Marketing Fashion

Karin M. Ekström is Professor in Marketing at the Department of Business Administration and Textile Management, University of Borås, Sweden, where she heads the Marketing, Fashion and Sustainable Consumption Research Group. She has been involved in research on consumption for many years, frequently in multidisciplinary projects. Her research focuses on consumer culture, with a particular focus on the meaning(s) of consumption and sustainable consumption of food, clothing, and wood. She has recently edited Museum Marketization: Cultural Institutions in the Neoliberal Era (2020). Examples of other edited volumes related to consumption and sustainability are Waste Management and Sustainable Consumption: Reflections on Consumer Waste (2015), Beyond the Consumption Bubble (2011, coedited with Kay Glans) and Elusive Consumption (2004, coedited with Helene Brembeck).

"We are all implicated in the circuits of fashion production, consumption and disposal. But, it is rare that analyses manage to articulate the power dynamics which shape the cultural environment, texture lived experience and outline their salience for capital reproduction on a global scale. This impressive text does exactly that. It provides a critical, historical, socio-cultural perspective on this important industry which has significant impacts on our lives and potentially devastating effects in terms of inter-generational justice. It is essential reading." - Mark Tadajewski, University of York; Royal Holloway, University of London, UK "Professor Ekström once again has her finger on the pulse of consumer culture – and it’s racing! This book offers valuable critical perspectives on fashion as both a dizzying on- and off-line arena of consumption practices feeding personal identity and social hierarchies, and an exemplary model of market expansion feeding on symbolic, material and economic struggles and policing among consumers, and between activists, firms, and governing agents. This collection is essential reading for visionary marketing, fashion, design, and sustainability industry practitioners, advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and future leaders in understanding what’s at stake with fashion now and in preparing for a sustainable future." - Professor Lisa Penaloza, KEDGE Business School, France"This book presents a very timely and remarkably comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on the fashion industry’s cultural, societal, economic and ecological consequences. Nicely balancing historical and contemporary insights, readers of this book will learn about, not only what the fashion system has wrought, but how it could re-deployed to create a more sustainable and culturally diverse future." - Craig J. Thompson, Churchill Professor of Marketing, University of Wisconsin-Madison"This is a timely collection on the power of fashion to both reflect and influence social and cultural norms as well as the role of marketing in these processes. All the chapters make significant contributions to our understanding of the complex dynamics at the intersection of marketing and the fashion system. The volume is thus crucial reading for anyone seeking insights into the many diverse ways that fashion permeates contemporary society." - Pauline Maclaran, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK"This collection of fascinating essays tells us that fashion is more than an industry; it has become a central fact of our consumer society, making the discipline of marketing a key to understanding the workings of our unsustainable economy. The chapters reveal the mechanics of many fashion systems, from guns to runways, facemasks to museums, showing us why fashion provides both pleasure and dangers." - Richard R. Wilk, Distinguished Provost’s Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, USA

• IntroductionKarin M. EkströmPart IFashion and Marketing in Society1. Fashion, Self, and IdentityColin Campbell 2. Fashion Police to Fast Fashion: "Slow Down and Pull Over!"Russell Belk3. Fashioning Marketing and its ConsequencesA. Fuat Firat, Deniz Atik, and Zeynep Ozdamar ErtekinPart II Social Change and Marketing4. Embracing Diversity and Body Positivity: The Role of Marketing in Fashion Marketsand Culture Stefano Prestini, Stefania Borghini, and Antonella Carù5. From Sanitary to Fashionable Masks: Lessons from Crisis MarketingFranck Cochoy, Anaïs Daniau, and Alexandre Mallard6. Marketing Gun Identities Through Firearm FashionsTerrence H. WitkowskiPart IIIFashion and Brands 7. A Social Practice Perspective on Fashion BrandingMarcus Gianneschi and Johanna Moisander 8. Museums as Channels for Marketing Fashion: Reflections on Marketization andArtificationKarin M. Ekström9. A Community in Love: The Relationship and Dynamic between Odd Molly and its CommunityHanna WittrockPart IVFashion, Waste, Sustainability and Ethics10. Consumption of Clothes and the Problems of Waste in Affluent Societies – Understanding the Driving Forces of Consumption and WasteKarin M. Ekström 11. Sustainable Fashion Marketing: Green or Greenwash? Elaine L. Ritch 12. ‘Ethical Fashion’ is a FictionEfrat TseëlonAfterword - Growing Demands of Ethics and Aesthetics Francesco Morace