Three individuals representing different backgrounds in the world of fashion shared their perceptions of the nature of luxury and the reasons for changes in fashion in a research café hosted by the Danish Centre for Design Research during the Festival of Research. The audience asked questions, and the debate touched upon the topics of sex, social responsibility, production and technology, before the evening ended with a fashion show featuring designs by future fashion designers.

By Anna Krarup Jensen

Gert Balling, who is the chairman of Foreningen Videnskabscaféen (The Research Café Association), introduced the DCDR’s research café on fashion during the Research Festival on 25 April 2008. As the champagne was poured, he invited an inquisitive dialogue between the audience and the three experts on the panel. This marked the opening of a pleasant evening with an interesting dialogue about the temptations, whims and future of luxury fashion, concluded by a fashion show.

Seduction is an essential ingredient in the whims of fashion. This was a point where the panellists in the Research Café agreed. Left to right: Anne Knudsen, Peter Ingwersen and Erik Hansen-Hansen. Photo: Christoffer Regild

Design researcher Erik Hansen-Hansen, assistant professor of research at The Danish Design School, was one of the experts on the research café panel. He recently took his Ph.D. with a dissertation on global luxury fashion, and in addition he works as a fashion photographer. Also on the panel was Director Peter Ingwersen, who in 2004 founded the fashion brand Noir, which is known, among other things, for its focus on sustainability. The third panel member was Editor-in-Chief Anne Knudsen from the daily newspaper Weekendavisen. She has a degree in anthropology and an interest in fashion and is an active contributor to the ongoing debate in society.

Despite their different backgrounds, the panellists agreed on a number of issues. For example, they believe that fashion is both about individual positioning and about group membership. Peter Ingwersen mentioned that tribal membership in certain tribal cultures is marked with a certain type of tattoos – a primitive form of fashion. Fashion exists because we need to belong and wish to do as others do. And it changes, in turn, because we also wish to differentiate, position ourselves, and stand out.

Varying and Sexy
Anne Knudsen thinks that the reason why fashion changes so quickly is that we get fed up with uniformity. She points out that most fashion trends quote from previous fashion phenomena use them in new ways. Today's 1950's fashion does not look the way it did in the 50's; it is a quote from the fashion of the time.
"It's just like poetry. Here, you also don't have to first invent the words, but you can use them in a new way that produces new meaning," she said.

Erik Hansen-Hansen distinguishes between different types of fashion and their variation. There is fashion variation in relation to cooking, names, philosophy etc. And there is what he calls fashion whims in relation to clothes.
"Here, the emphasis is on seduction and gender differences. That is what drives the whims of luxury fashion," he said. The other panellists nodded and agreed that clothes fashion is very much about sex.
"Fashion apparel exists to get us laid. We all have plenty of clothes in our closets to stay warm!" said Peter Ingwersen. The audience did not object.

Social responsibility is a major trend right now. The panellists debated the pros and cons of social responsibility. Photo: Christoffer Regild

Luxury, Imperialism or Buying Indulgences
Peter Ingwersen also notes that fashion adheres to certain megatrends. In the 1960's, fashion was affected by women's lib, and today social responsibility is the new megatrend. Even though the marketing of his own fashion brand Noir revolves around social responsibility, he sees this as the consumers' desire to buy indulgences – like Catholics buying indulgences to ensure access to Heaven. He also believes, however, that this trend too will change. 
"Right now, we consume goodness. But in a short while, we'll be tired of that, and then something very politically incorrect will hit the market and make it big," he said.

Erik Hansen-Hansen sees social responsibility as a two-headed beast. On the one hand, it does promote fair trade and, for example, reduces child labour. In that guise, social responsibility benefits mankind, he believes. But on the other hand, he also sees it as a form of protectionism from the West.
"It is a way of imbuing the products with symbolic value, so that we can compete with cheaper labour in other countries," he says.

To Anne Knudsen, a good conscience is related to luxury. Making the customers feel that they are treated well is what sets luxury apart from the mundane. She hopes that the good habits will spread from luxury fashion to mass consumption. Peter Ingwersen also hopes that luxury brands will act as models and inspire other fashion brands.

Small-Scale Production and Modern Technology
Erik Hansen-Hansen said that in the past 30 years, many small fashion workshops around Denmark have closed down, but as a result of the current emphasis on social responsibility, this link in production is beginning to re-emerge.
"Denmark is poorly positioned in comparison with, say, France and Italy, which have many small workshops and thus domestic access to all the steps of production. I believe that we will soon see fashion workshops re-emerge," he said, adding that these new workshops might combine a craft approach with robot technology.

Editor-in-Chief Anne Knudsen held out this boot, where the heel is a copy of Eames' chair leg from the 1940's, used for example in the Eames Lounge Ottoman. Photos: United Nude web site

Peter Ingwersen thinks that the fashion industry is far too conservative and reluctant to fully embrace technology. He finds inspiration in NASA and would like to see more high-tech fashion.
"For example, I could imagine a dress that changed colour with the wearer's mood," he mused.

That made Anne Knudsen take off one of her shoes and show it to the audience. The heel on this modern short boot slopes out, not straight down like a standard stiletto heel. The design of the heel copies Eames' chair leg from the 1940's. The heel construction would not be able to support a person's weight were it not for a carbon fibre reinforcement in the arch, so Anne Knudsen held it out as an example of fashion that is based on technological developments and new materials.

Function and user-driven approaches, which are so in vogue in design in general, are less prominent in fashion design, says Erik Hansen-Hansen.
"Luxury fashion is the contradiction of needs. Luxury is the place where needs end and excess begins," he said.

Closing Show
The evening ended with a catwalk show, loud music and a festive mood. On the catwalk, models presented beautiful, fun, alternative and provocative creations by design students and recent design graduates from The Danish Design School and Designskolen Kolding. A video of the fashion show is available here .

The Danish Centre for Design Research hosted a Research Café and fashion show on 25 April 2008 in connection with the Festival of Research. The theme of the Research Café was "What Drives Fashion?" The dialogue was moderated by Gert Balling, chairman of the Research Café Association. You can read more about the Research Café Association at www.vcaf.dk Panellists Erik Hansen-Hansen, assistant research professor at The Danish Design School Peter Ingwersen, director and founder of the fashion brand Noir Anne Knudsen, anthropologist and editor-in-chief at Weekendavisen In the subsequent fashion show five new designers presented their takes on fashion apparel. Participants from The Danish Design School: Liza Frederika Åslund and Louise Lundholm Participants from Designskolen Kolding: Vigdis Johnsen, Marie Nørgård Nielsen and Susanne Guldager

 

Mind Design #9, 2008