Fashion is not necessarily high fashion

FASHION merchandising has been called
"a riddle, wrapped in mystery, inside an
enigma." To the extent that this is so, I
suspect that we fashion merchants ^ are partly
responsible. Guild secrets help to keep us in
tight supply �� and to obtain the proper deference!
At some risk, therefore, I am going to
make it my objective in the following pages
to take away a little of the mystery. If I stand
to be professionally ostracized for "talking," let
me plead justification: Fashion is important to
a lot of people simply because it is in almost
everything.
Businessmen in the department store field
particularly do not need to be told this. Not
only is a substantial percentage of their business
in the soft, or. fashion, lines; but all their
departments have fashion merchandise in the
large sense of the phrase. It follows that most
top merchandise jobs require fashion "feeling"
and understanding, and it should not be surprising
that the demand for men qualified for
such jobs is much greater than the supply. Indeed,
perhaps the most difficult job to fill in
department stores these days is the ready-towear
merchandise job, which is typically one of
the lo or 13 top-paying jobs in the store and
an excellent springboard to higher positions.
Businessmen outside the department store
field are concerned with the subject, too. Fashion
is a factor in almost every field �� witness,
for example, the changing tastes for different
kinds of books, entertainment, baseball commissioners,
and ways to make a really good
martini. For the purpose of this article, however,
I will confine myself to women's clothes.
It should be clear that the principles are equally
applicable to other commodities.
^ Mr. Daniels is Vice President in Charge ot Merchandising
at Abraham & Straus, New York. �� The Editors.
After a brief analysis of the essential nature
of fashion, the following topics will be discussed:
(1) the mechanics of fashion merchandising,
(2) the arts of fashion merchandising,
and (3) the feeling for fashion merchandising.
.
Nature of Fashion
This is a sheath bridal gown field where tbe only good place to
begin is witb a definition of the subject. Much
of the mystery of fashion merchandising is
simply a matter of not knowing wbat fashion is.
Tbere are a host of definitions, many by
erudite men and women. For instance, Ambrose
Bierce bas said that "fashion is a despot
whom the wise ridicule �� and obey." And according
to Thoreau, "Every generation laughs
at the old fashions but follows religiously the
new." In Oscar Wilde's opinion, "Fashion is a
form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to
alter it every six months." Shakespeare philosophized
that "the fashion wears out more apparel
than tbe man."
In each of these observations �� and Japanese school uniforms there are
countless others equally appropriate �� there is
something germane. But the definition which
best seems to sum up the essential characteristics
of fashion is a much more mundane one:
"Fashion is a conception of what is currently
appropriate." The report from which this
quotation is taken goes on to say:
Fashion influences human activities and shapes
the forms of our possessions. It affects the things
we do, the things we say, the things we wear, and
the things we use. Times and conditions largely
affect fashion and may be looked upon as a subtle
reflection of our composite feelings and reactions
to life at any given period. Fashion is not necessarily
high fashion, the latter being the expression
of a limited number of people with aboveHarvard
Business Review
nonnal means or taste to enjoy it. Mass fashions
are the most widely accepted versions of high
fashion trends .^
Definition. Our definition of fashion as a
conception of "what is currently appropriate"
means, in simpler language, a conception of
what the customier wants. This idea will be
popping up again and again in the subsequent
discussion. 

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