Fashion Business Context Fashion Business Context_Claudia Ferraretto | Page 11

&

Fashion:

then

Mass Market

Since the past, fashion had always been
elitist, rich and powerful people used
it to show that they were above the
common people (Easey, 2009). Suffice it
to say that, during the 19th century, ladies’ dresses were custom-tailored and
should reflected the social status of the
family the lady was from. This means
that only the high society could afford
to follow the fashion, lower classes people wore homemade, simply clothes, that
allow them to move easily and work.

High End High Street

“forceful and highly
visible medium of
communication”

The end of World War I, in 1918,
marked the start of mass fashion:
designers started to influence the
style, and from the 1930s onwards
ordinary people could buy copies
of their fashions from high street
stores within weeks of the big fashion show, thanks to new technologies and their part in advancing mass
production methods (Easey, 2009).
As Hancock (2009) suggests in his
studies, nowadays the garments
enter at all levels of the consumer
market, with variations in quality
and price line in order to accommodate consumer spending. Haute
Couture, Luxury Designer, High
end High Street, Mass Market and
Value Market: thanks this differentiation in the fashion market each
customer can afford to purchase
and use a current style according
to his or her interests and budget.
Each brands could have different
lines in different levels, so that it
could reach different target in the
fashion business. A famous example is the Italian fashion house
Giorgio Armani S.p.a., that owns
Armani Privé for Houte Couture collections, for Ready-toWear Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani, AJ for High End High
Street, and many others that affect different sectors in the market.

Luxury Designer

ashion involves our outward, visible lives. It involves the clothes
we wear, the dances we dance,
the cars we drive, and the way we
cut our hair. Fashion also influences architecture, forms of worship, and lifestyles” (Stone, 2008: 21).
The word is frequently linked to the
style in which a person dresses; with
regard to what clothing means, Stone
(2008) also affirms that it is a forceful
and highly visible medium of communication that carries with it information
about who a person is, who a person is
not, and who a person would like to be.

Haute Couture

F

“

now

Value Market

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