The National Fabric

Abstract

British fashion is characterized by oppositions: punk versus pageantry, anarchy versus monarchy, Cool Britannia versus Rule Britannia. Why has British fashion come to be so contradictory? How are these contradictions employed to ‘sell British’? What do they mean for consumers who ‘buy British’? Through an examination of iconic fashion companies Paul Smith and Mulberry, The National Fabric provides telling insights into the culture of contemporary fashion and the dilemmas of ‘going global’. Goodrum argues that ‘Britishness‘ is characterized less through a particular look than through its ambiguities. She shows how the apparently straightforward and economically-driven process of globalizing British fashion is, in fact, far more culturally nuanced and locally embedded than has previously been suggested. In examining the interplay between fashion and Britishness, Goodrum redresses a longstanding omission in fashion theory, which has been preoccupied with class, gender and race rather than with national identity.

Catwalking the Nation: Challenges and Possibilities in the Case of the Danish Fashion Industry

“…As Skov further stresses, it has proven creatively productive to international fashion designers such as Alexander van Slobbe of the Netherlands, who adopted the notion of abstraction from Flemish art and crafts into his then Dutch-informed fashion design (Skov 2011). Fashion researcher Alison Goodrum's study of British fashion is also relevant, showing how fashion brands like Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith and Mulberry, each with their own image of Britishness, use their cultural heritage productively to stimulate creativity, make critical comments on nationality (particular in the case of Vivienne Westwood) and consequently produce cultural distinctiveness (Goodrum 2005).…”

“…In order to increase market share and sales figures in a highly competitive international market, the articulation of cultural distinctiveness has become a pivotal business strategy for many fashion brands and local fashion industries (e.g. Skov 2003, Palmer 2004Brand & Teunissen 2005;Goodrum 2005;Skov & Melchior 2011). The Danish fashion industry is no exception, exemplifying the complexity of and challenges to this strategy.…”