FASHIONING VALUE—UNDRESSING ORNAMENT

A Critical Study of Fashion as a System of Value Production through the Paradigmatic Changes of Ornament

Femke de Vries

In this slender little manifesto on the role of ornament in contemporary fashion, Dutch designer/artist and researcher Femke de Vries presents fresh insights into how fashion functions in today’s experience economy. Several thought-provoking essays employ a wide range of sources from Adolf Loos to Michel de Certeau, mapping its process, symbolic value, branding and narratives. Concluding essays “Ornamenting the Inner Instead of the Outer Self,” “Fashioning the Mind” and “Clothes as Souvenirs” show how fashion ornament escapes commercial inten- tion and opens up its symbolic potential. Compelling images, including a photograph of a Danish coat store draped with thousands of overcoats, inter- leave the text to great effect. In addition to her publications, Femke’s research-led practice in fashion includes discursive educational projects exploring the social-, economic- and design-related effects of fashion as value-production system. Fully footnoted, with bibliography.

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