Profit
Fashion as an art form can be profitable when it balances creativity and commercial viability. For example, while many fashion products are designed for everyday wear, a parallel world exists where fashion is celebrated and held up to the highest standards as haute couture. Executed correctly, these two worlds complement each other and allow art and profit to coexist. To understand this concept, one must delve into the vast scope and economic influence the industry exerts.
The fashion industry has made a significant comeback since COVID-19 with 1.53 trillion US dollars of revenue in 2022 and is expected to reach 1.7 trillion in 2023 (Smith, 2023). These numbers aren’t surprising when you consider the intricate workings of this industry. Although the biggest market in fashion is arguably women’s apparel, with a revenue of approximately 163 billion dollars in the US alone (Smith, 2023), the industry consists of other sectors, ranging from apparel and maternity wear to textile machinery and fashion media.
Knowing just how multifaceted the fashion industry is, learning to manage each sector is crucial. For example, analyzing market trends is a significant step that proves to be arduous during uncertain economic times, as no one knows exactly how consumption patterns will develop under volatile circumstances (Berg, 2022). A skill that many brands utilize to combat issues like these is through “real partnerships and closer exchanges with brands” which “gives companies access to data and would therefore make things more predictable” (Berg, 2022).
Apart from adaptability, another essential part of profit in fashion is the ability to navigate the delicate balance between creativity and commercial viability.
One way in which this is completed is through dual leadership. For example, the collaboration of Italian designer Valentino Garavani and his ex-partner Giancarlo Gimmetti, who helped the designer capitalize on his fame in the 1960s by organizing fashion shows, conceiving advertising spreads, pioneering international licensing, and more (Overdiek, 2016). The concept of dual leadership, sartorially, refers to how the “modern ‘maison’ of fashion” can be ruled by both a designer and a business partner (Paris, 2010), creating a bridge between the two worlds. Another concept with appliances in the fashion industry is ambidextrous organizing, the balance of contradictory approaches to business; exploration, and exploitation (Overdiek, 2016). Exploration sartorially includes conceptualizing new designs, attuning to market trends, and collaborations with other designers, while exploitation is production and distribution, retail strategy, and brand development. The “quantifiable and efficiency-driven” side of exploitation and the “intangible and creativity-driven” (Overdiek, 2016) side of exploration bridge the gap that exists between creativity and commerce.
Citations:
Berg, A. and Fusaro, R. (2022) ‘How current global trends are disrupting the fashion industry’, McKinsey & Company.
Caroline Stevenson, C. (2023) ‘Fashion Art and Commerce’. London: UAL, 16 October.
Overdiek, A. (2016) ‘Fashion designers and their business partners: Juggling Creativity and Commerce’, International Journal of Fashion Studies, 3(1), pp. 27–46. doi:10.1386/infs.3.1.27_1.
Smith, P. (2023) Topic: Apparel market worldwide, Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/5091/apparel-market-worldwide/#topicOverview (Accessed: 19 October 2023).