- Ph.D. Dissertation on Trend Mechanisms in Fashion
Trends are not going out of fashion even though they have repeatedly been declared a thing of the past – they mutate and emerge in a chaotic network of meanings, functions and change. In a Ph.D. dissertation from The Danish Design School Maria Mackinney-Valentin explores the trend mechanisms in fashion and develops a new framework of understanding for trends in the 21st century.
By Irene Houstrup
Why do trends survive when their impending demise has been predicted time and again? And are trends finally disappearing in the 21st century as a result of the increased turnover rate in fashion trends, or do they live on as new mutations?
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| On 7 June 2010, Maria Mackinney-Valentin successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation On the Nature of Trends. A Study of Trend Mechanisms in Contemporary Fashion at The Danish Design School. In her dissertation she studies how and why fashion trends change, and whether there have been any changes in trend mechanisms in the 21st century. Photo: The Danish Design School/Jeppe Sophus Lai |
Maria Mackinney-Valentin opens her Ph.D. dissertation and its defence with these essential questions. In her dissertation, On the Nature of Trends. A Study of Trend Mechanisms in Contemporary Fashion, she studies how and why fashion trends change, and whether trend mechanisms are affected by the increasing decentralisation and democratisation in fashion, which she ascribes to globalisation and digitisation, among other things.
We Use Trends to Understand Society
“Trends can be seen as a concrete expression of the spirit of the times. We use trends to communicate and send signals to each other and to understand society. Most phenomena are affected by trends – from pets to cooking – but in my research I have chosen to focus on fashion, because trend mechanisms with regard to both production and application are so visible here, especially in relation to social, cultural and economic factors. In fashion, there is an entire industry that is based on changing trends,” says Maria Mackinney-Valentin.
According to Maria Mackinney-Valentin we still use our clothes to express what social groups or communities we belong to, to buy an experience, for seduction and, perhaps, to reflect an anarchy of taste.
Social Mechanisms and Zeitgeist
In her dissertation Maria Mackinney-Valentin maps existing trend theory and brings it together in a tool box with five so-called trend positions, which she applies to a case study: the retro trend as it appeared in the Danish fashion magazine Eurowoman in the beginning of the 21st century, more specifically from 2000 to 2009.
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| In her dissertation Maria Mackinney-Valentin analyses the retro-trend as it appeared in the Danish fashion magazine Eurowoman in the first decade of the 21st century. The photo is from the fashion article Legedage (Play Days). Photo: Eurowoman No. 107, page 81. Photographer: Sigurd Grünberger |
Based on two centuries of trend theories Maria Mackinney-Valentin categorises five trend positions: Social Mechanism, Neomania, Market, Seduction and Zeitgeist. Despite their differences in origin, these positions have certain fundamental features in common, especially with regard to the nature of trends as based on contrasts – hot vs. not, new vs. old, right vs. wrong, beautiful vs. ugly. Furthermore, Maria Mackinney-Valentin also sees an implicit assumption in all five trend positions that trends begin and end and take a linear course over time.
”In my study of the retro-trend, for example in relation to second-hand clothes, it is difficult to maintain the perception of contrasts that existing trend theories are often based on. Similarly, there are major challenges to the notion of trends beginning and ending in relation to certain points and the overall time aspect,” she says.
The Rhizome
Thus, Maria Mackinney-Valentin defines a number of challenges to the analytical effort and subsequently develops a sixth trend position to handle these challenges and to update and develop the tool box. The sixth position is inspired by the rhizome, a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari based on a botanical term. A rhizome is a type of root system that spreads horizontally, without a structuring centre or a fixed origin. Examples include ground elder and certain ferns.
”With the rhizome as the sixth position – which can also be said to describe the fundamental premise for our understanding of the basic condition for trend positions in general – we can see trends in the 21st century as constant and organic process where the underlying root system remains intact, while new shoots keep emerging and dying. The root system is constantly developing, spreading in new directions and forming new connections,” she says.
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| In her Ph.D. dissertation Maria Mackinney-Valentin develops a sixth position for understanding trend mechanisms. This position draws inspiration from the rhizome, a botanical phenomenon that was developed into a philosophical concept by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. A rhizome is a particular type of root system that spreads horizontally without an organising centre or a fixed point of origin. Examples include ground elder and certain types of ferns. The rhizomatic position lets us view trend mechanisms as an organic dynamic that develops relatively slowly rather than an endless series of revolutions taking place over time at an ever increasing rate. Illustration: Kristina May |
The primary potential of the rhizomatic position as described in the dissertation is to foster an understanding of trend mechanisms as an organic dynamic that develops relatively slowly with regard to dimensions, variation, expansion, conquest and off-shoots rather than endless revolutions over time at an ever increasing rate.
Trends Mutate
The rhizomatic view enables a spatial approach to trends rather than the time-line approach that has trends moving from a beginning toward an end point.
”The spatial approach suggests that trends don’t move as rapidly as the discourse on trends generally indicates. In fact, during the decade that I studied we don’t actually see any major revolutions, but the trends that were present at the beginning of the period keep mutating throughout the period, thus remaining recognisable despite the changes. Thus, the retro-trend at the beginning of the 21st century can be viewed as an organic underground system that keeps sending up new shoots, while others die off, and the network – the rhizome – continues to exist, always without an actual centre,” she says.
Commercial Potential
According to Maria Mackinney-Valentin, the purpose of the dissertation was both to help consolidate and develop trend studies as an independent field of research and to contribute to a greater understanding of trend mechanisms in our society.
”This may give companies new tools for understanding how consumers think. And for design students it can be highly valuable to understand the premises that they will eventually be working under,” she says.
Now that she has completed this theoretically based dissertation Maria Mackinney-Valentin continues in her position as a teacher at The Danish Design School, and in the long term she hopes to be able to continue to study trend mechanisms and to do a large-scale empirical study within her field of research. Furthermore, she is working to disseminate knowledge about the commercial potentials of the trend perception laid out in her dissertation:
”Based on the analysis and the conclusions in my dissertation I give lectures and workshops for companies and media about the understanding of trend mechanisms in society. As I see it, trends are not going out of fashion; they mutate and live on in new versions,” says Maria Mackinney-Valentin.
On Monday, 7 June at The Danish Design School Maria Mackinney-Valentin successfully defended her dissertation On the Nature of Trends. A Study of Trend Mechanisms in Contemporary Fashion. Evaluation committee
Supervisors
Link to RE-AD profile and to researcher profile at dcdr.dk. |
Mind Design #30, 2010
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