The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business

Teri Agins, however, covers the fashion beat for a publication that does not rely upon fashion advertising--and she is thereby uniquely unfettered and able to finally tell the whole truth about this gigantic, flamboyant, and endlessly fascinating business.

Her book traces an arc from the origins of couture and its apotheosis in the early part of this century to the advent of prjt-a-porter postWorld War II and the sweeping changes that have taken place as the century ends. It is an arc from when "fashion" was defined by elite French designers whose clothes could be afforded only by the global socialites--but whose designs were copied and followed by everyone else--to the point where the rules are set by the consumers, and the designers must follow them. It is an arc from class to mass; from art to commodity. Above all, it is the story of the triumph of marketing.

The narrative includes profiles of designers Emmanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, and Zoran, as well as retailers Marshall Field and the Gap.The End of Fashion is classy and stylish, filled with insider details; it is dishy and lively and fun--as well as astute and full of insights about how the changes in the fashion business have reflected changes in the culture over the last fifty years.Fashion is a multibillion-dollar international business; it permeates our lives and our economies. Yet there has never been a book of solid, hard-hitting, uncompromising business/cultural/social journalism on this subject--because the fashion press is subsidized by the very industry it covers.

Agins writes about various the various forces that have fundamentally changed fashion -- societal shifts, the changing retail landscape, impatient public markets, licenscing mania and so on. However, it is frustrating that she does not explain how these forces fit together, or extrapolate them into a view of the future of fashion.

We do get good dose of fashion one-liners, such as Zoran's "give diamonds and jewelry to housekeeper", but the aftertaste of mediocre analysis persists.


Good perspective.   June 22, 2000
Keila (TX)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book was very well written with an interesting perspective on the changes in society and the effect it has had on the fashion industry. The author has chosen a variety of examples to demonstrate her point on the direction fashion has taken and seems to be headed for the future.


Good   June 14, 2000
Interesting, business-view of fashion, that shows the indulgences of vain, shallow designers like Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan and Mossimo, whose idiocy was their downfall, and the more business-minded, but nonetheless creative, designers that flourish. Shallow, as only fashion can be, but interesting, too.