Fashion marketing

This issue of Textile Progress provides a critical literature review and reflection relating to academic research in the field of fashion marketing. As the topic has not been reviewed before in Textile Progress, the paper takes the concepts of marketing and fashion in turn, exploring the literature from its origins to the present day and then considers how and why these two concepts have become merged to form a discrete academic research theme.

The exploration of marketing includes a discussion of the origins of the marketing concept which emerged in the 1950s alongside the growth in mass consumerism. The paper discusses the ubiquitous ‘marketing mix’ theory and explains how research in marketing shifted its focus in the 1980s and 1990s as new paradigms developed, and their applicability to the marketing concept were debated.

The concept of fashion is considered in terms of the context of historical research on fashion, for example, from the sociological or psychological perspective, and how the concept of fashion can be considered both academically and commercially.

The review then goes on to evaluate the concept of fashion marketing as a discrete area for academic research, arguing that it has distinct theoretical perspectives from those of pure ‘marketing’ or ‘fashion’ theory, and culminating in a review of contemporary research in the field of fashion marketing, specifically that relating to fast fashion and ‘digital’ fashion marketing.     

Fashion retailing – past,present and future

This issue of Textile Progress reviews the way that fashion retailing has developed as a result of the application of the World Wide Web and information and communications technology (ICT) by fashion-retail companies. The review therefore first considers how fashion retailing has evolved, analysing retail formats, global strategies, emerging and developing economies, and the factors that are threatening and driving growth in the fashion-retail market. The second part of the review considers the emergence of omni-channel retailing, analysing how retail has progressed and developed since the adoption of the Internet and how ICT initiatives such as mobile commerce (m-commerce), digital visualisation online, and in-store and self-service technologies have been proven to support the progression and expansion of fashion retailing. The paper concludes with recommendations on future research opportunities for gaining a better understanding of the impacts of ICT and omni-channel retailing, through which it may be possible to increase and develop knowledge and understanding of the way the sector is developing and provide fresh impetus to an already-innovative and competitive industry.     

Fabric objective measurement and drape

This issue of Textile Progress reviews the origins of fabric objective measurement through its research and development phases to its current use in research and industry. It then examines, in greater detail, the use of fabric objective measurement (FOM) methods for the measurement and prediction of fabric drape. Such prediction has become increasingly important in recent times, due to the push from the fashion industry for accurate three-dimensional (3-D) simulation and animation of apparel in its various forms, to allow fashion designers to visually prototype their garment creations without the need for the tedious and time-consuming steps involved in real-garment prototyping. The demand for accurate 3-D simulation and animation is occurring in the face of an ever-increasing variety of fabric types, which means that drape measurement methods must become more sensitive and more widely applicable than has been the case to date. The authors, in the light of this review and their own research experiences with fabric drape, offer the view that the measurements taken by existing methods of FOM and drape are unlikely to provide the accuracy and wide applicability required for realistic on-screen evaluation of apparel, not least because in a garment, fabric is neither draped nor supported horizontally in the way that the fabric is configured in the test methods.     

谈流行色预测的研究与发展

文章对流行色预测的起源，流行色预测的方法、内容以及流行色预测定案的应用等内容进行了介绍，提出流行色预测研究发展的未来趋势，以期对我国色彩预测工作提供参考。     

The Power of Fashion: The Influence of Knitting Design on the Development of Knitting Technology

Abstract

It is recognized that technology, with its possibilities, affects industrial design. Likewise, it is believed that design has a reversible impact on technology. This study looks for clear examples of design's influence on the development of knitting technology. The parallel development of design and technology is traced back to the emergence of the knitting frame in 1589. The brocade influences from the seventeenth century, which influenced the development of knitting techniques, are apparent, as well as the effect of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century market demands for lace, which strongly encouraged the development of devices for knitted lace production. The short-lived fashion trend of vertically striped socks has left far-reaching consequences in the construction of wider knitting frames and the new method of knitwear production. In the first half of the nineteenth century, changes in fashion almost destroyed the knitting industry. From the beginning of the twentieth century, the debut of knitted pullovers for sport encouraged the development of innovative flat knitting machines. It was through these machines that the biggest potential for the production of different designs came through and the fashion industry encourages it—until the 1980s. Up until this time, the world of fashion has been surprisingly showing very little interest.     

基于生活方式与视觉营销下的服装卖场设计

随着国内服装业的竞争加剧,服装终端卖场已经成为服装品牌核心竞争力的要素之一,服装市场营销为适应现代生活方式下多元化发展趋势,作为营销终端的服装卖场也进入到视觉营销时代。从现代生活方式的产生背景入手,系统分析了生活方式的发展趋势,并提出了在现代生活方式下的视觉营销策略。通过对人性化、意境化及风格化服装卖场设计研究得出,在现代生活方式下的视觉营销中的服装卖场设计应该以消费者需求为品牌驱动模式,引导消费者将注意力集中在品牌体验上,通过有效创新的展示与陈列手段,营造一个吸引消费者且具有各种功能和审美等综合体验的销售环境,使服装品牌的投入实现市场营销的最大效益。     

Developing and testing a value chain for fashion retailers: activities for competitive success

Purpose: This is an exploratory paper which empirically tests a conceptual model of value chain activity for fashion retailers, developed from the literature. Design/methodological approach: The research involved in depth interviews with 15 of the largest and most successful high-street fashion retailers. Participants were asked to comment on the structure and content of the value chain model. Findings: An updated model of value chain activity for fashion retailers is proposed which takes account of recent changes and developments in the market. Research limitations/implications: This exploratory study is limited to the experiences of 15 large-scale fashion retailers and may benefit from further empirical testing. Practical implications: The results of this study provide a basis for value chain activity and added value in the fashion retailing sector. Originality/value: Academic development and empirical testing of generic business models in the fashion retailing sector is rare. This exploratory research seeks to address this scarcity.     

论“反时尚”服装设计中的逆向思维与表达

“反时尚”是一种非常重要的设计理念,在当下时尚界中形成了一股正流行的风格,在与主流时尚相反的方向上掀起愈来愈大的热潮。“反时尚”现象的产生给设计师及大众带来了对于时尚本身新的思考和思路,它暗含着设计师的一种打破常规且挑战权威的逆向设计思维。本文通过阐释“反时尚”设计理念、解读“反时尚”现象,探讨“反时尚”服装中的逆向思维,并结合“反时尚”风格服装设计师山本耀司、川久保玲、马丁·马吉拉以及其他应用案例,进一步探析逆向思维在“反时尚”服装造型、色彩与材质三方面中的具体表达。从而明晰“反时尚”中逆向思维设计的主要方法及其本质,为“反时尚”服装设计的发展提供一些新思路。     

Textiles in air filtration

Fossil fuels are a major source of energy although they generate toxic pollutants that cause harm to human beings and the environment. To control these toxic pollutants, various environmental regulations have been imposed and improved filtration technologies have been developed and adopted in response. Multinational agreements have been signed in order to tackle fossil fuel emission as a global problem. Whilst efforts to reduce emissions include the switch from fossil fuel to renewables such as solar, rain and wind, renewables like solar and wind sources and technologies are currently expensive as compared to fossil-fuel technologies. Nonwoven filter media are currently the dominant means by which the fly ash particles that are generated during fossil-fuel combustion are removed; they are widely used because of their high filtration efficiency and low pressure-drop properties. This issue of Textile Progress focuses on the filtration market, the manufacturing techniques used for nonwoven filters, the filtration of fly ash and the mechanisms used to control emissions to meet environmental regulations. Important properties of filter fabrics, their areas of application and disposal issues are discussed and possible reasons are presented for the failure of filters during operation. It addresses the problems faced in achieving effective filtration, not only in fossil fuel power plants but also across a number of other important industries.     

Effect of location in the canopy on the colour development of three apple cultivars during growth

BACKGROUND: Homogeneity in appearance is one of the quality aspects asked for in the supply chain. Decreasing the biological variation in batches of harvested apples (cultivars Braeburn, Fuji and Gala) becomes increasingly important. Skin colour is one of the aspects that determine both optimal harvest and stage of development. Skin colour is affected by location in the canopy. The rules of development of biological variation are now established and will be used on skin colour data. RESULTS: The Minolta colour aspects a*, b* and L* measured before commercial harvest change in a sigmoidal fashion and can be analysed including the biological variation, with a logistic model in indexed nonlinear regression, obtaining explained parts of above 90%. The mechanism of colour change is not affected by state of development or location in the canopy. The location in the canopy affects the intensity of both red and green colouring compounds. The variation in colouration is not affected by the location in the canopy. CONCLUSION: The red‐coloured apple cultivar (Gala) depends more on the location in the canopy than the less‐coloured cultivars (Fuji and Braeburn). The colour development in Fuji apples is considerably slower, with a much larger variation in stage of development. The location in the canopy affects all aspects of biological variation (biological shift factor and asymptotic starting level of colouration) for all three colour aspects L*, a* and b*, but only the mean value, not the standard deviation. The biological shift factors per colour aspects are linearly related. Once induced, variation remains constant during development. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

A Stich in Time: The Needlework of Aging Women in Antebellum America

Abstract

Through the auspices of the international biennial, contemporary practices in textiles have reached a maturity of critical reference. Drawing on anthropological theory (Alfred Gell) and contemporary critical theory from art and performance (Amelia Jones), this article supports and frames a relationship between exchange, conversation, and enactment as manifested through textile practice in the context of Textile 07: Kaunas Textile Art Biennial.     

‘97提花装饰面料流行趋势分析

通过对第二“中国国际纺织面料、家用纺织品及辅料博览会”部分产品的分析，从原料、纹样、色彩等几方面介绍了“９７提花装饰的最新流行趋势，并在此基础上提出了一些设计思路。     

‘An old and faithful servand’: A Pair of Early Seventeenth-Century Gauntlet Gloves given by King Charles I to Sir Henry Wardlaw

Abstract

A pair of embroidered seventeenth-century gauntlet gloves, reputedly presented by King Charles I to his courtier Sir Henry Wardlaw, was donated to the University of St Andrews in 2001. This article sets out to uncover the truth behind this nearly four-hundred-year-old family legend by investigating Sir Henry’s royal connections and the social significance of the gauntlet gloves as a high-status, luxury clothing accessory. Based on the study of historic gloves in museum and private collections, it endeavours to date the gloves by discussing their design and manufacture within the context of seventeenth-century clothing fashion. This article also explores the symbolism behind the gauntlet gloves’ decorative scheme by unravelling some of the hidden messages that are conveyed about cultural, religious, political and technological developments and perspectives through seventeenth-century embroidery.     

Ultraviolet protection of weft-knitted fabrics

Increased incidence of skin cancers worldwide has expedited the development and research of ultraviolet (UV)-protective clothing. Clothing acting as a ‘second skin’ for human beings provides a more durable protection against harmful UV radiation than sunscreen creams. The market value of UV-protective clothing is worth considering. This paper will provide important information to textile designers, manufacturers, and consumers about the production and selection of UV-protective knitwear. Although various factors that affect UV protection of fabrics have been studied by researchers, most of them focused on woven fabrics and chemical approaches for improving UV protection. Knitwear in the form of daily wear is an indispensable form of clothing in summer but there has been limited research concerning the UV-protective properties of weft-knitted fabrics to date, in particular the influence of fabric construction on UV protection factor (UPF) and fabric structural properties. This issue of Textile Progress reviews the major factors that affect UV protection by fabrics, including fibre types, yarn characteristics, fabric construction, colouration, chemical additives, wetness (rather than just the moisture absorbed into the fibres), the stretching that may occur in clothing, and the effects of laundering. Methods for evaluating the UV-protective ability of fabrics are also addressed. There is also an attempt to fill a research gap by investigating the influence of different knitted structures on a fabric's UPF, through incorporation of the three major stitch types in weft-knitted fabric constructions, namely the knit, tuck, and miss stitches.     

Non-destructive and objective methods for the evaluation of the maturation level of olive fruit

The maturation level of two olive varieties (Olea europaea, cvs. Arbequina and Picual) was objectively evaluated using two non-destructive methods: checking the fruit firmness using a hand densimeter, and the skin colour with a portable colourimeter. These methods were compared with the Ripening Index (RI), habitually used by olive oil industry, and based on the subjective determination of skin and flesh colour. The values of skin colour [L*(b*–a*)/100] only monitor the olive maturation in both varieties, when the olive is losing its initial green colour, while fruit firmness is decreasing throughout the maturation process. Fruit firmness is directly related to RI and could be useful in objectively estimating the maturation level of the olives.     

Modern Fashions for Modern Women: The Evolution of New York Sportswear in the 1930s

Abstract

This article aims to establish the significance and diversity of sportswear styles designed and manufactured in New York during the 1930s. It will assert that the 1930s was a crucial period in New York sportswear's evolution. This decade tends to be overlooked by fashion historians, who either make generalisations about American fashion in the 1930s or focus on developments in the 1940s. This article will demonstrate that the Depression era was central to sportswear's emergence as a key form of affordable, mass-produced clothing, which comprised simple, interchangeable garments that could be worn in a variety of settings.

This article will establish the importance of the 1930s as a period when New York sportswear was crystallised as a design and marketing ideal. This was due to both the economic pressures of the 1930s, which made cheaper mass-produced clothing more appealing, and to shifts within the fashion industry, which saw more co-ordinated attempts to promote indigenous design.

Sportswear will be discussed in terms of three key categories: active sportswear, town and country wear and resort wear. Surviving dress from American and British collections will be analysed to demonstrate the importance of these categories, and the ways in which they came to form an ideal of Americanness through their design aesthetic, as well as the way they were advertised.

Garments by manufacturers such as Davidow, and designers such as Clare Potter, will be contrasted with examples from London and Paris to show how New York was gradually to evolve its own distinct styles, which would in the following decade be characterised by the term the 'American Look'. The clean lines and machine aesthetic of this style were mythologised as an expression of American national identity — as practical, rational and authentic.

As the 1930s wore on, New York sportswear was increasingly linked to modern lifestyles, and thus was portrayed as ideal for women who were active, whether as college girls, housewives, career women, or through travel. The notion of femininity that it evoked linked to white, middle-class ideals, and existing assumptions about American fashion's 'democratic' approach that eschewed the élitism of European fashion therefore need to be questioned.     

论服装设计的模仿方式

以较有市场影响力的本土服装品牌在近二三年中的设计方法为主要议题,以本土服装品牌产品设计的模仿方式为切入点,运用造型艺术的视知觉原理和服装社会学原理,从设计的角度对服装设计模仿方式进行分析,认为品牌服装在不同的发展阶段对产品设计的模仿方式不同,这是由品牌在不同发展阶段的经营心态和设计心态所决定的,也给品牌的发展带来不同的影响。对服装设计的模仿心理和不同模仿设计的结果进行分析和讨论,明确服装设计过程应是创造模仿的应用。     

Quality improvement of non-sulphited mango slices by drying at high temperatures

An optimum drying routine for producing non-sulphited mango slices has been developed. The interaction of essential drying parameters (air temperature, air velocity, dew point, slice thickness and drying time) on water activity (a_W) and browning was determined. Microbiological stability of the dried product was achieved at a moisture content of 17% wet base (w.b.) corresponding to a_W = 0.6. Browning was monitored by the red colour shade of the product (CIE-Lab chromaticity coordinate a*). Drying air temperature and drying time were shown to be the primary factors influencing product colour and a_W. In contrast to common practice, drying for about 6 h at elevated air temperature (80 °C), instead of 50 or 60 °C for a longer time, was optimal, since significant colour changes of the mango slices were not observed even without the use of any chemical or thermal pre-treatment. Moreover, at increased temperature, drying time was considerably shortened from about 9 h to 6 h, resulting in significant extension of the drying capacity.

Industrial Relevance

The suggested process concept for dried mango slices based on high-temperature drying is of utmost significance for the international marketing of dried fruit products. Chemical pre-treatments such as sulphitation often used to minimise quality deficiencies could be avoided. Sulphitation has been recently under critical consideration with respect to allergen labelling of foodstuffs implemented by EU-Member States in November 2004 (Directive 2003/89/EC) [Directive 2003/89/EC. Official Journal of the European Union, 25.11.2003, pp. L308/15–18 (http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_308/l_30820031125en00150018.pdf)]. Export quality was improved and the drying process simplified, improving the utilisation of drying capacities. Particularly referring to an application of the technology in small- and medium-sized enterprises with limited investment possibilities, the suggested novel drying procedure in mango processing aimed at the optimisation of well-established simple drying methods instead of choosing technically more sophisticated technologies.     

Kinetics of colour change of bamboo shoot slices during microwave drying

The effect of microwave power on colour change kinetics of bamboo shoot slices was investigated during microwave drying. Colour changes were quantified by tri‐stimulus Hunter L (whiteness/darkness), a (redness/greenness), and b (yellowness/blueness) system. These values were also used for calculation of total colour change (ΔE), chroma, hue angle, and browning index (BI). Microwave drying as expected changed colour parameters because of browning. The values of L and b decreased, while values of a and ΔE increased during drying. Mathematical modelling of colour change kinetics indicated that L, b, chroma and BI could be defined using a first‐order kinetic model, while a, ΔE and hue angle could be defined using a zero‐order kinetic model. Considering together colour deterioration and quality of dried bamboo shoot slices at higher power reveals the need of process standardisation for getting good quality product.     

Effect of Low Temperature Sonication on Orange Juice Quality Parameters using Response Surface Methodology

Freshly squeezed orange juice samples were sonicated at a constant frequency of 20 kHz for a range of processing temperatures (10–30 °C), amplitude levels (40–100%) and time (2–10 min) with pulse durations of 5 s on and 5 s off. Hunter colour values (L*, a* and b*), pH, ^oBrix, titratable acidity, cloud, non-enzymatic browning and ascorbic acid content were measured. Response surface methodology (RSM) based upon a three-factor, three-level Box–Behnken experimental design was used to determine the effect of independent variables. Under process conditions used in this study, no significant difference (p < 0.05) in pH, ^oBrix or titratable acidity was observed. Model predictions developed for Hunter colour values, cloud value, non-enzymatic browning and ascorbic acid content were closely correlated (R ² > 0.92) to experimental data. Box–Behnken design and RSM was demonstrated to be an effective technique to model the effect of sonication on juice quality while minimising the number of experiments required.