The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business [Hardcover]

Teri Agins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 1999

Fashion is a massive international business: it permeates our lives and our economies. This book offers an uncompromising, hard-hitting exploration of the business, cultural and social aspects of the fashion industr.'

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dispensing with the idea that fashion designers are unpredictable geniuses sequestered in creative isolation from vulgar commerce, Agins, who covers the fashion industry for the Wall Street Journal, has taken a long, hard look at style in the '90s and come back with a compelling report on why big business has forever altered what we wear. In seven superbly researched essays, she explains that the designers are currently being challenged to sell essentially the same clothes to a public with increasingly homogenized tastes. "Today's 'branding' of fashion," she writes, "has taken on a critical role [when] just about every store in the mall is peddling the same style of clothes." Brands, in this context, are the designers themselvesAa woman doesn't go shopping for a particular style of dress, but for a "Calvin" or a "Ralph"Aa lifestyle distillation that denotes professional and severe urban minimalism (Calvin Klein) or athletic, American conservatism (Ralph Lauren). The casualties of this trend are the craftsmanlike members of the Old School, as Agins ably demonstrates in essays on fading Parisian haute couture. Liveliest by far is Agins's chronicle of the rivalry between Lauren and the upstart Tommy Hilfiger, who sells clothes nearly identical to Lauren's, but with a hipper edge, captivating black city kids. The influence of Armani on Tinseltown and Donna Karan on Wall Street are also analyzed with verve and clear-sightedness. As glossy fashion magazines increasingly offer fantasies illustrated by advertisements far more often than they deliver journalism, Agins's penetrating dispatch from the rag trade is especially welcome. Photos. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Agins, a veteran fashion reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has written the first factual book on the fashion industry from a business/cultural/social journalist's view. She traces the beginning of couture from the early 20th century in France through all the stages to the present, when consumers set the fashion rules and designers must follow them. Major components of her story include retailers like Marshall Field, Federated Department Stores, Dillards, Nordstrom, and the Gap as well as designers Giorgio Armani, Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren, and Donna Karan. In the end, this story is about the triumph of marketing; Agins demonstrates how changes in our culture, e.g., more casual dress, have changed the fashion business. Filled with insider details and descriptions of the fickle nature of consumers, this book belongs in academic business and fashion collections.ASusan C. Awe, Univ. of New Mexico Lib., Albuquerque
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1ST edition (August 18, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688151604
• ISBN-13: 978-0688151607
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest objective portrayal of the fashion industry, October 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business (Hardcover)

I have always felt that the comparison of the fashion industry to the "Emporer's New Clothes" was exactly what the consumer wanted and what the industry presented. But what so intrigued me about Ms. Agin's book is that she exposed the "Emporer" without clothes and the clothes makers without sarcasm or snide attacks. This made it possible for we aspiring designers to observe a realistic view and grounded attitude as we wade into this evolving dance of dressing. It is no wonder that the author holds such an esteemed position at the Wall Street Journal. I am so hopeful that this is but a beginning of more books from Ms. Agin that deal with other mysteries and facets of a very exciting and dynamic industry.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why the consumer is King and which Designers figured it out., August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business (Hardcover)

The the fashion community is too often blindsided by its own perceived image. This book, which is reader friendly and packed with real information (as opposed to gossip), strips away some of the self serving myths created by the fashion houses and their own sycophantic press. The book shows how houses such as Donna Karan, Ungaro and above all the once mighty French fashion companies have ignored the consumer's needs to their detriment, and how these miscalculations have come back to haunt them. It also explains the wild yet differing success stories of those brands that have become household names such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hillfiger. The End of Fashion is entertaining and riveting, certainly to anyone involved in the business of Fashion, but also to the fashion neophyte. Teri Agins' style is that of a real reporter who does not pull her punches, but stays away from gossip and provides the facts. A lot of these facts are not common knowledge, and the "behind the scenes" information will delight and fascinate. The book is an easy read and and highly entertaining as well as insightful. Lifting the corporate veil from sucess stories and failures, the author provides a compelling A to Z (from Armani to Zoran) look at the business of fashion on the eve of the new millenium. It's worth every penny and probably also tax deductible.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The End of Fashion, May 10, 2000

By 

Donna Edwards (St. George, Utah United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business (Hardcover)

This is a gold mine for the person who has an interest in the history of the business of high fashion. For the rest of us, it was less than spellbinding. The author has done her homework and with documenting her quotes from various fashion designers and experts in the economics of the fashion industry. It reads like a combination of The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Magazine, and someone's Master's Degree Thesis. There were a few small, uninteresting, black and white photographs of fashion designers grinning next to their famous, rich clients. Personally, I would like to have seen some colored photos of some of their work. As a lay person I had no idea what these people created or why it is supposed to be so great. The claim of the book is that The Fashion Industry just met its demise in the 1990s. I'm not sure whether we will ever be completely free of fashions, but I do know that my interest died in this book long before the last page.