The largest Industrial Revolution change on the clothing industry was that people became more fashion conscious and began purchasing clothing for style, rather than necessity.
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Journal of the International Colour Association (2013): 11, 1-17 Vettese Forster & Christie
Page 13, http://www.aic-colour-journal.org/ ISSN 2227-1309
The significance of the introduction of synthetic dyes in the mid 19th century on the democratisation of western fashion
The introduction of the first synthetically-dyed fabrics and the garments constructed from them had a special place in the democratisation of fashion.
As garments became easier to make and designer styles easier to access and emulate, and as corsetry became cheaper, similarities began to appear in the nature of the silhouettes of clothing worn by both the wealthy and lower classes.
Bright colours had long been associated with wealth and nobility and so they were received wholeheartedly when they became reasonably available by the lower classes, who found that they could afford and copy the ‘look’, although commonly in a slightly lower quality of garment.
This lead, in response, to wealthier individuals seeking to set themselves apart by rejecting the synthetic bright colours, or alternatively by combining them with other colours in a more ‘intellectual’ way.
‘Harmonies’, ‘tasteful’ combinations and palettes that corresponded with surroundings, following the doctrines of the Arts and Crafts movement, became the ‘superior’ fashion.
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Partington notes that clothing produced by individual consumers through adaptation of patterns is contextualised as a watered down version of original couture.
In its most reductive form, this notion characterises fashion as commercial and exploitative. Descriptors such as appropriation, imitation, copy and so forth have restricted the opportunity to understand fashion as a major global cultural form and institution.
Therefore, exploring and understanding the concept of adaptation will shift the attention from a superficial assessment of original versus imitation or copy to adaptation as a practice that provides a better framework for the understanding of designers’ and couturiers’ innovative practices and creativity, describing also the active engagement of consumers with fashion at the micro level.
Adaptation can also provide a way to understand different historical shifts in the fashion system, from individual creative agency with home dressmaking and re-making to the explosion of the mass market and the consequent abandonment of such practices.
Home dressmaking has been replaced by fashion remix of mass produced garments, a practice that thrives in our environment of globalised fast fashion.
Thus this chapter suggests the need for a contextual requalification of concepts such as original, copy, imitation and copyright, and argues that these categories have been played against each other, but they are in fact interdependent.
Today, big labels and conglomerates try to control knowledge and innovation through copyright, but, fashion escapes copyright because, in fashion, creativity is contextual.
The institutionalisation of couture from 1868 served as a way to control knowledge about production processes in fashion; on the other hand, adaptation practices, often subversive, have been fundamental to the democratisation of fashion.
Re-Framing Fashion: From Original and Copy to Adaptation
Author: Tiziana Ferrero-Regis
Pages: 347–357