The Imagined Fashion Community: Rethinking the Swedish Fashion Industry

Transcription

1 Provisional version. Please do not circulate! The Imagined Fashion Community: Rethinking the Swedish Fashion Industry Ulrika Kyaga Doctoral dissertation Centre for Fashion Studies Department of Media Studies Stockholm University 1

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 5 Background 5 Aims and Research Questions 7 Theoretical Framework and Key Concepts 8 The Fashion Dimension 9 Fashion and Modernity 11 Fashion as an Industry: Different Approaches 13 A National Fashion Industry 15 The Fashion System 17 Fashion Business Professionals 19 The Imagined Community 20 Swedish Fashion History: Previous Research 22 Method and Empirical Material 24 Chapter 2: The Development of the Swedish Textile- and Clothing 24 Industries Chapter 3: The Swedish Fashion System 25 Chapter 4: The Swedification of Clothing Manufacturing 26 Chapter 5: The Swedish Industry Business Network: the Imagined 27 Fashion Community Terminology The Development of the Swedish Textile and Clothing Industries 31 The Second Largest Industry Sector 31 One Group Two Different Industries 33 The Swedish Textile Industry: Early History 36 Cotton Industry: The Largest Sub-sector 38 The Regional Divisions of Wool Production 39 Knitting Mills: The Youngest Sector 40 Swedish Textile Goods Used in Clothing Manufacturing 41 Rationing and Wartime Textile Manufacturing 44 The Textile Crisis 45 The Swedish Clothing Manufacturing 45 Early History: Industrialisation and Mass Production in Sweden 46 The Sectorial Division of the Clothing Industry 47 Location and Regional Distribution of the Clothing Industry 51 The Female Workforce in Clothing Manufacturing 52 Rationalisation and Non-industrial Clothing Production 54 Clothing Manufacturing as Craftsmanship 58 The Size Distribution of Swedish Clothing Companies 59 Import, Export and International Competition 62 The Fashion Issue 65 Chapter Conclusions The Swedish Fashion System 70 Fashion as Symbolic Production 71 2

3 The French Fashion System as the Original 72 The Trade Organisation as the Node of the System 73 The Organisation of the Swedish Textile and Clothing Industries 75 Labour Unions 77 The Absence of Star Designers 79 Model Creator, Directress and Dessinateur 81 Fashion Diffusion 88 The Swedish Fashion Media Landscape Fashion Magazines and Daily Newspapers 89 Newsreels, Radio and Television 92 Diffusion Strategies: Fashion Shows in Stockholm 92 Haute Couture Prototypes Shown at Dressmakers Studios 93 The Import of Haute Couture 100 The Clothing Manufacturer s Shows 102 Fashion Shows in Collaboration 105 Public Fashion Shows 108 Fashion Shows during the Wartimes 110 Chapter Conclusions The Swedification of the Clothing Manufacturing 114 Swedishness and the National Self-image 115 The Swedish Middle-Way 116 Beautiful Everyday Goods 117 PK-kläder: A Nationalised Production of Standardised Clothing 118 Democratic and Sustainable yet Fashionable Garments 120 Clothing for a Democratic Society 126 The Spatial Aspects of Everyday Clothes 133 The Swedish Everyday Wear 135 The Everyday Coat 136 The Middle Way Approach 139 Teens Fashion 144 Marketing and Industry Collaborations 146 From Utility to Image Promotion 148 Promotion of Trade Collaborations 156 Adaptation of French Couture Style 160 Christian Dior in Sweden 161 Chapter Conclusions The Swedish Industry Business Network: The Imagined Fashion Community 172 Fashion Journalism and the Emerge of a Fashion Community : Swedish Fabrics and Parisian Design : The Rise of the Swedish Ready-made Clothing Industry : The Postwar Patriotism and Golden Year of Couture 188 The Swedish Woman in Fashion Journalism 191 The Myth of the Swedish Beauty 191 The Working Housewife 194 International Influences: The Letter from Paris 198 3

4 Paris Fashion Discourses under the Occupation 200 Other International Discourses 204 Italian Craftsmanship and German Traditions 205 Education for an Emerging Industry 207 Arts and Crafts Schools 208 Training Schools and Education in Sewing and Pattern Cutting 209 The Professionalisation of the Textile Industry 211 The Educational Issue 213 Swedish Museums and the Display of Fashion and Dress 215 Théâtre de la Mode: French Elegance in Miniature 216 The People Shaping the Swedish Industry 219 The Buyer as a Creative Force 219 The Entrepreneur as the Hub of Swedish Fashion Production 223 Göta Trädgårdh The Creative Director of Swedish Fashion 225 Chapter Conclusions Summary and Conclusions 229 References 235 4

5 CHAPTER 1 Introduction Background Sweden was transformed into a leading industrial nation in the mid-twentieth century, which laid foundation for an increased prosperity in the in the post-war period. The events of the World War II and the political path as a neutral country played a central role in shaping its industrial structure. Yet, these years are often portrayed as weak in terms of Swedish fashion. Still, this period remains difficult to characterize, especially with regards to a fashion industry. Nowadays, the Swedish fashion industry receives international recognition for its designer fashion, not least by foreign press covering the seasonal fashion weeks hosted in Stockholm. What today has become a vibrant industry was named as a fashion wonder by the Swedish press in the early twenty-first century. But this was not the case prior to 1960 and Swedish fashion as an industry from that period has been described as immature and disorganized. 1 Until the 1960s, Sweden had no internationally renowned fashion designers, nor was any distinctly Swedish style said to have existed, since fashion was largely influenced by French haute couture. 2 Historically, this industry was not even defined as fashion but was referred to as the textil- och konfektionsindustrin ( textile- and clothing industries ). As a group, these industries were ranked as one out of nine major industrial sectors in Swedish economy. 3 A central theme of Swedish history in the twentieth century is the story of a poor country in the Northern periphery becoming one of the richest in the world. 4 It is an account in which the 1 See e.g. in Lotta Lewenhaupt, Modeboken: (Stockholm: Prisma, 2001), 192; Cay Bond, New Fashion in Sweden, trans. Stephen Croall (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2003), Cay Bond, New Fashion in Sweden, trans. Stephen Croall (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2003), The other eight sectors were: 1) Malmbrytning och metallindustri (in English Ore mining, metal industries, manufacture of metal products ; 2) Jord- och stenindustri (in English Non-metallic mining and quarrying and manufacturing ; 3) Träindustrin (in English Manufacture of wood and cork ; 4) Pappers- och grafisk industri (in English Manufacture of paper and paper products, printing and allied industries ; 5) Livsmedelsindustrin (in English Food manufacturing industries ; 6) Textil- och beklädnadsindustri (in English Manufacture of textiles, wearing apparel and made-up textile goods ; 7) Läder-, hår- och gummivaruindustri (in English Manufacture of leather, furs and rubber products ; 8) Kemisk-teknisk industri (in English Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products ; 9) Kraft-, belysning och vattenverk (in English Electricity, gas and water services ). In Industri: berättelse för år 1950 (Statistiska centralbyrån, Stockholm, 1953), See e.g. Staffan Bergwik, Ljus över mörka vatten: Gustaf Dalén, ingenjörskonsten och etableringen av det moderna Sverige, in Svensk snillrikhet?: nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning , ed. Staffan Bergwik, Michael Godhe, Anders Houltz, and Magnus Rodell (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014); Wilhelm Agrell, Kurt 5

6 industrialisation, and hence modernisation came relatively late. 5!From the 1930s up to the post-war period society experienced a major transformation permeated by industrial success, together with political innovations. Therefore, the image of an industry sector, consisting of manufacturing firms that provided mass-produced clothing aimed for everyone, fits very well into the story of an industrial nation under a Social Democratic leadership. Yet, despite the fact that this period is well documented in Swedish history, neither political economists nor historians of industry have written fashion into the story. Previous research has focused mainly on the economic developments of the textile and clothing industries, and Swedish historians have failed to consider the fashion dimension and how these industries operated in relation to a fashion-oriented network. 6 If so, what is the problem of not considering the fashion aspect of these industries? Indeed fashion is about economy and industrial production. Yet, merely studying fashion as economics lacking a holistic understanding of fashion as a phenomenon. The other side of fashion as industry is the cultural production, which is an established perspective in Fashion studies. This will be explained further in the section about previous research. Swedish historians tend therefore to neglect Swedish fashion, heavily weighted toward industry practices. Consequently, the notion that Sweden had a poor, or poorly documented fashion culture prior to 1960 has become both an academic and journalist trope. 7 This can be illustrated by the quotation of fashion journalist Daniel Björk in 2008: Swedish fashion is really quite an empty concept. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that it is a relatively new concept. 8 Therefore, academic literature on mid-twentieth-century Swedish history Almqvist and Kay Glans, Den svenska framgångssagan, ed. Wilhelm Agrell, Kurt Almqvist and Kay Glans (Stockholm: Fischer & Co., 2001), 11. Moreover, according to Kurt Lundgren: Sweden, industrialization developed very fast when it at last started, and Sweden could during the period enjoy the highest economic growth of any country, with the possible exception of Japan in Kurt Lundgren, Why in Sweden? An Analysis of the Development of the Large Swedish International Firms from a Learning Perspective, Scandinavian Economic History Review 43:2 (1995): 205, accessed January 15, 2013, doi.org/ / See e.g. in Wilhelm Agrell, Kurt Almqvist and Kay Glans, Den svenska framgångssagan, ed. Wilhelm Agrell, Kurt Almqvist and Kay Glans (Stockholm: Fischer & Co., 2001), 120, Tommy Bengtsson, Industri under avspärrning: studier i svensk textilproduktion (PhD diss., Ekonomiskhistoriska fören., Lund University, 1980); Kent Olsson, En västsvensk industrihistoria: tiden fram till 1950 (Göteborg:Department of Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg,, 2012); Christer Winberg, Fabriksfolket: textilindustrin i Mark och arbetarrörelsens genombrott (Stockholm: Podium, 1999). 7 See e.g. in Atle Hauge, Dedicated Followers Of Fashion: An Economic Geographic Analysis of the Swedish Fashion Industry (PhD diss., Uppsala: Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, 2007) 27; Göran Sundberg, Fashion Has Become Fashionable, in Swedish Fashion Exploring a New Identity, ed. Maria Ben Saad (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2008), 14. Exhibition catalogue. 8 This statement is found in the exhibition catalogue exclusively produced for the Swedish Institute s touring exhibition Swedish Fashion Exploring a New Identity from In Daniel Björk, New Attitudes, in Swedish Fashion Exploring a New Identity, ed. Maria Ben Saad (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2008), 36. Exhibition catalogue. In the same catalogue fashion journalist Susanna Strömquist claims that the history of Swedish fashion is not very well known or documented. In Susanna Strömquist, The Forerunners: Unisex, Anti-Fashion and Denim, in Swedish Fashion Exploring a New Identity, ed. 6

7 contains only a few references to Swedish fashion. 9 What this thesis will emphazise is the understanding of fashion from both an economical and cultural view. 10 Hence, as this thesis argues, there was a fashion industry in Sweden It seeks to re-define the image of a non-existing fashion industry in the mid-century Sweden, as it has often been portrayed. Hence, this thesis, through a re-examination of previous works, suggests a broader meaning of the concept fashion and argues that a fashion industry could exist without a designer fashion. My research reveals that Sweden had a well-developed network of professionals in this period, whose activities were of importance both in their own right and because they laid the foundations for the fashion industry of today. Aims and Research Questions In this thesis I aim to re-view the so-called Swedish textil- och konfektionsindustrin ( TEKO ) as fashion. It also seeks to understand causes and consequences of associating fashion with an industrial sector, and with what effect. I have investigated qualitiatve and quantitative data that describe how fashion was conducted in Sweden. My point of departure is that a fashion industry incorporates both the economic and cultural aspects of fashion. As argued by Joanne Entwistle, fashion is a hybritity of business and culture. 11 What I, in this thesis define as a fashion industry network include various groups of professionals: manufacturers, designers, buyers, journalists, et cetra. Therefore, in this thesis I will demonstrate how these all together are intertwined thus involved in the creation of fashion. Drawing on theories on fashion production I will analyse activities that include: clothing manufacturing, construction of national identity, symbolic production and creation of network ideology. All these aspects Maria Ben Saad (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2008), 26. Exhibition catalogue. Moreover, journalist and trend analyst Cay Bond claims that: It was not until the 1960s that we began cultivating Swedish clothes designers in Sweden. Designer names like Sighsten Herrgård, Rhodi Heintz and Katja of Sweden were well-known export labels. Until then, Swedish clothes had been largely influenced by French haute couture. In Cay Bond, New Fashion in Sweden, trans. Stephen Croall (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2003), Still, a few biographies on Swedish designers exist, such as: Viola Germain, Märthaskolan, in Kläder, edited by Ingrid Bergman (Stockholm: Nordiska Museet Fataburen, 1988), ; Lotta Lewenhaupt, Den glömda kjolen: Ebba von Eckerman textilier (Stockholm: Signum, 2011); Katja Geiger and Lars Åhlander, Katja of Sweden: mode och design utan gränser: en biografi (Stockholm: Dialogos, 2000). 10 Scholars such as Caroline Evans, Nancy L. Green, Joanne Entwistle and Ellen Leopold have emphazised these perspectives. See e.g. Nancy L. Green, Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work: A Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York (Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1997); Caroline Evans, The Mechanical Smile: Modernism and the First Fashion Shows in France and America (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013); Joanne Entwistle, The Aesthetic Economy of Fashion: Markets and Value in Clothing and Modelling (Oxford: Berg, Oxford, 2009) and Ellen Leopold, The Manufacture of the Fashion System, in Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, ed. Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson. (London: Pandora Press, 1992), Joanne Entwistle, The Aesthetic Economy of Fashion: Markets and Value in Clothing and Modelling (Oxford: Berg, Oxford, 2009), 3. 7

8 constitute different ways of explaining fashion production that brings business and cultural perspective together. Against this background the main research question arose: How can the manufacturing and diffusion processes of the Swedish textile and clothing industries (TEKO) between 1930 and 1960 be described in such way that these activities can be defined in terms of a fashion industry? In addition, having this holistic perspective also raise questions on what was the impact of social democratic ideals that developed in the same period? But also how this political and social context influenced the perception of creativity and fashion? By answering these questions this thesis also aims to contribute to a methodological discussion about how can study fashion as industry. Moreover, considering the fashion industry as a hub at which different histories of Sweden intersect, those of cultural, business and political history, I contribute to new perspectives on the history of the mid-twentieth century in Sweden. The theoretical framework and concepts that I have selected for this study deals with the definition of fashion as an industry. This need to be further explained and related to the empirical material of this thesis. After that, previous studies on Swedish history of fashion will follow. Theoretical Framework and Key Concepts In order to investigate the nature of Swedish fashion and how the business professionals involved in fashion production was fashion-oriented, I will draw on various theoretical frameworks that help to explain fashion as an industry. First I will discuss the fashion dimension and various definitions of the concept Fashion, which I will consider in this thesis. 8

9 The Fashion Dimension The essence of fashion is change. 12 Many scholars suggest this aspect of constant change. Elizabeth Wilson, for example, notes that: Fashion is dress in which the key feature is rapid and continual changing of styles. Fashion, in a sense is change, and in modern western societies no clothes are outside fashion. 13 There is no simple single definition of the concept Fashion, a wide range of different meanings are attached to the term which is well expressed by fashion scholars Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun: The word Fashion evokes different meanings for different people. For some, being in fashion means being well dressed in the latest styles. For others, it means dressing in more than just clothes. Often fashion has a feminine connotation, and is linked to young women. 14 Seen is this light, the concept fashion is synonymous with constant change and shifting meaning one can argue that the term fashion has the characteristics of what Mieke Bal points out as a travelling concept. 15 In classical texts, however, such as Paul Nystrom s Economics of Fashion from 1928 one can also find this notion of fashion in following statement: To be out of fashion, is indeed, to be out of the world. 16 The condition of being in or out of fashion could also be linked to social changes and therefore raises the question of classconsciousness. Sociologist Georg Simmel describes the changes in fashion as a process of imitation, and thus in changing incessantly, it differentiates one time from another and one Agnes Brooks Young, On the nature of fashion in Johnson, Kim K. P., Torntore, Susan J. & Eicher, Joanne Bubolz (eds.), Fashion Foundations: Early Writings on Fashion and Dress (Oxford: Berg, 2003), Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003 [1985]), 3. Other examples include: The elements of fashion that are of most interest for popular culture studies are its changing character and meanings. In Patricia A. Cunningham and Joseph Hancock, Fashion, in M. Thomas Inge and Dennis Hall (eds.), The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture (London: Greenwood Press, 2002), 605; Fashion is nothing more nor less that the prevailing style at any given time. Style constantly change, some rapidly, some slowly. In Paul H. Nystrom, Economics of Fashion (New York: Ronald Press, 1928), 4; Fashion [---] announces the myth of change, maintaining it as the supreme value in the most everyday aspect, and as the structural law of change. In Jean Baudrillard, Symbolic exchange and death (London: Sage Publications, 1993); fashion which emphasizes creativity and innovation in Regina Lee Blaszczyk, (ed.), Producing fashion: commerce, culture, and consumers (Philadelphia, Penn: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 2; No matter which time period in history one is talking about, the definite essence of fashion is change. In Yuinya Kawamura, Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006), 5; One of the key elements is the concept of change over time. In Linda Welters & Lillethun, Abby (eds.), Introduction in The Fashion Reader (New York: Berg, 2007), x; Fashion in dress is a process of continuous slow change of typical annual modes [---] The changes must be continuous, for otherwise the fashion would promptly cease to be fashionable. In Agnes Brooks Young, Fashion has its laws in Barnard, Malcolm (ed.), Fashion Theory: A Reader, (London: Routledge, 2007), Linda Welters & Lillethun, Abby (eds.), Introduction in The fashion reader (New York: Berg, 2007), x. 15 Mieke Bal, Working with Concepts in European Journal of English Studies, Vol. 13, No 1 (2009): Paul H. Nystrom, Economics of Fashion (New York: Ronald Press, 1928), iii. 9

10 social stratum from another. 17 In addition, according to Nystrom, fashion has a strong impact on society and therefore should be perceived as:... one of the greatest forces in present-day life. It pervades every field and reaches every class. 18 If one agrees with Nystrom s statement on the power of fashion as one of the greatest forces in society, it is explicable that the concept also evokes negative associations. For example, in the autobiography Fashion as a Spinach by American designer Elizabeth Hawes from 1938, one can find a critical approach to Fashion industry due to its constant strives for newness. According to Hawes fashion is associated with a parasite of style since it ignores the functionality of a garment and its status is only based on current fashion ideals such as the right color. 19 Moreover, the fashion terminology consists of a number of words, such as Style, Dress and Clothing. These are closely related and work interchangeable in order to explain the phenomenon of fashion. 20 For example, scholars Patricia A. Cunningham and Joseph Hancock suggest following definition of the term Style:...refers to a garment with particular features or characteristics that distinguish it from other garments of the same style. 21 Others, the term has a wider meaning and e.g. Nystrom claims that Style is characteristic or distinctive mode or method of expression, presentation or conception in the field of some art. 22 Roland Barthes description has negative connotations as he argues that: Fashion (as we conceive it today) rests on a violent sensation of time. Every year fashion destroys that which it has just been admiring, it adores that which it is about to destroy: last years fashion. 23 Barthes s discussion on the distinction between style and fashion makes Hawes s argument much clearer when suggesting parasite as a metaphor of fashion. 24 However, as I understand Barthes s point of view and what distinguish these terms (style and fashion) is primarily the pace, and the rate of change. 17 Georg Simmel, Fashion in The American Journal of Sociology, Vol LXII, No 6 (1957 [1904]): Paul H. Nystrom, Economics of Fashion (New York: Ronald Press, 1928), iii. 19 Elizabeth Hawes, Fashion is Spinach, second printing (New York: Random House, 1938), There are other terms that are suggested to represent the fashion vocabulary, for example Malcolm Barnard includes the term adornment in Malcolm Barnard (ed.), Fashion theory: a reader, (London: Routledge, 2007), 3, Paul H. Nystrom uses the terms Style, Fad, Craze, Taste in relation to fashion, in Paul H. Nystrom, Economics of Fashion (New York: Ronald Press, 1928), Patricia A. Cunningham and Joseph Hancock, Fashion, in M. Thomas Inge and Dennis Hall (eds.), The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture (London: Greenwood Press, 2002), Paul H. Nystrom, Economics of Fashion (New York: Ronald Press, 1928), Barthes, Roland, The language of fashion (translated by Andy Stafford), Stafford, Andy and Michael Carter (eds.), (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006), Elizabeth Hawes, Fashion is Spinach, second printing (New York: Random House, 1938),

11 Fashion and Modernity Indeed, fashion and modernity is intertwined, and thus modernity is a key concept in fashion studies. 25 Already in 1860, Charles Baudelaire captures modernity and its relation to fashion by arguing: By modernity I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the continent, the half of art whose other half is eternal and the immutable. 26 More recently, in 2015, Entwistle draw on the concept modernity to consider the idea of a society in dramatic transition when stating that: Modernity invokes a number of developments: industrialization, the growth of capitalism, urbanization, the rise of privatised individualism and the development of 'mass culture, to name a few. 27 Modernity could also be linked to the fashion system as in historian Sarah-Grace Heller description of the consumer culture that emerged in Western Europe in the mid eighteenth century. 28 Thus, Heller stresses that: A fashionable society must have a forward-looking concept of time, rather than being bound by a notion of sacred, for example, which will inhibit their willingness to discard old practices, beliefs, and attachments in favour of being up-to-date. 29 Ethnologists Ulf Hannerz and Orvar Löfgren claim that the construction of a Swedish nationality during the twentieth-century was linked to the modernism movement in which the Social Democrats became a national building force during their long period of government. 30 In this way, Swedishness was equal to modernity and consequently embedded values in the welfare state. This progress of modernity, strongly nationalised, resulted in following ideals: 25 Social changes and changed consumption patterns followed by industrialisation during eighteenth- and nineteenth-century links fashion industry to modernity. In the book Fashion and Modernity by Fashion historians Christopher Breward and Caroline Evans gives a comprehensive overview of the field by drawing on classical works by e.g. Charles Baudelaire, Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin. In Christopher Breward and Caroline Evans, Fashion and modernity (Oxford: Berg, 2005), Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, trans. Jonathan Mayne (New York: Da Capo Press, 1986), Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory, rev. ed (2000; repr., Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), Sarah-Grace Heller, Fashion in Medieval France (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2007), Sarah-Grace Heller, Fashion in Medieval France (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2007), Ulf Hannerz and Orvar Löfgren, The nation in the global village in Cultural Studies, 8:2 (1994):

12 Old habits and traditions had to be discarded, old rhetoric about the glorious past had to be exchanged for visions of a common future. A good Swede was a modern Swede, looking forward rather than backward. 31 This is also one of Jeremy Aynsley s arguments in his description of Swedish design traditions. He argues that Sweden is associated with a: Modernism with a human face due to the collectively ideals and the long traditions of social democratic government. 32 This image has followed the Swedish approach to design permeated by consumer goods with an air of no frills. 33 I this study, modernity refer to the transformation of Swedish society and the break with the past, from the old to the modern. However, Wilson associates fashion to modernity in general and, the economic system in particular, suggesting that Fashion is the child of capitalism. 34 However, according to Wilson, fashion is closely linked to modernity and therefore fundamental in modern society. Consequently it affects us all, regardless of any interest in fashion or not. 35 Her main argument is that:... in modern societies no clothes are outside fashion [---] even uniforms have been designed by Paris dressmakers. 36 This is an interesting aspect and broadens the definition of the term since even the garments inspired by French fashion is to be defined as fashion. In contrast to Wilson statement, Kawamura, claims that fashion is a symbolic production, which take place within an institutionalised system consisting of a number of actors. The essence of Kawamura s arguments is that in order to be labelled as fashion a designer s work needs to be the legitimated. Thus she notes that: For the garment to be appreciated, accepted and legitimated as fashion, it has to go through a different process and mechanism. Similarity there is a group of people, whom I call fashion professional, who made a contribution to not only the production but also to gate keeping and distribution of fashion 37 This quotation serves two purposes. First, that fashion does not exist without a system consisting of various business professionals. Second, the term fashion is exclusively dedicated to limited range of garments and thus all clothes are not to be considered as fashionable. 31 Hannerz and Löfgren, Jeremy Aynsley, Nationalism and Internationalism: Design in the 20th Century (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993), Hannerz and Löfgren, Wilson, Ibid, Ibid. 37 Kawamura (2006),

13 However, a majority of the given definitions of fashion as a phenomenon are more philosophical in nature and not specific to an industry. Still, in this thesis I am borrowing from various scholars and understand fashion as a phenomenon that is related to the mechanism of constant change and newness. In addition, and following Kawamura and thus Pierre Bourdieu I also consider fashion as a construction within a field specific network of institutions and business professionals. Fashion as an Industry: Different Approaches Studying fashion as an industry includes several perspectives, such as marketing, buying, merchandising, design and consumption. Thus, what makes it even harder to define fashion, as industry is the broad spectrum of activities that are more related to creativity and service than large-scale factory production. As Joanne Entwistle notes: fashion is not one thing or one industry, but is made up of related yet separated sectors or markets. 38 In 1992, Business historian Ellen Leopold criticized scholars for portraying the fashion industry as passive when stating that: Fashion industries are often depicted as being in the grip of forces beyond their control and consequently created a story about an industry that it is fashion that makes the industry rather than the industry that makes fashion. 39 Another aspect of the definition of the industry, which makes it even more complex, is the fashion dimension. By using the term fashion invokes a judgement of which activities but also who are the professionals involved in this industry. Fashion as a phenomenon in all times has been surrounded by myths, and so fashion as an industry. This is well illustrated in journalist Elisabeth Hawes statement from 1938: One of the most fascinating things about the world of fashion is that practically no one knows who inhabits it or why it exists. There are a few people who know how it works, but they won t tell. 40 In the words of Hawes, the fashion industry is mysterious and inaccessible. But this lack of inside perspective is rather a consequence of the problem of defining its nature. 38 Entwistle, Leopold, Elizabeth Hawes, Fashion is Spinach, 2nd ed. (New York: Random House, 1938), 7. 13

14 However, since Paris has a long history of being considered as the capital of fashion, both by academics and business practitioners, it has become a prototype for fashion production. 41 A central theme in these stories is the origins of haute couture and rise of French dressmakers. Starting off with Charles Frederick Worth and Otto Bobergh and the establishment of their business at Rue de la Paix in 1858, the history of Parisian dressmakers successfully export of fashion prototypes have over the last decades occupied scholars interest within fashion studies. 42 Hence, a central theme among these stories is the idea of fashion innovators and the dressmaker as a genius. Yet, the other side of the fashion industry, and opposite to haute couture is the development of ready-to-wear clothing. This manufacturing of clothing developed along with industrialisation, as it is described in the book on international fashion by former chairman of the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, and of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, Didier Grumbach. 43 Also, labour historian Nancy Green focuses on the ready-to-wear industry and provides an overview of how the Parisian garment district The Sentier evolved. 44 These studies are generally conducted to evaluate its size and growth in economical terms. Another example, that emphasises the economics of fashion and that I will draw on in this study is the book by scholar Richard M. Jones on The Apparel Industry. Jones examines the British apparel sector in a broader economic perspective, and relates its development and transformation to the global fashion process in the post-war period Examples include: Agnés Rocamora, Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media (London and New York: I.B.Tauris, 2009); Yuniya Kawamura, Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies (Oxford: Berg, 2005); Frédéric Godart, The Power Structure of the Fashion Industry: Fashion Capitals, Globalization and Creativity, International Journal of Fashion Studies, 1 (1) (2014): 39-55, accessed January 19, 2015, doi: /infs _1. 42 Didier Grumbach, History of International Fashion (Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Books, an imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc., 2014; Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Veronique Pouillard, Hirsch et Cie. Bruxelles, (PhD diss., l Université de Bruxelles, 2000); Ellen Leopold, The Manufacture of the Fashion System in eds. Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson. Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader (London: Pandora Press, 1992): ; Alexandra Palmer, Couture and Commerce: The Transatlantic Fashion Trade in the 1950s (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2001); Veronique Pouillard, In the Shadow of Paris? French Haute Couture and Belgian Fashion between the Wars, in Producing Fashion. Commerce, Culture and Consumers, ed. Regina L. Blaszczyk (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania University Press, 2007), Didier Grumbach, History of International Fashion (Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Books, an imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc., Nancy L. Green, Ready-to-wear and Ready-to-work: A Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York (Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1997), Richard M. Jones, The Apparel Industry, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwells, 2006). 14

15 A National Fashion Industry How can the form, material and technique of a piece of design embody national or international concerns? 46 Design historian Jeremy Aynsley who stresses the complexity about national identity and industry from a broader perspective raises this question but also Can there be national traditions in the systems of manufacture? 47 There are no given answers to these questions or theories that explain the relation between national cultures and fashion as an industry sector. However, from the mid-1990s onwards, this concept of national identity has been a frequent topic of research in fashion studies. Hence, within literature there are several examples that consider the national aspect of fashion. 48 What these have in common is that they are written from a cultural history perspective. I have identified five main approaches in these studies that explain the relation between national identity and fashion. These are as follow: 1) A national design aesthetics. 2) The designer as a national symbol. 3) Geography and Climate. 4) Fashion and Marketing. 5) Fashion as a political tool. The first, and most common approach is related to a specific look or style that may be unique for a certain nation. 49 In the book by Rebecca Arnold, The American Look: Fashion, Sportswear and the Image of Women in 1930s and 1940s New York, she defines the segment sportswear as a signifier of the American national identity. She motivates this argument by claiming that sportswear is: related to various ideas of national identity, including myths of 46 Jeremy Aynsley, Nationalism and Internationalism: Design in the 20th Century (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993), Ibid. 48 For example: Angela McRobbie, British Fashion Design: Rag Trade or Image Industry? (London: Routledge, 1998); Nicola White, Reconstructing Italian Fashion: America and the Development of the Italian Fashion Industry. (Oxford: Berg, 2000); Robert O Byrne, After a Fashion: A History of the Irish Fashion Industry. Dublin: Town House and Country House, 2000; Christopher Breward, Becky Conekin and Caroline Cox The Englishness of English Dress (Oxford: Berg, 2002); Christopher Breward, Edwina Ehrman and Caroline Evans, The London Look: Fashion from Street to Catwalk (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004); Caroline Rennolds Milbank, New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style (New York: Abrams, 1996); Alison L. Goodrum, The National Fabric: Fashion, Britishness, Globalization (Oxford: Berg, 2005); Marie Riegels Melchior, Dansk på mode!: fortællinger om design, identitet og historie i og omkring dansk modeindustri (København: Museum Tusculanum, 2013); Rebecca Arnold, The American Look: Fashion, Sportswear and the Image of Women in 1930s and 1940s New York (London: I.B. Tauris, 2009); These are just a few of many existing works on national fashion industries. What they have in common is the cultural history approach to fashion. 49 See e.g. Rebecca Arnold, The American Look: Fashion, Sportswear and the Image of Women in 1930s and 1940s New York (London: I.B. Tauris, 2009); Christopher Breward, Becky Conekin & Caroline Cox (eds.), The Englishness of English dress (Oxford: Berg, 2002); Caroline Rennolds Milbank, New York fashion: the Evolution of American Style (London: Harry N. Abrams, 1996); Valerie Steele, Fashion, Italian Style (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003); Christopher Breward, Edwina Ehrman & Caroline Evans, The London Look: Fashion from Street to Catwalk (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004); White, Nicola, Italy: Fashion, Style and National Identity in White, Nicola & Griffiths, Ian (red.), The Fashion Business: Theory, Practice, Image (Oxford: Berg, 2000). 15

16 rural America, and concepts of city and modernity, specifically in relation to New York. 50 Another example is found in fashion historian Nicola White s study on the post-war Italian fashion industry, where she has identified the concept of elegance are used in order to define what was unique for the Italian stylistic identity. 51 The second approach so the one that links a national fashion to a particular designer. For example, scholar Alison L. Goodrum, links British national identity to Vivienne Westwood who uses references from British royal history in her design. 52 The third approach is the one in which national fashion is related to climate or a geographical location. According to Jennifer Craik, Australian fashion origins from its bush past, which explains the references to outdoor garments in functional design. 53 Design historian John L. Walker shares this idea about climate influences when arguing that regional differences in design are caused by factors such as climate and natural assets. 54 The fourth approach is to interpret a national culture as a marketing strategy. Dress historian Alexandra Palmer argues that due to an increased uniformity in design the creation of a national design identity has become an important strategy in fashion industry. Furthermore she claims that: Thus cultural and national identity today operates as a vital key to deciphering the exclusive and distinguishes the original from the plethora of off-shore knock-offs. 55 A similar argument could be found in fashion journalist and trend analyst Cay Bond s text in the exhibition catalogue on New Fashion in Sweden where she claims that: I believe that, at heart, designers everywhere would like to arrive at a clearcut national identity, a recognisable look, reflecting what is essentially French, Italian or Spanish, etc. This would make it easy to identity fashion as the export article it essentially is Arnold, White, Goodrum, 10; Other examples include: Rebecca Arnold s, Vivienne Westwood s Anglomania, in The Englishness of English Dress, ed. Christopher Breward, Becky Conekin and Caroline Cox (Oxford: Berg, 2002), Jennifer Craik, Is Australian Fashion and Dress Distinctively Australian?, Fashion Theory, 13 (4) (2009): John A. Walker, Design History and the History of Design (London: Pluto Press, 1989), Alexandra Palmer, Fashion: A Canadian Perspective (Toronto: Toronto Press, 2004), Cay Bond, New Fashion in Sweden, trans. Stephen Croall (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2003),

17 However, fashion is not only claimed to be used in marketing but also as a political tool. This fifth approach, thus links fashion to political ideologies. The most extreme examples could be found within totalitarian political system such as in Germany during World War II. 57 According to scholar Irene Guenther, the Nazi Party considered French fashion devastating for its citizens and consequently prohibited the import of French fashion. 58 Moreover, many of these studies problematise the impact of Paris fashion on the development of a domestic industry. This is an aspect that stresses the diffusion of international influences in design. Especially, during World War II and the German occupation of Paris, national movements increased considerable in in several western countries due to a reduced import of French fashion. 59 For example, Nicola White s investigation on Italian post-war fashion industry but also Linda Welters and Patricia A Cunningham show how protectionism and thus nationalism was a consequence of Paris occupation and decisive for the reconstruction of domestic fashion industries. 60 As my study aims to investigate the character of Swedish fashion these approaches to national identity will function as a framework for my study. In order to understand how the national identity in Sweden was constructed I will look at economical and cultural causes. The economical deals with issues on size and structure and thus the importance of the, textil- och konfektionsindustrin for Swedish economy. The cultural looks at aspects concerning identity and the notion of Swedishness embedded in design and marketing. The Fashion System What constitutes a fashion industry? A common definition that is associated with this industry is the fashion system. Due to its presence in academic texts the fashion system could be considered as one of the central concepts, but still the term appears to be somewhat complex due to the variation in definitions. Ellen Leopold was one of the first scholar to use the term in Leopold s was aiming to describe the dual aspect of fashion production that includes both a cultural and economical perspective, as shown in the following definition: 57 Irene Guenther, Nazi Chic? German Politics and Women s Fashions, , Fashion Theory, 1 (1) (2009): 29-58; Irene Guenther, Nazi Chic? Fashioning Women in the Third Reich (Oxford: Berg, 2004); Ibid. 59 Ibid. 60 See e.g. Nicola White, Reconstructing Italian Fashion: America and the Development of the Italian Fashion Industry. (Oxford: Berg, 2000); Linda Welters and Patricia A. Cunningham, Twentieth-century American Fashion (Oxford: Berg, 2005). 17

18 Loosely defined as the inter-relationship between highly fragmented forms of production and equally diverse and often volatile patterns of demand, the fashion system is a hybrid subject; it incorporates dual concepts of fashion: as a cultural phenomenon, and as a aspect of manufacturing with the accent on production technology. 61 Importantly, her definition should not be mixed up with Roland Barthes work on the fashion system, which is based on semiotic approach. 62 However, fifteen years later (in 2005) Yuniya Kawamura introduced her book Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies, which has a sociological constructivist approach to fashion production. 63 This approach considers fashion (as previous mentioned) as symbolic production, which is separated from the garment manufacturing. Kawamura argues that: Fashion is a system of institutions, organizations, groups, producers, events and practices, all of which is different from dress or clothing. 64 Her case study is based on the French fashion industry as a prototype. Kawamura provides a strict definition of a fashion system and claims that: Without a distinct institutionalized system, there would be no fashion. 65 In the words of Kawmura it is the trade organization that controls this process and thus essential in the French system. Yet, it is not only the trade organizations but also media that according to Kawamura have an important role in a fashion system. However, central to her idea is the legitimation process of the designer, which is based on Pierre Bourdieu s theory of cultural production. 66 According to Bourdieu, it is the processes of selection, which distinguish fine art from other art works. This means that having an intermediary, such as an agent, is crucial in order to be legitimated. So, in other words, it is not so much about the artist s talents rather about the surrounding network of institutions. As Bourdieu notes: The field of production and circulation of symbolic goods is defined as the system of objective relations among different instances, functionally defined by their role in the division of labour of production, reproduction and diffusion of symbolic goods Ellen Leopold, The Manufacture of the Fashion System, in Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader ed. Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson. (London: Pandora Press, 1992): Roland Barthes, The Fashion System, trans. Matthew Ward and Richard Howard, rev. ed. (1967; repr., University of California Press, 1983). 63 Yuniya Kawamura, Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies (Oxford: Berg, 2005). 64 Yuniya Kawamura, Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies (Oxford: Berg, 2005), This quotation is found in her book on the Japanese revolution in Paris fashion. Yuniya Kawamura, The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2004), Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, ed. Randal Johnson (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993). 67 Ibid,

19 This statement raises the question of who is the true producer of a painting; a book or a song since, according to Bourdieu an artist cannot authorize him or herself. 68 Consequently, considering fashion as a system shifts the focus from the particular garment to the networks of players within a status-building process. In the early 1970s sociologist Paul M. Hirsch referred to this intense process of selection managed by autonomous gatekeepers as the main characteristics of art production. 69 Finally, by drawing on Kawamura s model of a fashion system my study aim to understand Sweden fashion as a symbolic production, and thus enhances a cultural understanding of the fashion industry. Still, the limitation of this model is that it does not explain what Leopold defines the dual aspect of fashion when the economical perspective is left out, since Kawamura separates clothing production from fashion. Fashion Business Professionals By using Kawamura s model of the fashion system I will focus on the role of the designer but also the function of fashion journalists/editors as gatekeepers. The fashion designer is often credited as the front figure of the industry and much work has put emphasized the creative genius. Yet, the fashion industry contains so many more functions and professionals such as in fashion scholar Joanne Entwistle s description of the many actors who make it designers, photographers, models, fashion buyers and journalists. 70 In 2008, business historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk criticised the lack of research on these important mediators when stating that: less is known about the commercial institutions of the fashion and beauty businesses, or the interface between enterprise, culture, and consumers in producing fashion. 71 Another study that emphasises the importance of these professional is Joanne Entwistle and Agnès Rocamora s analysis of the London Fashion Week in Combining the findings from these studies will contribute to an understanding of the network of professionals involved in fashion production. Although, they are based on a contemporary 68 Bourdieu, Paul M. Hirsch, Processing Fads and Fashion: An Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems, The American Journal of Sociology 77 (4) (1972): Joanne Entwistle, The Aesthetic Economy of Fashion: Markets and Value in Clothing and Modelling (Oxford: Berg, Oxford, 2009), Regina Lee Blaszczyk, Rethinking Fashion, in Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers, ed. Regina Lee Blaszczyk (Philadelphia, Penn: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), Joanne Entwistle and Agnès Rocamora, The Field of Fashion Materialized: A Study of London Fashion Week, Sociology 40: 4 (2006): , accessed January 24, 2016, DOI: /

20 fashion industry network they are useful in order to identify the various categories of professions. The Imagined Community My point of departure is that the fashion industry consists of various groups of fashion professionals, those who incorporate both the economical and cultural aspects of fashion. Therefore, as I have shown in previous sections I will look at the economical dimension of textil- och konfektionsindustrin and how national culture was embedded in this industry. In addition, by considering fashion as a system I will include the institutional dimensions of fashion and the industry network of business professionals. Yet, what is lacking from these perspectives is the glue that unifies them and thus constitutes an industry. Therefore, I suggest using Benedict Anderson s groundbreaking theory on the imagined communities in order to capture values and meanings that are not covered by other theories on fashion production. 73 So, why using a model that considers the industry network as imagined? And what distinguish an imagined community from a real? For Anderson, all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these) are imagined. 74 This means that even though fashion as an industry is measurable in terms of turnover and advertising revenue it has an imagined dimension. Although, there are other models such as the social network analysis they tend to emphasise power relations such as in Pierre Bourdieu s theory on the exchange of social capital into cultural and economic capital. 75 So, therefore what I am aiming to explain in this study is rather what Anderson describes as a horizontal comradeship. 76 However, Anderson s theory on nationalism has since it was introduced in 1989 been widely spread among historians, social anthropologists and other scholars writing on nationalism. 77 Yet, I have found one example from 1997, in where scholars Charlotta Kratz and Bo Reimer suggest that the world of fashion could be linked to Anderson s model when arguing that: 73 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev ed. (1983; repr., London & New York: Verso, 2006). 74 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev ed. (1983; repr., London & New York: Verso, 2006), Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Harvard University Press, 1984). 76 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev ed. (1983; repr., London & New York: Verso, 2006) See e.g. Athena S. Leoussi, Encyclopaedia of Nationalism, ed. Athena S. Leoussi, Anthony D. Smith, consultant advisor (New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers, 2001),