3/9/10 Lecture Reflection: Danish Fashion

What interested me the most about today's lecture on the Danish Fashion Industry was the the youth movement's impact upon the reinterpretation of the fashion design. I supposed if I had thought about it, I would have realized that youth fashion, as it exists today, has only been around for a few decades considering that the child/adult binary only began to blur into a grey scale in the early to mid 20th century. But somehow, fashion is so inextricably tied up with youth and beauty, cutting edge ideas and rapid change, that I cannot possibly think of it otherwise. Once again we can see how design is so thoroughly socially constructed and that construction is so rapidly naturalized so that within one generation, one forgets that it was ever done differently. Today, stores such as Nørregaard pa Strøget that are geared towards the youth consumer market seem to be such an integral part of the shopping landscape. Although I am sure there are many Danes that remember a time before these stores, just the fact that the facade of Nørregaard pa Strøget has ivy growing on it gives it the feeling of longevity and permanence as well as historicism.

Nørregaard pa Strøget storefront
http://www.aok.dk/files/specials/profile_image_big_redesign/48265.jpg

Ironically, however, it seems to be fashion's natural ability to always be at the forefront of style that allowed it to reemerge as a powerful Danish industry at the turn of the 21st century, when the information age was coursing through everyone's minds so that speed and innovation became more important that durability. I found it interesting that Danish furniture and product designers were uninterested in creating a real relationship with fashion designers until quite recently. I doubt that the furniture and product designers have overcome their feeling of relative superiority considering that they are concerned with creating high quality pieces that reflect values of longevity and tradition whereas fashion designers are always looking to create new trends, essentially creating a field for themselves that only exists through planned obsolescence.

Jørgen Nørgaard with his 'Rip 101' shirt, awarded a fashion prize by the Danish Design Council in 2007 as a gesture of friendship between the design and fashion industries http://multimedia.pol.dk/archive/00332/T_jhandler_J_rgen_N_332786c.jpg

Which makes me think of IKEA - a company dedicated to making cheap (yet granted, very stylish and even functional) furniture and products, mainly for the young consumer market. It seems that the companies thriving today are those that have embraced this idea of planned obsolescence, the understanding that if you make a product too good, people will stop buying another one because they simply don't need it. Even companies such as Apple employ this technique, creating pieces of technology that last just long enough so that you are satisfied but designing it so that it begins to run down just as they introduce new designs to the market. Very clever.

Side Table from IKEA sold for $34.99 - cheap, but how long do you guess it will last?
http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/0091415_PE227088_S3.JPG

But I can't help but think that instead of the furniture and technology manufacturers learning from the fashion industry, it should be the other way around, especially in today's environmental and economic climate where both natural and monetary resources are limited. I'm sure very few companies would like this proposal - of designing quality goods that consumers need less of as opposed to countless objects that last barely a year - claiming that it would destroy their revenue. But consider it this way: if you're making less goods because less people need them, then you are also spending less on raw material goods to create the products. So shouldn't that balance out? I'm no economist but if people thought smaller all around, I think the economic mess we're in would subside.

Regardless, back to design. While I think it is good that the Danish furniture and product designers have decided to reach out to fashion designers, I think they should also maintain their dedication to creating quality pieces that last a lifetime. Nevertheless, despite the fashion industry's dedication to planned obsolescence, I can't help but admiring them for their forward thinking and open-mindness. Fashion has been and continues to be an arena for creating social change and if its natural rapidity helps foster that revolutionary spirit, then I can't very well stand in the way.