension in that it designates both a technique of deception and an art of doing . As a technique of deception, artifice refers to its very first use, a “skillful and more or less deceptive means” 1.