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Marketing Fashion

Critical Perspectives on the Power of Fashion in Contemporary Culture

Karin M Ekström editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:16th Jun '23

Should be back in stock very soon

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Marketing Fashion cover

Fashion as a societal phenomenon has fascinated scholars in different disciplines such as history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and marketing often from an interdisciplinary perspective. Fashion mirrors societal changes, cultural norms, and values over time. It can be interpreted as mundane everyday practices, constructions of identity and status as well as being associated with the art world. In this book, the focus lies on marketing and the role of marketers when fashion permeates society in deliberate and subtle ways.

This edited collection critically reflects upon the power of fashion in contemporary society and the role marketing and marketers play in the process of defining, creating, and preserving fashion, but also in divesting fashion that is no longer up to date. It expands on existing knowledge to better understand the role marketers play as cultural agents in determining fashion and its markets. Contributors to the book are international, advanced scholars from a variety of disciplines such as anthropology, marketing, psychology and sociology, who challenge traditional ways of thinking about marketing. In a society where problems with overproduction and excessive consumption represent major challenges, the critical perspective of the role fashion plays in contemporary society and what influence marketing has for shaping fashion are not merely relevant, but necessary.

This cutting-edge, interdisciplinary book will appeal to scholars across a broad range of fields including fashion marketing, fashion studies, and consumer culture research. It will also be valuable for students in advanced courses of study in a variety of disciplines besides marketing.

"We are all implicated in the circuits of fashion production, consumption and disposal. But, it is rare that analyses manage to articulate the power dynamics which shape the cultural environment, texture lived experience and outline their salience for capital reproduction on a global scale. This impressive text does exactly that. It provides a critical, historical, socio-cultural perspective on this important industry which has significant impacts on our lives and potentially devastating effects in terms of inter-generational justice. It is essential reading."

- Mark Tadajewski, University of York; Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"Professor Ekström once again has her finger on the pulse of consumer culture – and it’s racing! This book offers valuable critical perspectives on fashion as both a dizzying on- and off-line arena of consumption practices feeding personal identity and social hierarchies, and an exemplary model of market expansion feeding on symbolic, material and economic struggles and policing among consumers, and between activists, firms, and governing agents. This collection is essential reading for visionary marketing, fashion, design, and sustainability industry practitioners, advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and future leaders in understanding what’s at stake with fashion now and in preparing for a sustainable future."

- Professor Lisa Penaloza, KEDGE Business School, France

"This book presents a very timely and remarkably comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on the fashion industry’s cultural, societal, economic and ecological consequences. Nicely balancing historical and contemporary insights, readers of this book will learn about, not only what the fashion system has wrought, but how it could re-deployed to create a more sustainable and culturally diverse future."

- Craig J. Thompson, Churchill Professor of Marketing, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"This is a timely collection on the power of fashion to both reflect and influence social and cultural norms as well as the role of marketing in these processes. All the chapters make significant contributions to our understanding of the complex dynamics at the intersection of marketing and the fashion system. The volume is thus crucial reading for anyone seeking insights into the many diverse ways that fashion permeates contemporary society."

- Pauline Maclaran, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"This collection of fascinating essays tells us that fashion is more than an industry; it has become a central fact of our consumer society, making the discipline of marketing a key to understanding the workings of our unsustainable economy. The chapters reveal the mechanics of many fashion systems, from guns to runways, facemasks to museums, showing us why fashion provides both pleasure and dangers."

- Richard R. Wilk, Distinguished Provost’s Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, USA


"We are all implicated in the circuits of fashion production, consumption and disposal. But, it is rare that analyses manage to articulate the power dynamics which shape the cultural environment, texture lived experience and outline their salience for capital reproduction on a global scale. This impressive text does exactly that. It provides a critical, historical, socio-cultural perspective on this important industry which has significant impacts on our lives and potentially devastating effects in terms of inter-generational justice. It is essential reading."

- Mark Tadajewski, University of York; Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"Professor Ekström once again has her finger on the pulse of consumer culture – and it’s racing! This book offers valuable critical perspectives on fashion as both a dizzying on- and off-line arena of consumption practices feeding personal identity and social hierarchies, and an exemplary model of market expansion feeding on symbolic, material and economic struggles and policing among consumers, and between activists, firms, and governing agents. This collection is essential reading for visionary marketing, fashion, design, and sustainability industry practitioners, advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and future leaders in understanding what’s at stake with fashion now and in preparing for a sustainable future."

- Professor Lisa Peñaloza, KEDGE Business School, France

"This book presents a very timely and remarkably comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on the fashion industry’s cultural, societal, economic and ecological consequences. Nicely balancing historical and contemporary insights, readers of this book will learn about, not only what the fashion system has wrought, but how it could be redeployed to create a more sustainable and culturally diverse future."

- Craig J. Thompson, Churchill Professor of Marketing, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"This is a timely collection on the power of fashion to both reflect and influence social and cultural norms as well as the role of marketing in these processes. All the chapters make significant contributions to our understanding of the complex dynamics at the intersection of marketing and the fashion system. The volume is thus crucial reading for anyone seeking insights into the many diverse ways that fashion permeates contemporary society."

- Pauline Maclaran, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"This collection of fascinating essays tells us that fashion is more than an industry; it has become a central fact of our consumer society, making the discipline of marketing a key to understanding the workings of our unsustainable economy. The chapters reveal the mechanics of many fashion systems, from guns to runways, facemasks to museums, showing us why fashion provides both pleasure and dangers."

- Richard R. Wilk, Distinguished Provost’s Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, USA

ISBN: 9781032204819

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 648g

250 pages