The Ultimate Understanding of Conceptual Fashion Design - Term Paper Example

Fashion Performance Name Institution Fashion Performance Introduction Every established industry has its own way of convincing the market on how best the products offered can suit their interests as well as meeting the primary utility. This can be achievable through different means and the most outstanding revolves around fashion. Fashion can be understood as a popular or renowned practice or even style that covers various areas such as accessories, clothing, footwear, makeup and body piercing among others. However, fashion can distinctively be treated as a habitual trend in style especially in the way people dress. This brings a close attention to textile designers who tirelessly work on elevating the trends and meeting the new and upcoming interests of the customers that form the potential market. Therefore, fashion forms part of the essential aspects that facilitate marketing and market expansion for any lucrative industry. It must be noted that fashion performance entail any actions or undertakings that cultivates fashion acceptance thereby affecting the individual’s lifestyle either in a positive or negative way. This is evidently featured in advertisements that seem quite captivating thereby influencing people’s minds on how best the style or commodity can be once bought or practiced. Fashion performance increasingly move into new and more specific contexts whose focus is substantially extended around the experimental and conceptual approaches. The gulf between the clothing designed as conceptual fashion and the clothing designed as costume for performance still remains unclear because both of them handle the same subject and function is still the same. However, considering various areas such as fashion, art and performance that can be handled in theory and practice seem to be of great importance in understanding the two concepts under fashion performance (Fisher, 2011, p. 219). The major focus narrows down to the designer and the viewer as well as the overall communication and the ultimate understanding of conceptual fashion design. How the fashion performance presenting the values, function in history and pervious designers works? Fashion performance normally presents values in its own way and at the same time, it displays its major role in history as far as the culture of the entire community is involved. It further gives details on the designers’ works and their influence in the current design work. Fashion performance engulfs creativity and environment which stand out as the main platforms on which values can be deduced or formed. It is evident that the kind of the environment where a certain group of people dwell in determines the thinking ability or the dimensional reasoning of the entire community (Councell & Mock, 2009, p.167). This goes to an extent of even affecting the behavior by establishing new practices and values. For example, the television design was closely associated with art forms comprised of painting, sculpture and theatre. The fact that television handles images brings a big difference compared with the parent form that used to handle drama. The ultimate migration concludes the significance of screen play rather than stage performance by real characters who appear in person. However, various researches done on design and production reveal a tedious procedure that bears the screen play featuring a captivating entertainment. Commitment and having a vision are the two outstanding qualities that need to be possessed by an innovator at any level of invention. The fact that people have moved from drama to screen play still demands implementation of large screens with high defined visualization. The argument of introducing entertainment and no-drama also applies to furniture. People tend to have a desire for modernization where more advanced furniture is required purposefully for comfort provision. This means that people always look for a change that might, in the process, be of benefit or cause no harm at the end. Fashion performance therefore establishes a platform of new taste where people better their lives. However, history reveal early forms of fashion and fashion performance that revolved around music, theatre and clothing. This means that presentation was more important and served as a symbol of change in various aspects of life. Introduction of traditional art in various parts of the world display the early practice in fashion performance, where dancing, drama and painting exhibited the performance. Early forms of dances in Zaire, for example, involved new forms of hairstyles and dressing (Dils, 2001, p.161). Painting was done especially on faces and the legs displaying high levels of creativity. Therefore, fashion performance plays an essential function of keeping the record of the history by revealing the culture and early practices. It further records the development that has been done on fashion performance and the growth as well as the changes experienced in different lifestyles. History avails facts on development and growth of modernization, change and erosion of culture in different communities of the world. The collection and presentation of the facts has evidently been achieved through fashion performance. For the ultimate introduction and implementation of fashion in a particular community, demands design of the fashion before presentation. Early designers established their skills through arts and theatre (Bugg, 2006, p. 229). As mentioned before, early design work comprised of sculptures, paintings and dressing that was presented through music and drama. However, fashion performance practice seems to have converted the design works such that the work revolved around both experimental and conceptual approaches. The two approaches create a division between clothing designed under the conceptual fashion as well as the one designed for costume performance (Tochihara & Ohnaka, 2005, p.474). By extension, the above mentioned disciplines deploy the body as the centre catalyst playing a major role of communicating meaning and at the same time, availing space for creation. It must be noted that historically, designers came up with different design works with different intentions. Commonly, design works were meant to present new styles during stage performance as well as working on the interest of people. Designers like Jean Paul Gauthier, Walter van Beirendonck and Alexander McQueen together with John Galliano employed spectacle in their presentation of collections and at the same time explored the character design in their design work. What are the impacts and contributions of fashion performance to the society and cultures? Fashion performance works in conjunction with the society and the associated culture. Therefore, detailed research and various documented case studies settle on some impacts and the contributions of fashion performance to the society and culture. Primarily, fashion performance leads to globalization and transformation in the culture and social practices. This is evident through global awards thereby establishing the interaction platform for people from different social backgrounds. This further affects the normal life of individuals from a particular community. For example, the MTV awards usually serve as a gauge of value, thereby indicating the artists as well as the brand that is considered to be popular or sometimes the one considered to be trendy. The MTV awards are normally issued out globally basing on music and other accompanied entertaining spectacles. However, the shows have been banned in some countries like Japan due to the impact they have on the social practices and culture. However, the MTV awards majorly foster the ultimate phenomena of globalization that seem to spread westernization and modernization based on the current technology (Entwistle, 2009, p. 189). Westernization has both the positive and negative impacts to the society. Westernization stages awareness and the benefits of using the current technology. It further addresses on nurturing and exploiting young talents that can lead to self gain thereby earning a living from the same. In addition, some values absorbed are of benefit especially the ones absorbed on religious grounds. The arguments rose concerning the protestant work ethic where many religions encourage hard work and excellence. This means that a large population gets to learn more about, due to fashion performance, unity and the significance of exercising etiquette in one’s life as far as hard work for bettering one’s life is not left out. The association of fashion performance with westernization and modernization serve as a major drawback in some societies. Western culture is seen to be related to immoral behaviors. The interaction of such a culture with other conserved cultures lead to corruption of the good values as well as polluting the norms. Adoption of new practices from a foreign culture normally drains the significance of the original culture thereby injecting new lifestyles in the society. This is seen to work negatively towards building the societal heritage due to divided minds and adoption of foreign lifestyles. Furthermore, the idea of post-materialism and self-expression seem to prioritize the quality of life than the economic growth. This significantly cuts down the effect of protestant ethic thereby allowing the post-industrial states to concentrate on leisure, self-fulfillment and relaxation as the major elements that build a better life. However, the above mentioned elements cannot be exercised by the poor people. This tends to widen the enormous rift between the rich and the poor thereby ruining the economic balance (Ozturk, 2014, p. 218). In addition, failure to enjoy the acceptable quality of life in the community might be frustrating to some individuals who cannot afford such elements. This can also lead towards developmental retardation and favoritism where the benefits seem to lean towards the rich people. Despite the negative effects fashion performance has to the society and culture, it has its own major contributions that foster community building and societal heritage. Primarily, fashion performance opens the opportunity to engage creativity thereby exploring one’s ability as well as exploring the motivation of others with an intention of producing and designing creative work and objects. This fosters personal development and sometimes, fashion performance encourages co-operative working, which works in favor of developing the social skills. Furthermore, fashion performance avail pleasure and recreation as well as designing a particular work that can be exchanged or sold. Given the fact that fashion performance falls under entertainment and marketing, it therefore serves as a platform for job creation. The whole process starts from the design work to presentation on the stage or screen play, which still calls for the efforts of a designer. Some urban managers like the ones in United States and United Kingdom have taken their time concentrating on the economic impact studies that settle on the extra economic activities generated through fashion performance. This plays an essential role of availing the investment platform that generates revenue for the government and offer jobs to thousands of unemployed citizens having potential skills in the industry. Finally, fashion performance provides the open platform that can support the potential lives of people in the society. This means that there is a relatively wider field in which the interests of people can be worked on without ruining the hope as well as giving room for one to enjoy working. Inculcating fashion design and arts in the education curriculum works in favor of some students interested in the area (Aronson, 2008, p. 503). Therefore, fashion performance can be, in this perspective, treated as one of the career subject that leads and engages one into professionalism. The concept of conceptual and costume design still supports this contribution of fashion performance where the development of technology extends the potential of performance and communication as well as engaging the participation of the audience. The ultimate accessibility of the film and animation production call for immediacy of the new technologies deployed in uploading as well as communicating ideas through mobile, RDF technologies, moving image and the cyber space platforms. This can be witnessed under the review of Laurie Anderson work of creating performances, whereby she questions the discos, rock concerts, political rallies and the sporting events as to whether they are part of theatre or not. It is therefore evident that fashion performance contributes largely towards the social practices and culture in a more defined environment. Which new fashion performance markets are emerging and what is their uniqueness? Discussing more about trends is important because of the great attention that needs to be paid on the emerging markets and the primary interests (Entwistle, 2009, p. 475). There are new fashion performance markets that are emerging with distinguished uniqueness. First and foremost, a close assessment of the young and rich people reveals a certain uniqueness and interest in the integration of clothing and the body. This market segment considers clothing to be part of the bodily practice and a new practice that can be exercised within their standards. However, various arguments reveal that the body has rarely been identified as a site of its own apart from the ultimate context of performance art. Sometimes, the essence of a clothed and at the same time a communicating body can be mistaken for a mere transcend discipline and can therefore be explored in an interdisciplinary landscape. However, a deviated understanding fosters a contemporary embodiment thereby employing performative approaches both in costume and fashion design. The market segment mentioned above is considered to be emerging because of the financial capability that can enable such vibrant youths to engage their interests in fashion performance. The attraction towards the design and integration of the clothing with the body follows the major focus on the body as well as the experience of clothing forming part of the complex performative dynamic that enables communication through the body (Entwistle & Wilson, 2001, p. 475). Historically, the attraction follows the performance of such artists like Caroline Broadhead, Rebecca Horn, Lucy Orta, Yayoi Kasama, Marie Blaisse and Margret Wibmer who used the medium clothing accompanied with the performing body in conveying the ideas in a more interdisciplinary context. It must be noted that the expanding group of the costume designers who keep on experimenting by means of design approaches are basically centered on the physical and the embodied exploration of the concepts. Another emerging market in fashion performance comprises generally of rich people who seek luxury. This is because of their ultimate brand perception that fall within their interests. It has been deduced that consumers normally choose the brands not only because of the performance or functional benefit but also due to the expressive value that tend to show off their affiliation, personality or their social status. It is beyond expectation that consumers possess different perceptions on the level of luxury for the same brands or products, basing on their personal values and demographic background. Perception of luxury brand is even a better way of understanding the consumers’ attitude as well as predicting their purchasing behavior. In addition, luxury consumption includes the essential four luxury dimension comprised of financial, functional, individual and the social dimension (Wang & He, 2014, p. 46). On the other hand, for the luxury products, the major attribute revolves around the brand value, which influences the customer’s interest and willingness in purchasing the product. What challenges are presenting in the achievement of fashion performance millstones and their forecasting? With outstanding achievements and progressive growth, still there are challenges that are quite presenting in the achievement of fashion performance millstones and their forecasting. Historically, integration of the conceptual and costume design form part of the challenges that designers have been facing ever since (Bugg, 2006, p. 346). The two disciplines normally display temporality such that they both rely on the human reaction or the performer. Furthermore, the idea of the performance depending on the collection of comments or communication of something hastens the creation process such that the audience can receive the communication in present. This poses as one of the challenges because of the detailed updates that have to be considered every other time thereby demanding continuous practice and exercise. Roselee Goldberg puts emphasis on the performance art where the medium claims presentness and the audience’s presence in the real time thereby forcing the content to be sharply in present. Changes in creative practice and education seem to work in favor of the required forms of presentation because both the conceptual and costume design work in conjunction with the history and the contemporary issues, ideas as well as images. However, the interdisciplinary approach deployed seems to open up the ultimate significance for dialogue thereby forcing the fashion designers to work an extra mile as well as alongside the scenographers and the performance practitioners in exploring the most fashionable aesthetics or the themes (Aronson, 2008, p. 201). Another challenge revolves around the lack of engagement accompanied with writing in relation to costume. The need for academic engagement in fashion design is an issue that has to be addressed due to the rising technicality in handling some of the tasks. It must be noted that explosion of interests in writings and the theories of theatre on scenography is of significance in identifying the texts (Collins & Nisbet, 2010, 278). This can be challenging when it comes to creating a character but pay minimal attention to the way the makeup and the costume can mediate the ultimate relationship between the audience and the actor in performance. However, it is of advantage that the interdisciplinary potential of the current creative practice, the joined approach in both fields as well as the shift in thinking has evidently brought the twin practices close together. In addition, changes in audiences and the spaces for performances, as addressed in the performance theory, discuss more details on revolution in theatre practice. This means that the practice is about to implement or is in the process of implementing the new technologies and introducing new platforms meant for viewing the performance. It is evident that both the conceptual and costume design encounter almost similar opportunities and challenges. However, what is more important revolves around the ideas as well as the processes required in understanding the two outstanding practices. Practitioners who work with materiality, the conceptual and body approaches have been seen struggling to locate their practice within the most defined parameters of more specific creative disciplines. Such struggles mean retardation on the progressive handling of the roles played by practitioners. The only way to define the two distinct practices calls for the integration of efforts availed by different concerns willing enough in dividing the practices with an intention of establishing new roles in fashion performance as far as conceptual and costume design are placed under consideration (Bugg, 2006, p. 207). Conclusion Fashion performance is area that handles details on trends and popular practices cutting across the lives of people in a particular setting. The discussion covers details on the influence fashion design have in presenting the values, the role it plays in history as well as the previous designers’ works. This among other details reveals the history and the progressive growth in performance arts and the advanced levels it has climbed to basing on the current technology and practices (Ozturk, 2014, p. 584). More fascinating are the impacts and the contributions that fashion performance has on the society and the culture. This area also reveals facts on Protestantism impact and ethics that seem to be of advantage in the contemporary life. However, westernization and modernization expose more negative impacts compared to the negative impacts, leading to their rejection by some countries like Japan. The fact that post industrial states seem to widen the rift between the rich and the poor, it therefore lessens the efforts of societal building with an intention of reaching the required heritage. Following the trends in marketing, there is a big tendency of new emerging markets as far as fashion performance is involved. The young and reach have been featured in the emerging markets due to their interest in new taste and preference that makes them to go for the clothing that go alongside the bodily practice. On the other hand, luxury perception makes people seek for prestige by considering the expensive value of the brand. Finally, fashion performance still encounters various challenges in its struggle to achieve. The integration of two practices of conceptual and costume design seem to be troublesome, given the fact that they both face the same opportunities as well as challenges. Furthermore, many artists pay less attention to writing thereby taking less consideration in academics and other related areas. However, students taking courses in fashion design and the related areas seem to be a relief given that they will hopefully deploy the skills learned in class in such areas like fashion performance. In addition, the involvement of practitioners in the struggle to integrate the two distinct practices is of great help in attaining the final goal of relating the two. It must be noted that fashion performance is important in the current society. It has served as a platform for job creation as well as a new area in the education curriculum thereby drawing the interest of students willing enough to concentrate in the area. More advancement is expected given the fact that the field is also embracing the new technology and practices. References COLLINS.J AND NISBET, A. (2010). Theatre and performance design, a reader in Scenography. Routledge. BUGG, J. (2006) Interface: Concept and context as innovative strategies for fashion design and communication. An analysis from the perspective of the conceptual fashion design practitioner. University of the Arts London ARONSON, A. (2008). Looking into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography. Michigan. COUNCELL, C. AND MOCK, R. (2009). Performance, Embodiment and Cultural Memory. Cambridge Scholars publishing DILS, A. (2001). Moving history, dancing cultures: a dance history reader. Middletown, Conn, Wesleyan Univ. Press. ENTWISTLE, J. & WILSON, E. (2001). Body Dressing. Oxford: Berg FISHER, F. (2011). Performance, fashion and the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. London, Berg Publishers. ENTWISTLE, J. (2009). The Aesthetic Economy of Fashion Markets and Value in Clothing and Modelling. Oxford, Berg Publishers. OZTURK, G. (2014). 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Brand Management In Emerging Markets: theories and practice. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=5aJ_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=WANG,+C.,+%26+HE,+J.+%282014%29.+Brand+management+in+emerging+markets:+theories+and+practice&source=bl&ots=nJveBL2AK9&sig=THlwPuKC1irDLD3MlyM6zq9e6Ak&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Qj4kVILLAeSa7ga02IGQDA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=WANG%2C%20C.%2C%20%26%20HE%2C%20J.%20%282014%29.%20Brand%20management%20in%20emerging%20markets%3A%20theories%20and%20practice&f=false Read More