Maria Dionisiou Fashion History Part IV

Let’s begin this part of the series with the Retailers. Do you guys know that most stores today have become vertical operations? They are textile designers, fashion designers, garment manufacturers and retailers, All-In-One.

Is it possible to be a retail expert, fashion designer, textile professional, and garment manufacturer and have long term success? How can you achieve the highest performance when your focus  is so diluted?

Has retail greed cut out the art of fashion and destroyed our fashion system?

There are probably thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of fashion labels that belong to major retailers around the world. The opening of foreign markets has allowed these corporations to have direct access to a vast array of everything they need to produce for themselves at lower costs. Major Stores have opened markets and created jobs in foreign 3rd world countries to make themselves richer and our own people poorer while exploiting the underprivileged. The disregard for our own people and for the transformation and preservation of fashion and it’s future is a grand shame and an inadequate long-term attitude. We have already begun to see and feel the results of their actions. There is much more poor quality clothing cramming stores today than well-made attire. I call most of it “Disposable Threads.”

A big percentage of stores emulate each other since they have assumed for themselves  new titles as designers and manufacturers. Has fashion transformed itself into a homogeneous market? I’ve had friends visit New York telling me most of the time they have no idea what stores they are in because they  all appear to be alike. I thought I was the only one that perceived this, but apparently society is beginning to notice that we are ceasing to possess our individuality.

Retailers are the first to blame for the deterioration of the art of fashion. In an effort to slash their costs, they have eliminated the hierarchy of the Fashion System, leaving us in a lost arena. Governments have allowed this to take place by permitting and supporting excessive import businesses and ignoring to promote, fund and grant incentives to domestic based talent and manufacturing. Instead, they have lifted quotas, encouraged globalization and invested themselves in foreign 3rd world countries for their own immediate  benefit. What happened to our philosophy of   “Made in the USA?” What about Our Country and Our People?

How can an artist compete with a large conglomerate? Where is that artist going to sell their concepts since the retailers have reserved their space for themselves and products they are producing on their own? How can designers compete against these giants in producing and marketing their ideas and products?

Are we, the designers, supposed to concentrate on becoming  textile engineers, garment manufacturers and retailer experts in order to survive? Can we actually succeed or are we just left to wilt? Let’s say we have the ability to accomplish it all, where do we find the financial support to make this realistic?  Are those who will succeed only the wealthy or the lucky that land into the hands of money and fortune?

It has all become a far-fetched dream for the ordinary talented artist, forcing us to lose our independence and submitting ourselves to a damaged system. I guess, if you really want to follow your dream but don’t have the power, you are now obliged to go to work for the retailers, designing and producing their products according to their demands in order to generate earnings for themselves while developing other countries’ economies in pursuit of their own profitable well being. It is so unfortunate, we have to surrender ourselves to all of this and lose our identity in order to pursue our talents and survive as artists.

Our future remains in question as we await to see what turns the Retail Industry will decide to  take next…

Stay tuned for Part V!

Lots of Luv-

Maria

Lost Identity in Pursuit of Money!

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Published:
8.28.10 / 6am
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Thinking Out Loud
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