Bertola, Paola, and Jose Teunissen. “Fashion 4.0. Innovation Fashion Industry Through Digital Transformation.” Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp.352-369
Paola Bertola and Jose Teunissen show European fashion as a global industry that has grown over time to be a fashion trendsetter in the world. They explain how digital transformation and modern civilization have gone into the designing of clothes to produce modern international fashion (Bertola 354). They place Europe at the center of the global fashion industry, noting that most of the world’s famous fashion designers have their origin in Europe and even the few who are not European gained their skills there. The authors explain that after European designers moved away from making custom-fit dresses to designing clothes for both men and women, Europe has been viewed as the standard of modern fashion across the world. Technological advancements and the adoption of digitization by fashion brands have enabled them to sell European fashion dresses globally. People around the world perceive European dresses as luxurious, with branded dresses symbolizing wealth and power.
The article introduces a more modern view of the idea of cultural imperialism through European dresses, explaining its adoption across the world. However, they focus mainly on the creation of an industry, and there is little evidence in their article to show the cultural changes that result from the imperialism of European fashion or the cultural hybridity that European fashion went through.
This article supports Sandra Niessen’s work by explaining how European dresses have become the standard of modernity in the world by linking creative fashion with technology, finance, and business, to form an industry that incorporates players from around the world and increases social interactions through fashion shows. Bertola and Teunissen introduce a modern view of European fashion into the picture to show how the fashion industry has continued to be an example of cultural imperialism even in the modern world.
Gayathri, Madubhani Ranathunga. “Fashion Discourses: The Influence of East Dress on European Fashion.” International Research Journal, vol. 13, no. 3, 2020, pp. 101-114.
This paper analyzes the influence of the countries and cultures that are geographically located east of Europe, within the Arab and Mediterranean regions. Gayathri Madubhani, a senior lecturer at the University of Moratuwa, tries to analyze this influence by comparing dresses designed by European fashion designers inspired by eastern cultures and displayed in the world fashion museum. Gayathri reports that some of the most notable inspiration of the European fashion designer, Paul Poiret (1879 -1944), was the saree dresses from India. He incorporated the draping style of the saree into most of his dress’ designs (Gayathri 110). Another European designer Zandra Rhodes found inspiration from the places she visited, such as Africa, Thailand, China, and India (Gayathri 113). Her most notable design was inspired by Indian royals, had luxurious gold prints, and was made from silk.
Gayathri’s article is enriching as it introduces other cultures of the world and explains their influence on the style of European dress. By observing dresses presented in the world fashion museum, Gayathri was able to prove the effectiveness of other cultures beyond Europe, such as Africa, and illustrate their influence on European design. The article has proved that Europe has borrowed and incorporated other cultures into their fashion without losing their fashion sense, proving that the fashion of dresses is a good example of cultural hybridity.
Gayathri’s article provides evidence to support the idea in Charlotte Jirousek’s paper on the borrowing of the draping style into the Ottman’s empire’s traditional dresses during their interactions back in the twelfth century. It goes ahead to illustrate other fashion styles that were not originally found in the traditional European dresses, such as the kimono dress and the use of jewelry on dresses and describes how these styles found their way onto the European dress by explaining the designers’ inspiration.
Jirousek, Charlotte A. Ottoman Dress and Design in the West: A Visual History of Cultural Exchange. Indiana UP, 2019.
Charlotte Jirousek attempts to redesign European history by tracing the evolution of dress and clothing in the Ottoman empire, which is that part of Europe and Asia that was ruled by the Ottoman dynasty between 1300 to 1922. Before the tenth century, women in the Ottoman empire in Europe wore long tunics with veils that covered their heads. The tunics were laced to the body to achieve a relatively close fit. In the twelfth century, after the interactions between Europe and Asia, dresses became more relaxed, draping close to the body and made from soft fabrics (Jirousek 4). The Arab community borrowed the silk and wool undergarments from the European dress as well. Ottoman officials were required to wear specific dresses; these dresses were later imposed in the Arabic world when the Ottoman empire extended to Asia.
The paper by Charlotte Jirousek traces the evolution of dresses in the European Ottoman empire. It identifies the factors that led to significant alterations to their traditional dresses and notes the effect the traditional European dress had on other communities’ traditional dresses. However, Jirousek focuses particularly on the Ottman’s empire and only addresses the changes the European traditional dresses had on Arabic dresses. The author does not include any other community within Europe in the study, as she only studies the fashion changes in the Ottman empire’s dresses. She also does not study the effects of other communities outside Arab on the dress fashion of Europe. This article enables the readers to see the cultural exchanges and impositions the European cultural dress evolved through in the political, economic, and social spheres.
Jirousek agrees with Niessen that European traditional dresses are examples of both a cultural imperialism and cultural hybridity. He cites examples of impositions by the Ottman dynasty on Arabic political leaders. Impositions that required them to wear specific dresses were perceived to clothe power and elegance after the Ottman’s dynasty extended its empire into some parts of the Arab land. This imposition consequently led to the adoption of the dresses into the Arabic culture as a symbol of power and prestige. However, the European traditional dress also underwent significant changes as a direct result of social and cultural interactions with other communities, borrowing the fabrics used by other communities and incorporating Arabic styling into their overall dressing.
Niessen, Sandra. “Interpreting ‘Civilization’ Through Dress.” Bloomsbury Fashion Central, vol. 8, 2010, pp. 1-5.
Sandra Niessen’s study focuses on the cultural dresses made and worn in West Europe, and she traces their significance, impact, and style over the years to the present time. She starts her research by stating that the dresses made and worn traditionally reflect most of the environmental, cultural, social, and even physical backgrounds around which they were made (Niessen 1). Niessen addresses the notion of civilization, pointing out that although it can be traced back to Rome and Greece, Europe sits squarely as the source of modern civilization, and it is on that basis that the cultural practices of the European world have been accepted across the world to represent modernity. Sandra also traces the movement of fashion from the elite in the twentieth century to the common citizens and the creation of new models that were borrowed from European fashion.
Niessen focused only on the fashion of West Europe and ignored any influence from around the globe on European fashion. She did not consider the changes that the dresses underwent as a result of cultural borrowing and interactions. She also does not clearly explain at what points the fashion changed, and neither does she note the factors that led to changes in the style of the dresses. However, she clearly places the West European dress as an accepted global dress fashion trendsetter and provides sufficient evidence to that effect. Europe is the source of modern civilization, and the traditional dresses of West Europe were viewed to clothe the concept of modern civilization; this led other communities to accept the dresses of West Europe to signify their adoption of contemporary civilization, leading to cultural imperialism.
This paper agrees with the works of Christopher Breward that European dresses have been accepted as the standard of modern dress fashion. The high prices on the price tags of West European dresses are evidence of their esteemed value and regard. Niessen also notes that it is common to come across a West European dress in boutiques and malls across the world. She also notes that fashion houses in Europe seem to dictate the style of modern dresses considered fashion trendy in different countries. The design of the dresses has evolved to more dynamic styles with different dress types such as bodycon dresses, skater dresses, and maxi dresses, among others, which are alterations to the original European cultural dress while maintaining its original cultural significance.
Works Cited
Bertola, Paola, and Jose Teunissen. “Fashion 4.0. Innovation Fashion Industry Through Digital Transformation.” Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, vol. 22, no. 4, 2018, pp. 352-369.
Gayathri, Madubhani Ranathunga. “Fashion Discourses: The Influence of East Dress on European Fashion.” International Research Journal, vol. 13, no. 3, 2020, pp. 101-114.
Jirousek, Charlotte A. Ottoman Dress and Design in the West: A Visual History of Cultural Exchange. Indiana UP, 2019.
Niessen, Sandra. “Interpreting ‘Civilization’ through Dress.” Bloomsbury Fashion Central, vol. 8, 2010, pp. 1-5.