WEBVTT

00:00:11.408 --> 00:00:12.927
Look around.

00:00:12.927 --> 00:00:14.940
Who is sitting next to you?

00:00:14.953 --> 00:00:17.650
In your row of seats? Behind you?

00:00:17.909 --> 00:00:24.908
How many people have you
talked to during the lunch break?

00:00:25.865 --> 00:00:28.739
Did you exchange any words,
express your opinion?

00:00:29.037 --> 00:00:32.571
With how many people
have you had visual contact?

00:00:32.900 --> 00:00:35.913
Fashion is a visual language.

00:00:36.781 --> 00:00:43.063
And, it can expose you,
even when you are fully dressed.

00:00:43.292 --> 00:00:46.680
Who chose your image for today? You?

00:00:46.862 --> 00:00:48.433
Me, perhaps?

00:00:49.077 --> 00:00:51.228
Somebody in far off Paris?

00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:56.563
Let's talk today about
who was behind your decision,

00:00:56.563 --> 00:00:59.929
why you dress like you do,

00:01:01.493 --> 00:01:06.590
what you can tell about a person
by how they dress,

00:01:07.121 --> 00:01:11.384
what we can tell about a society
if we analyse its fashion.

00:01:13.518 --> 00:01:20.372
I would like to tell you a few stories,

00:01:20.372 --> 00:01:24.066
stories to give you a vivid picture

00:01:24.066 --> 00:01:30.786
of how society changes looking at it
through the fashion industry.

00:01:32.990 --> 00:01:38.519
Let's go back to the time of the monarchy.

00:01:39.184 --> 00:01:44.735
At this time, all power
was in the hands of one person:

00:01:45.617 --> 00:01:50.073
essentially, fashion
depended on their wishes.

00:01:50.653 --> 00:01:56.513
It was a narrow circle of elite,
the nobility, of inherited entitlement,

00:01:57.261 --> 00:02:01.113
their revenues guaranteed
by their estates.

00:02:03.121 --> 00:02:06.789
The life of ordinary people
was completely different.

00:02:06.845 --> 00:02:13.122
For these people, their clothes played
another role ... a practical one,

00:02:13.122 --> 00:02:17.995
or one according to their profession,
craft or employment.

00:02:18.176 --> 00:02:21.302
So, it was the case that you could tell
from the clothes they wore

00:02:21.302 --> 00:02:23.304
what they did,

00:02:23.304 --> 00:02:25.508
or what their societal status was.

00:02:27.030 --> 00:02:32.480
All information was passed by hand
from person to person,

00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:38.267
there was no press, no mass media,
that is, no promotion of information,

00:02:38.267 --> 00:02:42.822
so how fast you got
information from the monarch,

00:02:42.822 --> 00:02:44.673
from the centre of power,

00:02:44.673 --> 00:02:49.301
depended on how close to him,
how close to the centre of power you were.

00:02:49.345 --> 00:02:53.299
That's how the expression
"provincial fashion" came about.

00:02:53.466 --> 00:02:59.480
By the time you received any information,
it would have become out of date,

00:02:59.480 --> 00:03:03.096
whether it was about fashion
or anything else.

00:03:04.335 --> 00:03:08.370
In other words,
looking at somebody's outfit,

00:03:08.370 --> 00:03:14.037
we get to know how close that person was
from a centre of power, from the monarchy.

00:03:16.615 --> 00:03:20.435
The world of fashion
underwent a transformation

00:03:20.435 --> 00:03:24.338
with the coming
of the Industrial Revolution.

00:03:26.054 --> 00:03:32.166
The nobility started to get poorer,
a title no longer guaranteed your income,

00:03:32.166 --> 00:03:36.005
and estates could be bought and sold.

00:03:36.753 --> 00:03:40.832
A new elite came to power,

00:03:40.839 --> 00:03:43.963
the capitalist elite, the capitalists.

00:03:46.577 --> 00:03:53.552
They came from 
a very low stratum of society.

00:03:55.903 --> 00:04:00.905
Look at this picture,
how easy this family looks.

00:04:01.049 --> 00:04:03.661
Maybe you know who it is in this photo?

00:04:03.994 --> 00:04:06.854
This family is a manufacturer
of sports footwear.

00:04:07.095 --> 00:04:09.106
There are two brothers there:

00:04:09.530 --> 00:04:12.605
one of them is Adi Dassler,

00:04:13.058 --> 00:04:16.685
and his brother was nicknamed Puma.

00:04:18.523 --> 00:04:23.754
The laws of the previous elite
were not written for them.

00:04:24.072 --> 00:04:27.131
They simply don't know them.

00:04:27.298 --> 00:04:31.241
And since they don't know them,
they don't use them.

00:04:31.974 --> 00:04:33.722
An opportunity presents itself,

00:04:33.722 --> 00:04:39.073
and with it the desire to show off
your new status in society.

00:04:39.314 --> 00:04:42.804
The easiest way to do that
is through clothes, through fashion.

00:04:42.865 --> 00:04:45.564
Individuality comes to fashion.

00:04:49.094 --> 00:04:55.288
The Industrial Revolution makes possible
the production of cheaper clothes.

00:04:55.949 --> 00:04:58.865
The quality of goods is becoming
much more consistent.

00:05:00.883 --> 00:05:03.524
And the situation is becoming one

00:05:03.524 --> 00:05:07.796
where there's more on the market

00:05:07.796 --> 00:05:11.570
than people really need.

00:05:11.814 --> 00:05:15.283
For the capitalists
to maintain their power,

00:05:15.283 --> 00:05:20.116
you need constant consumption
requiring constant production.

00:05:20.249 --> 00:05:24.636
How do you do that
if people don't need things?

00:05:24.962 --> 00:05:26.874
They have to be taught to buy.

00:05:30.846 --> 00:05:34.887
And that's where designers came in,

00:05:36.328 --> 00:05:40.606
creating, not just practical clothes,

00:05:40.606 --> 00:05:42.263
but a look,

00:05:42.263 --> 00:05:44.941
an individual look for everyone.

00:05:45.636 --> 00:05:49.733
By the way, the first designers
as we know them today,

00:05:49.733 --> 00:05:51.567
as we know the fashion industry,

00:05:51.567 --> 00:05:54.384
come to us from the 19th century.

00:05:54.394 --> 00:05:58.254
The first designer to sew his label
on the clothes he made

00:05:58.254 --> 00:06:00.172
was Charles Frederick Worth.

00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:05.620
And then this image
created by this designer,

00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:09.667
which isn't really practical anymore,

00:06:09.698 --> 00:06:12.032
but an emotional image,

00:06:12.032 --> 00:06:13.970
starts to sell.

00:06:14.340 --> 00:06:18.145
Seasonality is coming, new trends,

00:06:20.222 --> 00:06:25.810
but the capitalists needed to sustain
growth in consumption.

00:06:26.535 --> 00:06:29.374
How was that to be done?

00:06:30.236 --> 00:06:32.562
The printing press arrives,

00:06:33.675 --> 00:06:40.154
and by using the printing press,
they achieve their goal.

00:06:41.402 --> 00:06:42.732
Advertising.

00:06:42.768 --> 00:06:46.163
New advertising agencies are opening up

00:06:46.163 --> 00:06:52.958
that build purely emotional sales,

00:06:52.958 --> 00:06:59.263
while the product itself is already
becoming of secondary concern.

00:06:59.326 --> 00:07:02.648
It's the consumption
of emotion that matters.

00:07:05.747 --> 00:07:08.876
For the capitalists of the time,

00:07:08.891 --> 00:07:12.563
this proved to be
very supportive of their power

00:07:12.563 --> 00:07:14.394
and the growth of that power,

00:07:14.394 --> 00:07:16.238
but they didn't realize

00:07:16.238 --> 00:07:19.014
that they themselves had started

00:07:19.014 --> 00:07:23.324
the beginning of the end of their century.

00:07:24.701 --> 00:07:26.111
The press.

00:07:26.212 --> 00:07:30.408
Fashion magazines
are gaining a lot o power,

00:07:30.414 --> 00:07:35.803
and so into their hands
falls the future of designers,

00:07:35.803 --> 00:07:38.826
the future of trademarks,
the future of brands.

00:07:41.621 --> 00:07:48.222
And you won't believe how big a role
they play in a situation like this.

00:07:48.387 --> 00:07:53.971
It is Paris, a young designer
shows his new collection.

00:07:54.275 --> 00:07:55.795
Christian Dior.

00:07:56.155 --> 00:08:01.362
The American press,
including "Harper's Bazaar".

00:08:01.496 --> 00:08:05.889
Its editor-in-chief, Carmel Snow,
exclaimed after the show:

00:08:06.196 --> 00:08:09.098
"Dior! It's a new look!" -

00:08:09.098 --> 00:08:12.528
"It's a new approach,
a new look at fashion!"

00:08:12.528 --> 00:08:16.090
She goes back to America
and writes about it.

00:08:16.090 --> 00:08:17.649
Photographs.

00:08:17.649 --> 00:08:22.419
Dior becomes very popular
in America and in Europe,

00:08:22.674 --> 00:08:29.561
The style icon of the decade was to be
the "New Look" by Christian Dior.

00:08:30.686 --> 00:08:33.807
His name is very easy to pronounce,

00:08:33.807 --> 00:08:36.856
and it's even easier to write in English.

00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:40.740
At this time in Europe,
in France, in Paris,

00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:44.167
there are, in fact, a lot more designers

00:08:44.178 --> 00:08:47.811
who also show similar fashions.

00:08:47.867 --> 00:08:50.387
But their names
are much harder to pronounce,

00:08:50.387 --> 00:08:54.831
while Dior's name is much easier to say.

00:08:55.852 --> 00:08:59.128
The names of the other designers
are slowly fading into history:

00:08:59.128 --> 00:09:04.805
including a great designer,
Elsa Schiaparelli, for example.

00:09:05.638 --> 00:09:09.177
Christian Dior is the "New Look".

00:09:11.288 --> 00:09:16.687
Capitalists have discovered

00:09:16.687 --> 00:09:20.046
the way of a new age,

00:09:20.046 --> 00:09:23.949
the age of information,
a world of information

00:09:24.848 --> 00:09:30.526
where power passes
from the hands of capitalists

00:09:30.558 --> 00:09:36.743
into the hands of those
who manipulate, who use,

00:09:36.743 --> 00:09:39.672
exploit information.

00:09:39.896 --> 00:09:45.914
A new elite emerges,
the information elite.

00:09:49.527 --> 00:09:54.121
The entire structure
of society is changing,

00:09:54.599 --> 00:10:00.274
as is the way fashion is created,

00:10:00.274 --> 00:10:03.685
and what is behind
the impulse to create fashion.

00:10:03.989 --> 00:10:09.398
The most important thing
for a designer right now,

00:10:09.398 --> 00:10:11.934
for the fashion industry, to survive

00:10:11.934 --> 00:10:15.686
is collaboration with social media,

00:10:16.198 --> 00:10:23.049
with Instagram and applications like it.

00:10:24.513 --> 00:10:30.632
For a designer to have a
success with his collection,

00:10:31.275 --> 00:10:36.345
the designer has
to come up with images, clothes,

00:10:36.896 --> 00:10:42.320
that fit the most popular
Instagram hashtags.

00:10:42.916 --> 00:10:49.464
They're already talking openly about
whether we need traditional fashion weeks,

00:10:49.526 --> 00:10:52.134
whether we need seasonality.

00:10:52.765 --> 00:10:55.688
Because Instagram
doesn't have seasonality.

00:10:56.708 --> 00:10:59.920
And, on what the critics
write about a fashion week,

00:10:59.920 --> 00:11:02.339
practically nothing depends.

00:11:02.920 --> 00:11:06.566
Everything depends on your ability

00:11:06.566 --> 00:11:11.920
to collaborate with bloggers,
with Instagram.

00:11:14.154 --> 00:11:16.963
And even the entire
business model is changing.

00:11:17.179 --> 00:11:21.610
If the traditional model
involved a markup,

00:11:21.610 --> 00:11:26.860
where you added an amount
to the cost of the goods to make a profit,

00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:30.626
now, the most important thing
is a constant turnover.

00:11:31.622 --> 00:11:37.804
Now such online stores as Amazon
are becoming the sales leaders,

00:11:37.824 --> 00:11:42.292
and it's because they can sell at a loss.

00:11:42.900 --> 00:11:46.853
The most important thing for them is
is the turnover of information.

00:11:47.288 --> 00:11:52.718
And the traditional shops,
the leaders of the 20th century,

00:11:52.718 --> 00:11:55.262
are forced to close their doors

00:11:55.262 --> 00:11:57.787
because they cannot stand the competition

00:11:57.787 --> 00:12:01.571
for the purchasing power
of a new generation.

00:12:01.942 --> 00:12:04.309
In the information world,

00:12:04.309 --> 00:12:09.551
the most important thing
is the constant movement of information,

00:12:09.551 --> 00:12:12.446
but not the quality of that information.

00:12:12.547 --> 00:12:16.624
The faster the information circulates,
the greater it becomes.

00:12:17.314 --> 00:12:21.769
This is just what we see
in fashion trends,

00:12:21.769 --> 00:12:24.874
where quality is becoming marginalized.

00:12:25.491 --> 00:12:31.863
And we cannot even say
that quality corresponds to price.

00:12:32.252 --> 00:12:38.538
In fact, the development and design
of new looks is already not so important.

00:12:40.238 --> 00:12:45.699
You can imagine that just yesterday,

00:12:45.726 --> 00:12:48.582
this would have been
the greatest of horrors

00:12:48.582 --> 00:12:50.602
for a professional designer?

00:12:51.322 --> 00:12:55.026
Flip-flops with socks and shorts.

00:12:55.512 --> 00:13:01.034
I just laughed at it.

00:13:02.466 --> 00:13:07.002
I took this photo today

00:13:07.002 --> 00:13:12.691
from one of today's
most famous brands: "Vetements".

00:13:12.849 --> 00:13:15.331
And this is what
they're actually presenting,

00:13:15.331 --> 00:13:17.274
I mean, that's the outfit

00:13:17.274 --> 00:13:20.955
of the most fashionable
men and women of fashion in the world.

00:13:22.367 --> 00:13:24.494
Does it get any better than this ...

00:13:26.234 --> 00:13:30.828
(Applause)

00:13:32.413 --> 00:13:34.615
Hoodies.

00:13:34.744 --> 00:13:37.305
(Laughter)

00:13:39.496 --> 00:13:44.669
We see three almost identical hoodies,

00:13:45.312 --> 00:13:47.879
their colour and design are the same.

00:13:49.959 --> 00:13:54.038
"Off-White", "Supreme", I don't know -
You know them? Ever heard of them?

00:13:54.038 --> 00:13:56.906
Very prominent contemporary brands.

00:13:57.329 --> 00:14:00.250
Basically, the difference in them

00:14:00.250 --> 00:14:05.308
is only in the brand logo
and the added pictures and patterns.

00:14:07.022 --> 00:14:11.331
And the last hoodie in the picture -

00:14:11.331 --> 00:14:15.090
I checked this morning
before coming here -

00:14:15.090 --> 00:14:18.484
you can't buy it in a conventional shop,

00:14:18.484 --> 00:14:20.511
it's only for collectors.

00:14:21.028 --> 00:14:24.720
You can buy it for yourself on eBay

00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.338
for up to $25,000.

00:14:31.670 --> 00:14:38.573
Basically, with these three
very fashionable hoodies,

00:14:38.573 --> 00:14:44.880
we just see the information
about their brand, and nothing else.

00:14:45.543 --> 00:14:52.145
So, brands are acquiring
a new informational status,

00:14:52.145 --> 00:14:55.221
where the product itself
is no longer important.

00:14:55.443 --> 00:15:01.327
What is important is the information
and product promotion on social media.

00:15:02.698 --> 00:15:08.397
"Supreme" can be stuck

00:15:08.397 --> 00:15:10.737
onto practically anything.

00:15:10.972 --> 00:15:16.488
If before, when before,
when fashion houses were being created,

00:15:16.488 --> 00:15:18.384
brands were being created,

00:15:18.384 --> 00:15:23.764
there was a client in mind, one client,
at which the brand was aimed,

00:15:23.764 --> 00:15:26.671
defined by the price tag.

00:15:28.749 --> 00:15:32.766
That is, a product line
offered by one brand

00:15:32.766 --> 00:15:35.636
would all have about the same price.

00:15:35.905 --> 00:15:38.021
In the case of Supreme,

00:15:38.031 --> 00:15:44.107
the price can start
in the luxury segment -

00:15:45.113 --> 00:15:48.040
a Ferrari with a Supreme sticker -

00:15:48.383 --> 00:15:51.081
while at the same time,
we can see in the slide,

00:15:51.081 --> 00:15:55.442
they sell shovels with the same logo.

00:15:56.502 --> 00:16:03.326
It can be glued onto any product,
and the price raised.

00:16:06.326 --> 00:16:09.351
The second very interesting change

00:16:09.351 --> 00:16:14.161
is that the development
of the design of this product

00:16:14.161 --> 00:16:18.051
is nor provided by the Supreme team.

00:16:18.367 --> 00:16:20.997
It is being done by factories

00:16:23.263 --> 00:16:27.686
who actually make the product,

00:16:27.686 --> 00:16:30.391
and Supreme is just gluing its logos on.

00:16:31.075 --> 00:16:35.532
Similarly, the hoodie by Louis Vuitton
which we've just seen

00:16:35.532 --> 00:16:38.400
was designed by Louis Vuitton,

00:16:38.400 --> 00:16:42.283
and Supreme has just glued on its logo.

00:16:42.471 --> 00:16:44.495
And this is exactly how

00:16:44.495 --> 00:16:49.852
firms that started their businesses
in the 20th century

00:16:49.852 --> 00:16:51.382
are surviving today:

00:16:51.382 --> 00:16:53.536
by collaborating

00:16:53.536 --> 00:16:59.265
with such information brands as Supreme.

00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:05.490
Today, I've told you

00:17:05.496 --> 00:17:11.365
how we can see, through fashion,

00:17:11.365 --> 00:17:14.921
how our society is changing,

00:17:14.921 --> 00:17:18.615
and how the centre of power is changing.

00:17:19.527 --> 00:17:21.623
We started from the monarchy,

00:17:21.623 --> 00:17:24.850
where all power was
in the hands of one person,

00:17:24.850 --> 00:17:30.924
and then we moved on to capitalists,
who brought us individuality to fashion.

00:17:31.900 --> 00:17:37.705
Then, via print media,
we've arrived at the world of information.

00:17:38.816 --> 00:17:41.447
I wouldn't like to tell you

00:17:41.447 --> 00:17:44.740
that Steve Jobs was a great fashion icon.

00:17:45.248 --> 00:17:49.877
I don't honestly think
he was very preoccupied with fashion;

00:17:49.877 --> 00:17:54.632
he just wore his jeans and sneakers

00:17:54.632 --> 00:17:57.629
and went about minding his own business.

00:17:57.629 --> 00:18:01.223
Even less that he thought about
how we all should dress.

00:18:01.621 --> 00:18:08.362
That's not the issue at all;
it's that the vector of power has shifted.

00:18:08.541 --> 00:18:11.863
And that's already reflected
in the way we dress.

00:18:12.875 --> 00:18:14.970
Look around you.

00:18:15.490 --> 00:18:17.079
Has anything changed?

00:18:18.825 --> 00:18:20.657
No, I don't mean in how we're dressed,

00:18:20.657 --> 00:18:24.080
we're dressed just as we were
18 minutes ago.

00:18:25.018 --> 00:18:28.140
But, maybe, something's changed about you,

00:18:28.140 --> 00:18:30.462
in how you see fashion?

00:18:32.247 --> 00:18:33.647
Thank you.

00:18:34.133 --> 00:18:37.132
(Applause)