The economics of fashion and hybrid creative products

Download or read book The economics of fashion and hybrid creative products written by Enrico Cietta and published by Enrico Cietta. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many scholars think that fashion is closer to the brink of disaster: too fast, too polluting, poorly focused on creativity and on the market, too cheap for the consumer and little profitable for small- and medium-sized companies, too unpredictable and subjective to be treated like the other industry sectors, too tangible to be regarded as a cultural product and too intangible to be considered a manufacturing product. Then, is fashion going to collapse? This book suggests another perspective and explains the economic theory of hybrid creative products, focusing on the reasons underlying that sense of an "abyss at the end of the tunnel." It rejects alarmism and tries to explain the structural changes taking place within the industry as well as the current meaning of fashion for the consumers and the market. These changes are directly associated with three crucial elements for the fashion business: time, risk, and costs. Therefore, creativity is still important, but is no longer sufficient. Commercial success largely depends on the business model of the company, i.e. on its ability to react to these changes. Fast fashion, sustainable fashion, the "see now - buy now" runaway shows, the deplorable use of child or underpaid labour can be explained in the light of this new scenario. Few economists have tried to find a new interpretation, but the theory of hybrid creative products can help us understand what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.