Denim is a fashion statement that has withstood the test to time. The fashionable contemporary man or women will have section of their closet devoted to denim. This includes not only pants that are traditional denim products but also bags, hats, jackets and other accessories. These additional items represent the newest to market in the denim world. Everyone wants to feel good in their clothes and the wearing of denim can be as comfortable as a Saturday relaxing day to a night on the town by just adding jeans to the bling that you are wearing to a night on the town.
Fashion is an important way to set an individual's style. Companies such as Urban Outfitters specialize in clothing for the rugged man or woman. As a brand Urban Outfitters promotes a style of the yuppie or urban professional who wants to look good in their clothes. One of the designers for Urban Outfitters is a mother and daughter duo Joan and Emily Sugihara of San Francisco . They are both entrepreneurs in their own rights and are designing in an environmental vertical. This is a relatively new niche for the designers.
Several factors contribute to the evolution of fashion as a whole. Trends are established as individuals feel good about the look in the clothes that are fun and trendy. One of these looks is the LA based label 69. The label 69 look includes the plus sizes which are a contemporary innovation. In the fashion show for the new fall 2016 line the models are wore masks. Concealing their identity helped the models to feel completely free of inhibitions and was happy to perform more like a dance routine rather than a stoic fashion show. The denim was used in high waist pleated trousers and Cousin It style fringed denim dresses. The label has as its identification a large label tote in denim .
Claudia Li is a label of denim contemporary fashion and the designer Claudia Li likes the minimal look in denim. Her take n denim is the more lightweight fabrics including an adaptation of the shirtdress. Her source of denim is chosen from the Italian producers and her most famous design in it is the trench coat . Add to the list is the denim jean jacket and the bold Victorian sleeves that she uses are show stopping to say the least.
Figure 1 Claudia Li
Another contemporary denim designer is Katie Green, who launched Keji, as a brand new line of denim to include accessories. To her "Denim has really been pigeonholed as the stretch skinny jean" and has incorporated this philosophy into her contemporary denim line. Since she is a Japanese designer, the Hong Kong showing was inspirational for her. During the show she prepared a set of clothing to take denim back to the 1800s work wear and then to the World War II era of Claire McCardell . This look was merged with the denim in the contemporary time for a collection of Japanese denim.
Figure 2 A new generation of designers
Katie Green added more traditional A-line dresses and round shoulder jackets to her collection. In the use of denim, Green wanted a precise niche and she said "It was a really interested in challenge to see how far I could push the fabric and take it back to where it was before it became this ubiquitous thing".
Denim is a fabric that has turned into the quintessential material throughout time. Denim never goes out of style and it is popular with young and old alike. The recyclable use of denim attests to its longevity often longer that its owner . Fashion not only is a commentary on the individual but also on the society of the time. The evolution of the fashion using denim dates back about one hundred years and has outlasted many political and social institutions. At one time denim was just used for work and has developed into the stylish nightclub wear of today.
The global marketplace for denim is stretched as the price of the material has gone up substantially. As far as jeans for work or sports the fashion has been replaced by the cheaper athletic wear made form stretchy material or a new wearable fashion. These synthetic fibers have lowered the cost of the mass marketed jeans. The cheaper jeans are made of cotton rather than totally of denim . Supplies of denim have been producing the more expensive line and the lower lines are more other materials than denim. These synthetic fabrics were cheap enough to allow for accessories, dresses, and other non traditional items made from the bastardized denim. As a consumer product denim is a versatile investment and a sold statement on the economy of fashion. As far as the global marketplace for denim production, China is the leading supplier of the denim accessories and staples. Over 110 million units of denim garments were shipped from China .
Competition from the Chinese manufacturers though is coming from the low cost nations of Africa, Pakistan, and Cambodia. These countries form a significant shift of resources from China to the developing countries and offer better prices in both raw materials and finished goods .
In terms of contemporary fashion designers there are only handfuls that use denim as their fabric of choice. Two of those designers were discussed earlier as they are probably the trendiest of the contemporary designers. Bloggers and social media help the contemporary fashion consumer to recognize the designer that produce the accessories and fashions that y consumer feels most comfortable in. The contemporary labels allow you to pick an arsenal of design from a favorite designer with no problem at all. The contemporary lines are every day in construction as the contemporary industry does not cater to the haute couture set. Although not the cheaper mass produced items like the big box stores carry, the contemporary fashion is aesthetic and well crafted.
The growth of the denim industry is remarkable in the world of fashion. Contemporary fashion is almost always complete ensemble if you just add jeans. Jeans are worn with tunics and sweaters to accompany the well dressed contemporary fashion from work to supper and the night life. Athletic wear and jeans for outside work have probably been replaced by synthetic substitutes the place for denim in the marketplace is still strong. Accessories including bags, coats, and other accessories are highly desired fashion item in denim.
The trench coat is a good example of the accessories that the denim is used for in contemporary fashion to support the wide range and versatility of the fabric. The beauty of the lines and sophistication of the coat is an apparent misuse of the traditional jean jacket that man had in the 1990's but the coat is absolutely a good example of the contemporary fashion being able to use an old technique and reproduce it in a modern perspective.
References
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Antoshak, r. (2014). The Global Market for Denim. AGOA, [online] http://agoa.info/news/article/5537-the-global-market-for-denim-challenges-and-opportunities.html. Accessed Feb 2016.
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Cohn, A. (2015, April 25). Fashion trends. Elle, pp. [online] http://www.elle.com/fashion/trend-reports/news/a28006/injeanuity/. Accessed Feb 2016.
Li, C. (2016, Jan 5). Claudia Li. Retrieved from claudia Li: http://www.claudia-li.com/. Accessed Feb 2016
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Outfitters, U. (2016, Feb 28). Shop. Retrieved from Urban Outfitters: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/index.jsp.
Satenstein, L. (2016, January 7). Things Got Weird in Good Way at the 69's Fall Presentation. Vogue, pp. [online] http://www.vogue.com/13402441/69-fall-2016-presentation-news-new-york-fashion-week/. Accessed Feb 2016.
