Chapter 2. Literature Review
2.4 Haute couture and Prêt-à-porter
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get that specific item or brand.
Arnold (2001, p. 12) in her Fashion, Desire and Anxiety explores the fashion’s relationship with consumerism and the construction of identities, that if aimed to an extreme, that relationship can lead to self-destruction. She illustrates the dichotomy in fashion by citing Simmel: “fashion on the one hand signifies union with those in the same class, the uniformity of a circle characterized by it, and, at the same time, the exclusion of all other groups.” Arnold continues by explaining that dress can be used as an indicator of group identity, including all those who adhere to particular tenets of taste and style, but this necessarily excludes anyone who does not adopt the group’s dress codes.
We can apply the concept of anxiety in our case of Zara. Products in Zara stores are limited edition, and it makes a win-win situation: On the one hand, it catches customers on going back often to the store, as it creates expectations with the introduction of new models twice a week. On the other hand, products can thus be sold at a full price, without having them to be returned; hence, there are almost non-existent stocks.
2.4 Haute couture and Prêt-à-porter
Monneyron (2006, p. 21) traces back to the beginnings of haute couture (literally “high dressmaking”, and commonly known as “high fashion”). According to Monneyron (2006, p.
22), two factors led to the appearance of haute Couture: 1. An emergent middle-class, and 2.
Clothing was no longer subject to political strings and public life, which laid the path for aristocracy, in order to differentiate themselves. The history of fashion considers the English Charles Frederick Worth as the Father of haute Couture. Barnard (2007, p. 78) quotes Lipovetsky in Fashion theory: a reader. Lipovetsky pointed out that Worth revolutionized
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the process of creating fashion, especially in sales techniques and advertising. His major innovation was introducing the clothing models to be worn by young women, who became the prototypes of today’s mannequins or fashion models, known then as sosies, “doubles”.
In this way, fashion became an enterprise involving not only creativity but also advertising spectacles. However, haute couture as we know today did not adopt the current rhythm of creation and presentation until the beginning of the 20th century: Haute couture is based in the exclusive design, (i.e. no mass production) aimed to exclusive customers with a good economic background. As Monneyron (2006, p. 30) says, until the end of the 1950s, haute couture was copied by dressmakers.
As Monneyron (2006, p. 30-31) explains, although prêt-à-porter is a term invented by a French in 1949, the concept, renamed under “ready wear”, was actually applied to the mass fashion production in the US right after the World War II was over. Prêt-à-porter also reproduces models of haute couture, but with obvious differences. Prêt-à-porter uses different fabrics and of inferior quality, clothes are not tailor-made and they generally do not have a single size. Its variety reflects the heterogeneity of tastes and the economic access of consumers.
Barnard (2007, p. 362) takes Braham’s perspectives. Braham considers that haute couture has lost is significance in contemporary fashion, as the major fashion houses have erased the apparent division between elite designer fashion and high street fashion. Therefore, fashion houses have increasingly applied for licensing agreements worldwide, in order to protect their brands and image. However, in parallel, haute couture deals nowadays with a counterfeiting market of elite designers’ items with their correspondent name and logo. The limited edition of original and exclusive products with a high fashion brand can make
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customers or followers feel anxious.
As we can see, haute couture and prêt-à-porter are two completely different clothing from social, economic and cultural perspectives. And nowadays the fashion on the streets and peoples’ lifestyles is replacing haute couture and influencing in the decisions makings of clothing companies. We will link in chapter 3 the connection of these two modalities of clothing with the fast fashion retailer Zara.
2.4.1 Retailing and Global fashion
Cachon and Swinney (2011, p. 793) state that enhanced design and quick response (QR) are two essential factors for clothing retailers nowadays. Similarly, Nueno and Ghemawat (2003) use the description of QR from Hammond and Kelley: larger apparel retailers play the leading role in promoting QR. QR is a set of policies and practices targeted at improving coordination between retailing and manufacturing in order to increase the speed and flexibility of responses to market shifts, which began to diffuse in apparel and textiles in the second half of the 1980s.
Cachon and Swinney (2011, p. 793) add that European fast fashion retailers such as Zara, H&M, and Benetton, employ large staffs of internal designers and even use costly local labor and expedited shipping methods when necessary. Although this is seemingly costly, it still turns profitable, because they can minimize strategic behavior. For instance, according to the 2011 Annual Report of Inditex Group (holding company who owns Zara and seven other chain stores), over 50% of Inditex’s manufacturing takes place in suppliers from proximity. Thus, fashion retailers stress on the importance of the close relationship between manufacturing and retailing.
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On the other hand, fashion retailers focus on internationalization, which creates a highly competitive environment. Current major fashion retailers promote a global fashion: Zara, H&M and Uniqlo. The three have different business models but equally successful. The emergence and development of global fashion in the 21st century has played a significant role in the fashion industry. Fashion is, actively and passively, part of the cultural globalization, and globalization is about mobility across frontiers of individuals; goods, values, customs, traditions, etc. Fashion is global in the sense that Western fashion system no longer defines what is fashionable and what is not.
As we will see in chapter 3, the maxim of Zara is to create and commercialize a global fashion, at affordable prices. With its current 1,925 stores in the world, the concept of global fashion that Zara embraces since its beginnings proves that national borders do not impede to a shared fashion culture (Martínez, 2012, p. 99).