Fashion, Media, Promotion

In Fashion, Media, Promotion: the new black magic Fashion is linked to its communication networks - involving the reader in the process of selling Fashion in the global marketplace. Fashion's ingenuity in adapting to new means of promotion for digital and print media, websites, advertising, cinema, music and television, is celebrated.

• Hollywood's role in shaping Fashion's influence is assessed through Audrey Hepburn's persuasive iconography and the impact of the most watched movie of the 20th century: Gone with the Wind.
• Exceptional designers Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Rei Kawakubo, Mary Quant, Elsa Schiaparelli, Vivienne Westwood are considered, together with extraordinary innovators Paul Smith, Vidal Sassoon, Lynne Franks.
• Roland Barthes' Fashion System and Mythologies are viewed as cultural and promotional texts, with revealing insights into the technologies which bring Fashion to mass audiences.
• Marketing and branding successes are reviewed and Fashion's continuing narrative is illustrated with luminous colour images.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii

DEDICATION ix

INTRODUCTION Fashion, Media, Promotion: The new black magic 1

CHAPTER ONE Scarlett O'Hara and the post-bellum New Look 31

CHAPTER TWO Audrey Hepburn and breakfast at Givenchy's 69

CHAPTER THREE Vivienne Westwood and Anglomania at the Met 105

CHAPTER FOUR Mary Quant and the JCPenney blockbuster 143

CHAPTER FIVE Paul Smith and the global shopping game 189

CONCLUSION Roland Barthes and the compassionate professionals 227

BIBLIOGRAPHY 243

INDEX 247

"... deconstructs the fashion industry by looking at empire buildings, exploring fashion journalism and examining the way fashion adapts to and employs new media." (Metro, November 2011) Jayne Sheridan is a writer who teaches Fashion Communication at Huddersfield University. She studied with the cultural critic Antony Easthope at Manchester Metropolitan University, and has taught Media, Film, Journalism and Public Relations at Liverpool John Moores and Huddersfield Universities. As a Press and PR advisor she has been associated with Sotheby’s, Saatchi’s, Weber Shandwick, Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Glastonbury Abbey, the BBC, Wolff Olins, Christie’s, Agnews, and Dean Clough galleries. An extensively researched book which demystifies its fascinating and intriguing subject matter for the contemporary reader. Jayne Sheridan has gathered evidence and personal insights to explore the myths which continue to make Fashion today so compelling; placing its key movers and shakers within their full cultural context.
— Martin Dawber, Principal Lecturer in Fashion Communication, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

This is an alchemical process laid bare. Jayne Sheridan delineates with brilliance and humor the ways Fashion utilizes technology to build on the “shifts and revolutions brought about by the gifted and the determined." An exquisite investigation.
—Sharon Mesmer, Humanities Division, New School, New York City, USA

In Fashion, Media, Promotion: the new black magic Fashion is linked to its communication networks - involving the reader in the process of selling Fashion in the global marketplace. Fashion’s ingenuity in adapting to new means of promotion for digital and print media, websites, advertising, cinema, music and television, is celebrated.

• Hollywood’s role in shaping Fashion’s influence is assessed through Audrey Hepburn’s persuasive iconography and the impact of the most watched movie of the 20^th century: Gone with the Wind.
• Exceptional designers Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Rei Kawakubo, Mary Quant, Elsa Schiaparelli, Vivienne Westwood are considered, together with extraordinary innovators Paul Smith, Vidal Sassoon, Lynne Franks.
• Roland Barthes’ Fashion System and Mythologies are viewed as cultural and promotional texts, with revealing insights into the technologies which bring Fashion to mass audiences.
• Marketing and branding successes are reviewed and Fashion’s continuing narrative is illustrated with luminous colour images.

"An extensively researched book which demystifies its fascinating and intriguing subject matter for the contemporary reader. Jayne Sheridan has gathered evidence and personal insights to explore the myths which continue to make Fashion today so compelling; placing its key movers and shakers within their full cultural context."
Martin Dawber, Principal Lecturer in Fashion Communication, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

"This is an alchemical process laid bare. Jayne Sheridan delineates with brilliance and humor the ways Fashion utilizes technology to build on the 'shifts and revolutions brought about by the gifted and the determined.' An exquisite investigation."
Sharon Mesmer, Humanities Division, New School, New York City, USA