Magazine Advertising

Media and marketing

Media of all kinds are essential to the marketing of fashion. The first dedicated fashion magazines appeared in England and France in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, fashion magazines—such as the French La Mode Illustrée, the British Lady’s Realm, and the American Godey’s Lady’s Book—proliferated and flourished. Featuring articles, hand-coloured illustrations (known as fashion plates), and advertisements, fashion magazines—together with other developments such as the sewing machine, department stores, and ready-to-wear clothing produced in standard sizes—played a significant role in promoting the democratization of fashion in the modern era. The development of effective and inexpensive methods of reproducing photographs in print media in the early 20th century led to the rise of fashion photography and of heavily illustrated fashion magazines such as Vogue

. Magazine advertising rapidly became a principal marketing tool for the fashion industry
The creation of cinema newsreels—short motion pictures of current events—and the rise of television made it possible for people all over the world to see fashion shows and to imitate the fashionable clothing worn by celebrities. The dominance of visual media continued in the Internet age, with fashion blogs emerging as an increasingly important means of disseminating fashion information. Red-carpet events such as awards ceremonies provide an opportunity for celebrities to be photographed wearing designer fashions, thus providing valuable publicity to the designers.

World fashion

Most people in the world today wear what can be described as “world fashion,” a simplified and very low-cost version of Western clothing, often a T-shirt with pants or a skirt, manufactured on a mass scale. However, there are also numerous smaller and specialized fashion industries in various parts of the world that cater to specific national, regional, ethnic, or religious markets. Examples include the design, production, and marketing of saris in India and of boubous in Senegal. These industries operate in parallel with the global fashion industry on a minor and localized scale.
One significant development in the field of ethno-religious dress was widespread adoption of the hijab (religiously appropriate attire) among Muslim women not only in the Middle East but throughout the Islamic world in the early 21st century. With millions of Muslim women living in numerous countries worldwide, veiling norms and styles are myriad. For some, veiling can mean a withdrawal from the vicissitudes of fashion altogether. Other women, including those for whom modest garments are obligatory in public, may wear fashionable European styles underneath their more conservative street attire. Still others have sought looks that are themselves both chic and modest. At the beginning of the 21st century the international market for modest fashions was growing. Muslim and non-Muslim designers produced a widening selection of appropriate and stylish looks, and numerous fashion blogs and magazines targeting Muslim women became available. Some designers and manufacturers confronted not only the aesthetics of modest attire but also the practical challenges associated with conservative dress, as seen in efforts to produce modest yet effective swimwear and sportswear for Muslim female athletes.

The fashion system

The fashion industry forms part of a larger social and cultural phenomenon known as the “fashion system,” a concept that embraces not only the business of fashion but also the art and craft of fashion, and not only production but also consumption. The fashion designer is an important factor, but so also is the individual consumer who chooses, buys, and wears clothes, as well as the language and imagery that contribute to how consumers think about fashion. The fashion system involves all the factors that are involved in the entire process of fashion change. Some factors are intrinsic to fashion, which involves variation for the sake of novelty (e.g., when hemlines have been low for a while, they will rise). Other factors are external (e.g., major historical events such as wars, revolutions, economic booms or busts, and the feminist movement). Individual trendsetters (e.g., Madonna and Diana, princess of Wales) also play a role, as do changes in lifestyle (e.g., new sports such as skateboarding) and music (e.g., rock and roll, hip-hop). Fashion is a complex social phenomenon, involving sometimes conflicting motives, such as creating an individual identity and being part of a group, emulating fashion leaders and rebelling against conformity. The fashion industry thrives by being diverse and flexible enough to gratify any consumer’s desire to embrace or even to reject fashionability, however that term might be defined.