Valerie Steele (1998) claimed that “Object-based research provides unique insights into the historic and aesthetic developments of fashion”. Reflecting Steele’s opinion this essay is researching the historical, economic, social and aesthetic aspect of an object, focusing on important stages of its development, popularization and association. This rubber duck (Fig.1) is simplified figure of a real ducky, painted in light green colour and it posed in swimming position with slightly suggested feathers on its wings. The toy is 3, 5 cm high and its facial features include a bright orange closed beak and black eyes. The air is allowed to enter by a small hole on the underside so it makes the rubber toy squeezable. As it was designed for children …show more content…
“Adidas Superstars sales skyrocketed” writes Sue Vander Hook in her book “Hip-hop fashion” (2011). According to her, the impact of the song was so strong that every time the band played “My Adidas”, “thousands of fans held up their Adidas shoes.” The effect of the song had been noticed by the sport brand and soon after that Run-DMC were paid by Adidas, the summary of ”$1 million to endorse their trainers”.(Hip-hop fashion,38) This comparison can identify an economically important moment for the rubber ducky industry which becomes must-have bath toy and its salaries grew not only because of its popularisation but also because of its low price ( 1£ in Amazon (2014)).The other bath toys are starting at 3.99£ (Argos …show more content…
This explains why rubber duck has been made as a souvenir, inspired fashion and also “ The vibrating rubber duck, “I Rub My Duckie,” won the Best Sex Toy of 2002 award.(Meyer p.21) A reason why is the toy so popular can be seen into an interview with Florentijn Hofman whose huge ducks(Fig.3) are amazing people in some big cities around the world. "I see it as an adult thing. It makes you feel young again. It refers to your childhood when there was no stress or economic pressure, no worry about having to pay the rent." With these words in an interview for CNN (Whitehead 2013), the artist shows the positive affect of the large yellow duck and makes the listener feel its cultural
In 1993, for some reason wearing white socks didn’t seem to appeal to the fans of basketball. Black socks wear made to be worn by the Fab Five and the Fab Five made them the hot new product for all players to wear. The world itself would transcend as the Fab Five would not only change the basketball culture but the fashion world as
From the conventional Victorian dresses of the 1800’s to the rock-and-roll tee shirts of the 1980’s, American culture has experienced incredibly diverse trends in clothing. This ever changing timeline of fashion provokes the question: what is the cause of such differing styles? By considering the state of society throughout the eras, it can be seen that clothing directly correlates with the current way of life. Specifically, American women’s fashion of the 1920’s and 1930’s proves to not simply be a meaningless trend – rather an accurate reflection of the specific era.
Relating this to Hip-Hop rappers recently have found alternative ways to make money by partnering with a company using their name to ultimately boost sales. According to Black Entrepreneur Profile “In 2007, Mr. Combs partnered with Diageo for a groundbreaking strategic alliance to oversee and manage all branding and marketing initiatives for Ciroc Vodka. Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Combs and Sean Combs Enterprises will take the lead on all brand management decisions for Ciroc, while sharing in the future profits of the growth of the brand. This exclusive US multi-year collaboration, which calls for a 50/50 profit split, is a first for the spirits industry and could be worth more than $100 million for Mr. Combs.” Ciroc did become a highly desirable alcoholic beverage, where you see it everywhere from commercials, to getting un-paid promotion from rappers saying that they are in the club ordering a bottle of Diddy (Ciroc). The capitalism ways that a rapper can innovate, and exploit a product are very effective due to the popularity of the rapper they can really make an impact on the society. For example, Andre Young (Dr. Dre) partnered with Monster to create Beats by Dre in the long run making him a billionaire. having the world famous Hip-Hop legend on the name of a decent pair of headphones had all the ingredients to have every teenager begging their parents to buy the overpriced headphones creating a huge trend that now has been bout out by apple which is capitalist mogul who plays with societies wallets like a happy meal toy. Having this new way that Hip-Hop can influence style in todays culture gives them a whole new type of influence besides the bars they write in their
"Getting and spending" has eclipsed family, ethnicity, even religion as a defining matrix. That doesn't mean that those other defining systems have disappeared, but that an increasing number of young people around the world will give more of their loyalty to Nike than to creeds of blood, race, or belief. This is not entirely a bad thing, since a lust for upscale branding isn't likely to drive many people to war, but it is, to say the least, far from inspiring.
The Chronicle of Western Fashion: From Ancient times to the Present Day.
Paul Poiret was born on April 20th, 1879 in Paris, France. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion has earned him the title in many people’s eyes as the “King of Fashion”, because he established the principle of modern dress and created the blueprint of the modern fashion industry. Poiret’s designs and ideas led the direction of modern design history. He was born into a working class family and his natural charisma eventually gained him entry into some of the most exclusive ateliers of the Belle Époque. Jacques Doucet, one of the capital’s most prominent couturiers, hired him after seeing promising sketches he had sold to other dressmakers. Furthermore, he was hired by the House of Worth and was put to work to create less glamorous and more practical, simple items because his out of the ordinary designs were not welcomed in open arms by opulent clientele. Despite this experience he was still confident in his ideas and ventured out on his own with money barrowed from his parents and opened a storefront. Moreover, he wanted to promote of the concept of a "total lifestyle” was seen as the first couturier to merge fashion with interior design. His independent work broke the normal conventions of dressmaking, and overturned their underlying presumptions. He liberated the woman’s body from the petticoat and the corset to allow clothing to follow woman’s natural form. Poiret also radically revolutionized dressmaking to switch from the emphasis surrounding the skills of tailoring towards those based on the skills of draping and began to use bright colors. Furthermore, Poiret was apart of the art deco movement, which was surrounded by a period of immense social upheaval, particularly for women, and emergence of technol...
This essay aims to analyse the key role that the surrealist movement has played on fashion and the fashion industry. Both from a historical point of view, as well as its continued impact on fashion today, as a source of inspiration for contemporary fashion designers.
In the early 1800s, France was the sole fashion capital of the world; everyone who was anyone looked towards Paris for inspiration (DeJean, 35). French fashion authority was not disputed until the late twentieth century when Italy emerged as a major fashion hub (DeJean, 80). During the nineteenth century, mass produced clothing was beginning to be marketed and the appearance of department stores was on the rise (Stearns, 211). High fashion looks were being adapted and sold into “midlevel stores” so that the greater public could have what was once only available to the social elite (DeJean, 38). People were obsessed with expensive fashions; wealthy parents were advised not the let their children run around in expensive clothing. People would wait for children dressed in expensive clothing to walk by and then they would kidnap them and steal their clothes to sell for money (DeJean, 39). Accessories were another obsession of France‘s fashion; they felt no outfit was complete without something like jewelry or a shrug to finish off the look and make it all around polished (DeJean, 61). As designers put lines together, marketing began to become important to fashion in the nineteenth century; fashion plates came into use as a way to show off fashion l...
George Simmel was born in Germany in 1858 and emerged as one of the major theorists of the turn of the century (?,?). His writings on philosophy and social sciences included one of the only insights, at the time, into the structure of fashion in society, Fashion, 1904. In this text he expressed his thoughts on society in relation to fashion and style, examining societal groups and how they used fashion as a form of segregation. He referred to the elite class as trend setters, differentiating themselves by creating new fashions, and lower classes as the mimics, in an effort to associate themselves with an elite identity. This cycle brought many different fashions over the 20th century and was described as the trickle-down effect. Although Simmels theory depicts various characteristics still currently valid there are aspects that no longer play a role in the transformation of fashion.
Fashion in the 21th century is a big business, as its production employs millions of people and generates billions of dollars in revenue. Fashion has for the past century been, and is still today, used as an indicator of social change and progress, as it changes with the social norms of the society and the political changes of the world (Finkelstein 3).
middle of paper ... ... It also analyzed the influences of modern dresses. As Palmer and Clark (2005) mentioned earlier, both decades are the classic era in fashion history.
The days of blue is for boys and pink is for girls are coming to a victorious end. Now more than ever, child products are marketed specifically towards just girls or just boys, and not for children in general. This outright gender specific marketing can have poor effects on the children consumers, who feel pressured to play with the toys made specifically for their gender. A boy who likes Barbie or a girl who likes race cars and trucks may not want to play with the toys they really enjoy because they feel they are not supposed to be for them. The idea of gender-neutral toys is becoming more and more popular, because this change is greatly needed. The removal of gender specific toys from current marketing and stores has the capability to empower
Nike’s positioning in the market has more of a mass appeal compared to their main competitor Adidas who strive to make products for elite athletes. The positioning strategy for Nike is currently working at a satisfactory level as Nikes global annual sales between 2013-2014 was reported as 27.8 billion (Statista, 2014) compared to Adidas’ 19.95 billion (Statista, 2014). The global market for sports apparel is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4% between 2012-2019, Nikes compound annual growth rate during 2010-2012 was 12.3% which is an excellent result as the brand’s growth was larger than the market as well as outgrowing Nike’s closest competitors Adidas, Puma and Asics (Forbes,
Therefore, in an attempt to both show the gravitas of fashion’s impact and justify its mirroring of times and therefore society, a walkthrough of fashion throughout history and its adaptation is exceedingly appropriate. To begin with, Britain’s Industrial Revolution in the 1850s to 1900s came with the introduction of sewing machines and chemical dyes. However, this movement of clothe manufacturing rendered its availability strictly to the opulent. This is a direct relation to the economical situation of the time, showing that people’s expenses were not directed towards the most up to date fashion i.e. luxury products but rather necessities indicating a slowly developing economy. As we move from the 1900s to the mid 1920s, the inception of the First World War influenced the need for more ‘practical’ garments. To illustrate, one of the greatest designers of the century Paul Poiret, designed his garments in a style known as the Directoire. His dresses were simple straight tube sheaths defining simplicity and exemplifying both the political and economic situation of the times justifying the necessity for a free moving design in clothing. Why adopt the notion of simplicity and free moving garments? Women had to leave their traditional domestic roles and become part of the working class or work force and adopt and replace many roles that were normally given to men. Furthermore, the Great Depression in the 1930s comes to play its own role in fashion history further pushing the necessity for a fashion to be translated to accustom a busier lifestyle. This created an economic gap between the rich and the poor. Therefore, fashion in the 1940s in the substantial sense portrayed the necessity for work and socioeconomic background and furthermore encased the economic situation where, as previous times in the 1900s, high-end fashion was restricted to the rich. Following a chronological timeline comes the
Margot H.Hill & Bucknell A.Peter (1967) The Evolution of Fashion:Pattern and cut from 1066 to 1930, The United state of America,Newyork.p.82-146.