I am going to assess and analyze how the ‘Fashion in the United States Wikipedia article’s revision history has changed over time (Wikipedia, 2021). In the latest version, this page consists of four blocks which are history, fashion industry, regional and cultural variation, and references. It is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. Overall there are five hundred revisions made for the page during the whole time.
The article addresses many different fashion brands, labels, fashion houses, and companies. One revision has changed the Calvin Klein company to Calvin Klein fashion house. I think that is an interesting interpretation since it changes the perception of the label. In fact, it would not be a big mistake if Calvin Klein was called a company; however, throughout time, Calvin Klein has developed and seen progress from a low- to the middle-class brand to a luxury fashion house (Stankeviciute and Hoffmann 5). Representing it as a fashion house gives more honor to the brand and its designer. In fact, in the fashion industry, there is a distinction between the fashion brand and the designer. For this reason, there was another revision related to Alexander Wang. The revision added Alexander Wang (designer) to the already existing Alexander Wang. It emphasizes the difference between the designer and his fashion label.
The article contains a paragraph on the relation of fashion and clothes to the different classes of people. It emphasizes culture and identity through the style of clothes people wear. The edition made in 2008 makes this topic even more specific and adds information on how specific pieces of wardrobe could reflect cultural identity. According to the revision, blue jeans, for example, reflect the history of Native Americans in the United States. It also addresses the fashion trends followed by Western Americans. I think such a revision might be useful since it does not only raise the topic of the relation of culture and history to fashion but at the same time provides distinct examples, even though there is no specific evidence provided.
A revision made in 2014 adds information about sustainability in the clothes manufacturing industry. This is an important point to emphasize since, in fact, United Stated started to address the issue of fast fashion and the overall sustainability issue in the fashion industry. The revision mentions the rising trend of using organic cotton for T-Shirt manufacture. I think that it would be great to address this topic more since, today, the topic of sustainability is especially urgent in regard to fashion and fashion brands. Such revisions reflect the changing attitude towards fashion in the United States and globally. It shows that fashion adjusts to the changing trends related to global issues such as fair labor and global warming. Another revision made in 2016 emphasizes that there are two cities that are considered the center of the American fashion industry, and they are New York City and Los Angeles. According to Craik (2019), Los Angeles and New York are the main fashion cities in the United States of America. Moreover, in 2016 the revision added the fact that the United States of America is one of the leading countries in the sphere of the fashion industry. Today the trend for sustainable manufacturing and consumption is rising and the topic is highly relevant today.
The revision from 2014 has added a paragraph to the history block that discusses the changes in US fashion trends. Such information highlights that the trends are changing all the time, and in most cases, they are adapting to the new standards formed by globalization. In fact, the US is one of the fashion influencers who spread fashion trends worldwide. For example, as the article mentions, the trend for baseball caps and Vans sneakers was set by the United States.
The revisions expand the information on some topics and make them more detailed. For example, another revision made in 2014 provides a more detailed description of the story of the jeans popularization in the USA. The original version contained a very brief statement about the German immigrant who introduced jeans to American teenagers. The revision added the whole story behind it, writing that the German immigrant first shared his jeans with gold miners in California. I think that such details give the reader a broader picture of the topic and help them to understand it more deeply. Such additions could advance a historical interpretation of the given text.
In conclusion, the revision history of the Wikipedia article reflects not only the evolution of the article itself but also the development of fashion history in the United States. Revisions might represent the growth of a particular fashion house or a designer. It might show the formation of the fashion centers throughout time. Moreover, it might reflect the changes in approaches and attitudes towards the whole industry due to the recent global trends, such as sustainability. Revisions often add more information to already existing statements and information pieces, which makes the data more detailed and subject-oriented. I think that this positively contributes to the readers’ understanding of the topic issues and enlarges their freedom to choose relevant information.
Works Cited
Craik, Jennifer. “Fashion: An Urban Industry of Style.” The Routledge Companion to Urban Media and Communication. Routledge, 2019, 304-313.
Stankeviciute, Rasa, and Hoffmann, Jonas. “The Impact of Brand Extension on the Parent Luxury Fashion Brand: The Cases of Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein and Jimmy Choo. A Retrospective Commentary.” Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 2020, 11(1), 1-8.
Fashion in the United States. Wikipedia, 2021.