Economy of the ephemeral : Bloom and decay in time-centric consumerism

From Firenze University Press Journal: Fashion Highlight

Karmen Samson, Independent Scholar

PERPETUAL RENEWAL OF FASHION CONSUMERISM

Fashion’s economic framework flourishes within the perpetual cycle of creation, consumption, and disposal of garments, placing significant emphasis on the transient nature of trends. This ephemeral quality cultivates a sense of time scarcity, fuelling impulsive and immediate consumption behaviours. As a result, a severe neglect of the long-term consequences of consumer choices and their impact on their surroundings and other non-human entities involved has emerged.Fashion as an economy of the ephemeral highlights the cultural significance attributed to the temporar-iness of novelty through monetary means, and how this shapes consumer behaviours accordingly. This paper seeks to explore how fashion’s mechanism of perpetual renewal is intertwined with time from a consumer-oriented perspective. This by focusing specifically on two principal life cycle phases: bloom and decay. In part I ‘Bloom’, a trans-historical analysis of the seasonal system of timekeeping is made by analysing the correlation between fashion’s value creation and its ongoing cycle of bloom and decay. This will be explored further by connecting this analysis to theories on neoliberal economics and production methods through the lens of modernity, explaining how these developments have contributed to the advent of the Anthropocene.Part II: Decay will extend this analysis by discussing designers who use the temporal dynamics of fashion to critique consumer culture. For this, the 9/4/1615 exhibition by fashion designer Martin Margiela, showcased at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in 1997, will be used as a case study. This exhibition presents a time-based narrative founded on the construction of Western value ideologies.This exhibition not only symbolises the ecologi-cal-philosophical concept of a metamorphosis between bloom and decay, but also demonstrates how fashion can function as a social critique that questions the economic system and proposes a design approach that’s more holistic in tune with nature. This paper will utilise this exhibition to formulate a discussion regarding eco-politics, material agency, and how this could influence consumer perspectives and value determination.

BLOOM

Fashion’s essence may be elusive; however, its structure is periodical and, in certain ways, rigid. Historically, the fashion industry has aligned its production and distribution logic with the temporal measures of nature, particularly in the designation of (Western) seasons (Evans & Vaccari, 2020, p. 50). This seasonal thinking has legitimised the periodic creation of styles in the fashion industry. Even more pronounced than adhering to a seasonal rhythm, fashion operates in cycles. It begins with the abstract concept of newness, which then materialised through the commodification of garments. These garments are subsequently consumed and ultimately discarded. This cycle is then perpetuated by the emergence of a successive style that renders the current style obsolete, marking the dawn of a new cycle.Considering fashion’s deeply embedded desire for the next, the most successful styles are those with the shortest life cycles (Svendsen, 2006, p.31). Technological and production innovations have accelerated this progression, resulting in an immense proliferation of styles, or so-called trends, often in and out of fashion within a single season. The rapid turnover of trends has ultimately caused fashion to outgrow its original seasonal structure (Svendsen, 2006, p.32). Nowadays, it is not uncommon for fast fashion brands to offer 52 so-called micro collections per season, launching new styles every week, instead of presenting a collection that is embedded within a particular season. Fashion is therefore not as harmonised with the ecological structure of the seasons as it was historically; however, it is more than ever kindred with the neoliberal pursuit of providing products at an ever-evolving speed.This ongoing movement towards the next exemplifies how fashion embodies the utopian promise of hope and new beginnings, urging the abandonment of the past in favour of a more meaningful future (Wilson, 2003). These ideas position fashion as a striking example of modernity, as modernity championed liberation from tradition and embraced innovation. Industrialization and economic strategies emphasising efficiency and speed, such as Fordism and Taylorism, further bolstered this modernistic thinking (Bolton, 2020). This mindset permeated not only factories and workspaces but also the consumer landscape and strengthened their reciprocal impact. During the period of modernity, the desire for the new was not only legitimised but became normalised. Consequently, consumption patterns were reshaped and thus the way people utilised goods and services.A key business strategy in these systematic efforts on consumer behaviour was planned obsolescence (Packard, 1960, p.53). The goal of planned obsoles-cence is to render an object superfluous based on non-essential qualities, thereby establishing a timely death date for the product on the premise of novelty. (Packard, 1960, chapter 7). Fashion, and its irrational pursuit of change for the sake of change, is exemplary for planned obsolescence, by mostly aesthetical and superficial enhancements to a product (Aspers & Godart, 2013, p.173). Planned obsolescence has effectively created a method of timekeeping, and inventing limitations that were otherwise non-existent. A mechanism brought into life for mere capitalistic reasons (Wilson, 2003, p13).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2602

Read Full Text: https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/fh/article/view/2602