What is Globalization? PART I.

(image: Los Angeles- Anne-Marie, 2009)

PART I. Fashion & WHY

Word: Totality- The whole of something

Term: Globalization- Flow of information and products increased global systems, coming to think of the world as whole, “totality”

Article: Wall Street Journal Magazine- pg. 15-16, Spring 2009 Issue 3. Edited from Tina Gaudoin’s interview with von Furstenburg.

No better place to start looking for signs of a mass world than food and clothes. What the world is eating and wearing has changed to be more uniform in the past 50 years. You don’t need Micheal Pollen or Diane von Furstenburg to tell you that, but you do need them to explain to you WHY and HOW it happened.

Diane von Furstenburg is a fashion heavyweight- in her corner lies the wrap dress, and the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. This act copyrights clothing designs. If this bill is passed it may enhance the value of design and stop stores such as H&M from producing clothes right after runway shows.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Magazine von Furstenburg states that, “Designers are not elitists, they have a trade and a skill like any other craftsman. H&M, Topshop and Target are actually giving value to design because they admit they use designers- with or without names. This actually makes it clear that designers are required to create something special. You can’t just copy someone else.”

H&M now has stores in 37 countries: 22 European countries, 9 Middle Eastern countries, and 2 in North American countries. Kuwait boasts 2 stores, while Texas totes zero (http://www.hm.com/gb/storelocator__storelocatorhtml.nhtml).

The rise of H&M is the result of consumer’s desire to look in-style at a low cost. DVF’s Design Piracy Prohibition Act addresses the problem that plagues this concept, “Piracy is just counterfeiting without the label, which actually makes it legal! You see it right now with the Golden Globes and after the Oscars; on TV they say, ‘You don’t need to go buy the Zac Posen dress; you can get the 39.99 version.’"

High fashion with a low price comes at a cost-

originality and craftsmanship.

Do you care about this loss?