Silk as a feminine textile

Silk as a Feminine Textile

Silk as a Feminine Textile

Silk overpowers all other fabrics, even the most luxurious when it comes to the textile that is renowned for its association with wealth, social rank, powerful positions, but most of all femininity. In this case, referring to the silk garments that have been worn by women throughout history, too wear such a fabric is to display a women status in society, whether wealthy or lower class, wearing silk, the most precious of fabrics will always enhance women’s well-being, strength and beauty. During the end of the eighteenth century, French silks were the best, most elegant, most sumptuous and most fashionable throughout all of Europe. Demand for silk was continuous throughout the era, the nation wanted everything from curtains, sheets and fabric for upholstering, to silk for delicate under garments, full petticoats, skirts and veils. Because of this high demand, women were quickly employed in the silk industry, as the good demanded a great deal of delicate stages to acquire the final produce. There have been many expressive discussions and opposing arguments, for many centuries, between numerous historians, on the very topic of the female role and status within society and the workplace during the eighteenth century. Many agree that it was a long awaited turning point for the working lives of women and that their role within the French industry is why it still stands today, whereas others debate that when these women accepted to go out and work, that they degraded themselves and their status within their family. Throughout the many thousands of years of silk manufacture, especially in China, the delicate production of silk into lavish garments has always been considered an art that should be produced and created in the palms of a woman. When the first silkworm eggs were brought to Europe and began to spread between countries, it is said that when the men spent their days farming and producing food in the fertile soil of France, the job of the women of the household was to sit and create stunning garments made from silk for the whole family. In Italy when silk manufacture was still fairly new, you would find that nuns would often commit part of their day to producing garments and items from silk. According to old chronicles, their day used to consist of; “Nine hours praying and three hours weaving”.

During the eighteenth century in France, it looked as though for some time, men were the dominant workers in the silk industry. The French were maybe the first to employ women on a large scale and not only to make use of their dainty hands but also the excellence of their brains. Soon many women were educated enough to the point that they could have easily overrun the men working in the textile industry, the women themselves had the skill and enthusiasm to outdo the men and often would work harder, turning around more profit than their male associates. Women of the trade were often the designers of the patterns that were woven in France, often travelling to Paris or London to discuss drawings and designs with other traders. Silk weaving really was, and still is considered a beautiful and skilled area of art. When a woman was domesticated, a good cook and was skilled in the industry of weaving, especially in the weaving of silk cloth, that woman was considered to almost inevitably make an exceptional wife for any man.

Although taking into account what had been written in the previous paragraphs, during the eighteenth century, the world was still in an era that positioned women to be below that of men, and was very much considered a man’s world. The French civilisation was full of discrimination and sexism against women and this would not significantly change for centuries later. During the start of the century, women had the job of staying at home, relying on their husbands or fathers to go out and work. Women were considered not worthy of being able to accomplish the tasks that were done by men and each sex was given specific rights to what they would have to oblige by. Women could not avoid their role as wife, sister, mother or daughter and could not escape from the discrimination of their wealth and sex. They were defined for being unfit for a job outside of the home and were typically considered as private beings, who should not need such a public life. The main views on women were that they obtained a lack of intelligence and their individual duty was to run the household for their family’s and husbands. Other than that they were labelled as unskilled, untrained and not particularly hard working, along with having a cunning character that made some men nervous and eager not to have them in the workplace. This of course was untrue, seeing as most women, with the exception of higher class women with a high-ranking status, had the exhausting and difficult job of housekeeping. From cleaning and cooking, raising children, making cloths to sell, as well as for their families, to becoming the family doctor and carer, there whole life revolved around hard work and dedication.

During the course and towards the end of the eighteenth century, the law that placed women into a category of a lower rank would soon begin to improve and refashion. This fascinating change was to come about during the French revolution, when the nation’s population took the chance to deposition the Kings domain and to take action in making France a fitter country that was run by its own government. The textile industry of France was in high demand and more skilled weavers were needed to keep up with the challenging market. Therefore a substantial amount of female workers were employed in the weaving business and began their training. Soon the opinion of many, that females were incapable of hard work, long hours and managing machinery soon began to fade giving women a real chance of changing the future. During this time, female workers were able to show their strength and genuine capability’s, proving to men that they were crucial to the future of the French economy.

The jobs specified to each woman would usually depend on her social situation. In the French city of Lyons, most women worked as weavers or seamstresses of cotton, linen and ribbon making, but because of Lyons dedication to the manufacture of silk, most importantly as silk spinners and weavers. Even though the discrimination against women had significantly improved, most female workers were still under paid, received the minimum wage and were usually forced to take on the grimmest and more dangerous of jobs in the weaving rooms which included being a draw girl, requiring mostly muscular strength and a lot of patience.

The women, who were related to silk masters in the industry, usually had better opportunities at working their way up in the industry and becoming skilled silk weavers, therefore gaining more social acceptance, yet they would never have been allowed to take over the men’s most dominant jobs. The women in the industry soon proved that they were a force of highly intelligent, very skilled and keen workers and they were beginning to show just how much the silk and textile industry in France relied on them. During the late seventeen hundreds, more and more women were being employed in the industry and the number soon took over that of the men’s.

Now it seemed that women were starting to dominate the silk industry of Lyon, they had finally got the chance of competing with the opposite sex in the production of textiles and could now take advantage of their new found freedom. Many thought that this was the start of an equal society.

On the other hand, women were still faced with many different problems regarding the limit of their new found independence. Women still couldn’t speak for themselves, regarding legal matters which was indeed down to their husbands or fathers who somewhat had owner ship over them. Many women proved themselves to be more capable and of having more potential than most of the men in the industry, yet they were still not able to own their own businesses and were still considered the inferior sex in the eyes of the law.

To conclude, we can see just how much the weaving industry during the eighteenth century relied on the occupation of females and how the “Golden age of silk”, along with the silk weaving business has come to be known as the enlightenment of feminism. In the exception the great inventers including Jacques De Vaucanson and Joseph Marie Jacquard, women in the eighteenth century were the major labourers during the ever changing era, making the city of Lyon capable of becoming the most important European industry for silk weaving and moving the country into the nineteenth century with wealth and pride. No longer did women have to seclude themselves, they now had the opportunity to make their mark in the world and to make a difference.


Feminism in fashion: wearing a uniform

Feminism in fashion: wearing a uniform

Introduction
“Feminism meant different things to different women, and not all were ready to abandon traditional ideals of gender roles.” (Moon, 2011, p. 121)This dissertation will explore the relationship between obligatory uniforms and the possibility of hidden identities being perceived within this. With a particular emphasis on how the cut of these garments could give the impression that the female wearer defines a lack of confidence. It will discuss the development the changing evolution of women’s increasing participation in subjects previously exclusive to men has had. With this progressing into whether male and female are equal in their job roles and the amount of power this gives them to succeed further, giving the evolving public what they need.
The first chapter of this dissertation will examine whether wearing a uniform may be seen as a perception of having a hidden identity. It will explore the impact these uniforms have on the public, some of the reasons why this may be perceived and analyse how people can demonstrate their confidence or lack of through the practice of these garments with the definition it shares with the wearer.
It will also inspect the variety of this uniform used both recently and historically taking into consideration its production and design methods used to create these pieces with particular emphasis on mass production which may not have been used in earlier years when sewing machines hadn’t yet been invented, primarily reducing manufacture time. The link between the military look as a fashion trend and its technicality demonstrate a focus as to these garments becoming more desirable garments due to trend forecasting reasons rather than for its ability to allow civilisation to recognise these people as ones they can turn to for security.
The second chapter of this dissertation will look into the strong link between sex and identity within the army recruitment process. With highlighting the history of the approach to this procedure, from its traditional beginnings to how these types of job roles have had to evolve, in order to both maintain equal rights as well as to continue to expand this profession, fundamentally advantaging the world’s population. This will further look at the evolution of women’s uniforms and their increasing participation in areas of activities previously limited to men. Considering the changes the production industry has incurred over the years, with mass production and changing technology allowing uniform to become a quick way of these well sought after people to maintain an equal level of respect. Looking at some of the variations of these uniforms across the different industries and exploring factors of this, including benefits in the forever evolving world of today
It will discuss the impact the recruitment process as a whole has had on its bulk recruitment with how they have adapted to engage all potential workers, further exploring how this has aided more capabilities and advantages within these crucial fields. Some of these including; fire fighters, police officers, emergency services, paramilitary organisations and security guards as well as army based job roles. Each of these aimed to reduce negative subjects such as crime within the world and questioning whether equal recruitment of both sexes is at its fairest and how this industry is one that is ripe for further development due to the aforementioned factors.
The third chapter of this dissertation will address some of the reasons the choice of enforcing a uniform may have been and its effects as well as indicating how the change to the status of women has been reflected through the use of clothing.
This will further provide the reader with an insight on why this particular cut has been chosen to be the uniform across many industries. It will aim to show the impact of these garments, such as the representation and authority of these organisations and the garments it shares, introducing its major platforms.
Investigating some of the reasons why society may insist on the younger generation dressing in such a way as to not express their own individuality when not in uniform. Focusing on the theme of the cut of these uniformed garments and the confidence it is able to give to its wearer, through a particular emphasis on different ranks of both genders through many of these industries.
The fourth chapter of this dissertation will examine the effects compulsory uniform has on a person’s identity in looking at some of the numerous factors concerning this. Some of these including the reasons behind these job roles being seen as more male dominated, through the angular cut of the garments being identified, the fabrics regarding this, e.g. softer fabrics not being incorporated which may be more concerned within female influence and with the additional idea of scrubs which hospitalised environments may use which focus on these male liberated choices.
Further investigating why in people having self-doubt in their selves, the reasons in which a uniform can help to hide this and how this has given better access to these industries in identifying these individuals as ones who have a huge impact on the world, with ideas on some of the reasons this may occur.
Continuing the development into how self-confidence can be seen as overly confident, or as equally self-confident to people. This can be demonstrated through the ways in which people may hide their true identity and exploring how these factors are also affected by the continuing development of this uniform and its advances.
The fifth chapter and final chapter of this dissertation will consider how these uniforms demonstrate a feeling of comfort and confidence towards the wearer from an alternative perspective. Focusing on how the cut of these garments, being quite a masculine one could be a main factor towards females feeling less confident than a male might as well as introducing why the public might feel safer around somebody in a uniform. Through the examination of economics, in looking at the variations of this uniform through the years and how this has had an impact on the continuing development of these garments, the power it gives us and the technology used to produce this are all factors this subject will discover. With the fluidity of school uniform being introduced and exploration into whether this is cut to fit both sexes and the reasons in which this may have been presented.
The aim of this dissertation is therefore to establish how the cut of uniformed garments have evolved compared to that of the past, and how these can have an effect on the people wearing them, adapting the population’s views on engaging with them.
In order to achieve this, the objectives will be to:
•Evaluate how these differentiated consumers within such a job role feel and any affects it has had on their current lifestyle
•Access the current views on how confidence can be a factor through the use of these garments, especially the cut
•Explore how the use of uniform has adapted to be able to engage more females, expanding both equality in the work place and increasing authority for the public’s safety and security
•Analyse the extent which these uniforms utilise power to its consumer and evaluate the potential benefits and drawbacks this may result in
•To identity whether the cut of these garments has been exploited to the best of its potential and if it should be a significant part of the public’s engagement with people within these industries

Running a fashion shop

Running a fashion shop

Introduction

I worked for five weeks at Deploy demi-couture, a women’s clothes shop and company in London, for my industry placement. For the first three weeks I worked in the company’s shop learning skills required for running a successful fashion shop. This included smaller details like good customer service, organising displays and social media management, and larger aspects like how the shop and company is run. The final two weeks were spent working more in the studio helping a designer to cut patterns and repair damaged clothes, which gave me an insight into the design and production processes. The report will analyse my learning experience on personal and professional levels, showing it can be used in the future and how I can improve, as well as the company, its structure and operating processes.

The company and its brand philosophy

Deploy is a small London based company with a single full functioning shop in London that also sells online internationally to countries including the United States and Taiwan. The company Seamsystemic Ltd., trading as Deploy, was founded in 2005 by Bernice Pan and Eleanor Yeh. Bernice has experience in education and fashion and Eleanor has background in finance and international markets. There are two shops, one is Deploy Boutique in Marleybone where I worked and Deploy Atelier in the City of London, which only can be used by appointment. Tosin Trim a member of the management team is a specialist of bridal and accessories and created Hennumi, a line of bridal accessories under Deploy, with Bernice, and Deploy Choreograph Bridal and Bespoke service (Deploy, 2014).

Deploy makes clothes that are haute couture and highly sustainable. They are fine tailored and aimed at modern feminine women. Haute couture is a style from France and was popular in the interwar years in Belgium and France. French couture closely guarded its designs, models and prototypes. Belgian bourgeoisie thought it showed good taste, prestige and luxury (Blaszczyk, 2008, p. 63). This quality can be seen in Deploy’s design processes, products and prices. Clothes are produced by skilled staff, designed in-house and are sold at premium prices. At the same time it is better for the environment and more sustainable by being less wasteful (Deploy, 2014). This kind of style and philosophy means products are more highly priced because they are high quality, specifically designed and ethical which some customers are happy to pay more money for. Environmental awareness has increased in recent years and will keep growing, and it is affecting people's shopping habits. The shop’s competition will be other small independent high quality clothes shops as well as high priced chain brands, and not really high street shops. Their customers will be young adult to middle aged women who have high salary and care a lot about their style. They will feel the quality of their clothes shows something of their personality and success in work and life. They will also like that Deploy is a unique brand clothes shop and not a chain, so they will stand out from others.

Deploy has a management team ran by Bernice Pan and Eleanor Yeh mentioned. In addition there is Tosin Trim who specialises in bridal accessories and is in charge of Hennumi and Deploy Choreograph Bridal and Bespoke Service. There is also Claudia Simms who has lots of experience in marketing and sales for big companies and will help expand Deploy with this. Also Ermelinda Shuka is in charge of business admin (Deploy, 2014). The manager team is not very big but because it is a small company, the ration of manager to staff is bigger. Most managers have lots of previous experience which should help the company grow faster than if they only learned when working there. I found that staff at Deploy have their own responsibilities which is good because they can focus on certain aspects they know most about. Also, many of the staff are part time workers. This is useful because they are more flexible.

Supply chain

The company is small so they don’t have a large scale supply chain. However, production and sales take place across the world. From the beginning, samples and patterns are made in-house. This adds to the shop’s position as one for unique clothing. It also helps protect the designs from being copied before they are sold which shows its haute couture heritage. After this, most production of clothes happens in London and Poland, and some eveningwear is made by a small designer sewing unit in Taiwan. Production in London and Poland will help make sure quality is kept high and also the method is more environmentally friendly because of less transport distance as the brand philosophy requires. Production in Taiwan is specialist because of the designer sewing unit and only some of the clothes are made there, keeping down environmental impact. Many fabrics used in the production process are supplied from the UK, for example Harris Tweed. This again reduces environmental impact. Some fabrics although are sourced from Europe and some silks from Taiwan. Links between the owners and Taiwan are clear from production, fabrics sourcing and selling. The personal contacts may help reduce costs and help in competition as other shops will not have them for their quality and costs. The high quality and high price materials used are common in haute couture clothes and associate with wealth and high standards which suits the style of the company.

For sales, Deploy is supported by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), a government organisation helping businesses export to foreign countries. Through this Deploy has been helped to sell to countries including Japan. Deploy also attends trade shows and uses agents to get international buyers in countries such as Japan and United States. It can be seen that Deploy, although just a small shop, does not only look at selling in its shop in London. It also wants to increase international sales. This is good for business because it increases sales without increasing many costs such as more shop rent and storing stock. As international selling is more common these days, the costs of sending products abroad is lower. It also means competitor shops and companies will also be doing the same and so is essential to compete with them. For the future, it helps support growth of the company because the clothes and brand image spread around the world, helping find and prepare markets in other countries than can be targeted more specifically. If I own my own jewellery shop in the future I will make online shopping at least as big as in the shop. Costs are lower and the potential customers more. The profits would help run my shop. Also, I would use services as UKTI and agents to help find customers abroad and help export products in big amounts.

I learned from how even the one shop gets orders from other areas like Taiwan and America. I got some ideas about this that I can use in my own business in the future. It taught me how to observe customers trends, choose what kinds of customers and how to satisfy customers’ needs. I learned how to do research and use Photoshop to make pictures nicer to attract more people. I can use these skills in my own business to make a good website to sell and target audiences to find who would like to buy my products.

Because designs and samples are made in-house, it is good for the company’s uniqueness. They can control their own themes and styles without looking like others or being copied easily by others, at least until after production. It also adds to the uniqueness of the clothes which customers will like. Also, staff are skilled in design so know how to make and change the clothes unlike in most high street shops. This means a higher standard of service and knowledge. Customers will feel they are buying the service as well as the clothes, which justifies the premium price more.

Personal responsibility and learning

While working in the shop I took on the responsibilities for assisting customers, managing the shop layout and displays, and helping promote the shop and its products online through social media. I would have to open the shop and organise the clothing displays according to colour and style. Although the task appears simple, the importance is in organising the clothes in a way that shows them in their best way and makes them appealing to the customer. Therefore, I arranged them into colour groups and styles that were complementary. Although this does not alter the look of the individual items, the display as a whole is better looking and more likely to attract customers. The style of the display also affects the brand image of the clothes and the shop as a whole. A tidier display that appears to itself have been designed and is not cluttered gives the impression of a brand and products that are displayed this way because they are also designed with care and not mass produced, but more selective and unique. Shops with high value clothes almost always pay close attention to the way their products are displayed, with some shops having their own well-known display styles. An analysis of Hollister shops can be applied to the practice, as it aims at 'transporting consumers... to somewhere else entirely' (Murrell, 2012). This boosts the brand image of the clothes and supports the customers’ belief they are buying a high quality product.

This skill was further used when I had to assist in changing the shop’s entire window display. Once again the selection of clothes and how they appeared to customers had to convey an image to people walking past that would match the brand philosophy and encourage them to come into the shop. I think I worked well at organising displays, keeping them looking appealing. However, I could learn more about ways certain types of clothes can be arranged and even further learning about lighting and customer psychology related to the appearance of clothing displays. On my last day I put skills I learned into practice. Deploy had a stall at a market which I set up displaying dresses and hats in a way to show they positively and attract customers. The display was well made and attracted attention from people walking past.

When customers bought clothes online I would have to pack them and send them to be posted. Despite having customers around the world, clearly the company is still small enough to not need a larger packing and delivery section of its supply chain. This gave me an insight into the simplicity of international shopping. Also, in support of this online selling I worked on the shop’s social media management. This involved contacting other companies to inform them of new products and collections. Most significantly I created an Instagram account for the shop, took photos of products and posted them on the website. This was important for a number of reasons. Potential customers are likely to be regular users of social media, smart phones and tablets. The use of Instagram would therefore allow the company promote its products directly to customers and encourage them towards the website or even the shop. Second, the appearance of products is one of the strongest influences on a potential customer and so an image focused social media network can allow the company to spread images of its products easily, allowing potential customers to see the products before they even visit the website or the shop, encouraging them to do so. Finally, using Instagram is essentially free but has the potential to spread images widely and, when correctly tagged, to a specific audience of women interested in fashion who are most likely to buy from the shop. The potential then for an increase in sales for no costs is significant, particularly when compared to traditional marketing and advertising campaigns.

I was surprised then at the shop’s lack of an Instagram account. Perhaps if they continue to utilise such free social media tools they can boost online sales which in turn would lead to the need for a more efficient process of dispatching products. For example, their Facebook page on has over 200 fans, it is not a lot. Getting fans on social media will help keep customers interested in products by keeping them aware of the shop. This will mean there are more repeat purchases which companies depend on (Easey, 2008, p. 5).

For experience in clothes production I help cutting designs and learned about making hats. This was useful to know more about the production part of the supply chain. Being a small shop with clothes of its own design, the design studio aspect is still very important rather than being mostly mass produced machine made products. Because of this, the company requires skilled designers and clothes makers who may have a lot of experience and skill. Although this may not be the most efficient method of production, it allows for high quality and well-designed products. This also contributes to the brand image as customers know they are buying unique clothes created with a deep level of thought and attention to detail by people will a great knowledge of style, which helps justify a higher price. I could apply such a model to a jewellery business in the future, focusing on high quality hand produced and uniquely designed products that be sold at a higher price. Customers will not only be buying the physical product but also the effort put into the design and uniqueness. However, with jewellery it may be easier to create a more efficient production process, through the use of machinery, compared to Deploy Workshop. But on the other hand, many customers may prefer the ‘hand-made’ aspect of jewellery so there are pros and cons to both options.

I too worked on the logistics of the shop. I recorded new products information like size, colour and material. I made these into a spreadsheet. For bigger shops this is probably to be done automatically with scanners. Because the shop is smaller, it is done by person which takes more time but is cheaper. This part of the work is still important to learn. Even though I am interested in jewellery and fashion, a shop would not work well without these things being done properly.

Conclusion

My time at Deploy demi-couture was very useful learning experience and will help me in my business in the future. I learned the important parts of running a shop, organising a business and promoting it online. The useful parts of running a shop are making high quality unique products which are more competitive because there are few like it. Also if they are high quality they can be sold at higher price which can mean more profit. Aiming these unique products at a specific audience will help increase sales rather than making a general product for a general audience. High skill is needed to make this kind of product so I would need to be skilled myself and hire people who are also skilled. Deploy examples this by hiring skilled designers to work in their company, skilled dress makers in Taiwan, Poland and London and skilled managers with lots of experience in the management team. This mix of skills means there is a good mix of strengths in the company and it can succeed in all areas. In the future I too would try to hire people like this. Social media and online selling is another important technique in the business. It helps reach a bigger market around the world, more important as people in more and more countries have more money to spend on expensive clothes like this and are interested in quality fashion. I learned about social media marketing and helped improve that for Deploy by creating their Instagram account. However, I think they need to improve their social media. They only have a few followers. Social media is used by people of all backgrounds, countries and wealth and is a good way in which trends spread and people find out about what they like. It also keeps customers coming back. For my future business I would use it to find my target audience and show them my products to encourage them to buy. Finally I learned about displaying clothes and organising a shop. The appearance is more than tidiness, it shows the philosophy of the company. Also it is not only about the shop but useful for online selling too. Overall, I experienced lots of aspects of business when working at Deploy, seeing how they work well and how they can improve. I also learned a lot about myself and what I need to do in the future for my own business.

Blaszczyk, R. L. (2008) Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers. Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Press.

Deploy. 2014. “About”, (accessed 10/06/14) <http://deployworkshop.com/pages/about-us>.

Easey, M. (2008) Fashion Marketing. 3rd ed. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Murrell, A. (2012) "Analysis of the Hollister in-store experience", Daily Slandered (accessed, 17/06/14) <http://www.dailyslandered.com/2012/05/analysis-of-the-hollister-in-store-experience/> .