Translating Fashion into Danish
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.113209Keywords:
Fashion, cultural nationalism, cultural industries policy, Denmark, translationAbstract
With their association to enterprise and innovation, creative industries have emerged as a legitimate concern in national cultural and economical policy in many countries across the world. In Denmark, the fashion business, in particular, has been hailed as a model for successful (post)industrial transformation. In this paper, we explore the birth of Danish fashion from the ashes of the country’s clothing manufacturing industry, suggesting that the very notion of Danish fashion is indicative of – and enabled by – a development towards a polycentric fashion system. The intriguing idea that fashion could emanate from Denmark and secure growth, jobs and exports even outside the fashion business has taken hold among policymakers, and compelled the government to embrace fashion as a national project. In investigating the emergence and rising stature of Danish fashion, particular at home, we first establish a theoretical frame for understanding the cultural economic policy and the motives, principles and strategies behind it. Then – drawing inspiration from Michel Callon’s “sociology of translation” with its moments of translation: problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization – we identify the actors and analyze their strategic roles and interrelationship through various phases of the development of Danish fashion. Callon’s actor network theory (ANT) is based on the principle of “generalized symmetry” – originally using a single repertoire to analyze both society and nature. We adapt this principle to study the realms of market, culture and politics within a common analytical framework. In our analysis, the state responds to industry transformation, interprets it and develops its own agenda. But it can hardly be said to develop policies for the industry. On the contrary, we suggest, fashion is mobilized to lend its luster to the nation, its institutions and politicians.
References
Agnew, Jean-Christophe (1986): Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American Thought, 1550–1750, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bennett, Tony (2001): “Cultural Policy”, J. S. Neil & B. B. Paul (eds): International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Oxford: Pergamon, 3092–3097.
Best, Joel (2006): Flavour of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Breward, Christopher (2003): Fashion, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brûlé, Tyler (2009): “Q&A. Premier League – Copenhagen”, MONOCLE, 3:21 (March 2009), 48.
Callon, Michel (1986): “Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay”, John Law (ed.): Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge?, London: Routledge, 196–233.
DFT (2010): Udvikling for den danske tekstil- og beklædningsbranche 2005-2009, Herning: Dansk Fashion & Textile.
Davis, Fred (1992): Fashion, Culture and Identity, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Deloitte (2008): Analyse af beklædningsbranchen – tendenser og udfordringer, Copenhagen: Deloitte.
English, Bonnie (2007): A Cultural History of Fashion in the Twentieth Century: From the Catwalk to the Sidewalk, Oxford: Berg.
FORA (2003): Sammenligning af danske og udenlandske rammebetingelser og innovationssystemer inden for modebranchen, Copenhagen: Økonomi- og Erhvervsministeriet.
FORA (2005): Brugerdreven innovation i dansk mode – den 5. globale modeklynge, Copenhagen: Økonomi- og Erhvervsministeriet.
Gibbon, Peter & Lotte Thomsen (2002): Scandinavian Clothing Retailers’ Global Sourcing Patterns and Practices. CDR Working Paper Subseries, no. xxii, 2–14.
Greater London Administration (2002): Creativity London’s Core Business, London: GLA Economics.
Hesmondhalgh, David (2008): “Cultural and Creative Industries”, Bennett, T. & J. Frow (eds): The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Analysis, Los Angeles: SAGE, 552–569.
Hesmondhalgh, David & Andy. C. Pratt (2005): “Cultural Industries and Cultural Policy”, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 11, 1–13. [Read this article]
Hillman-Chartrand, Harry & Claire McCaughey (1989): “The Arm’s Length Principle and the Arts: An International Perspective - Past, Present and Future”, M.C. Cumming & J. M. D. Schuster (eds): Who’s to Pay for the Arts? The International Search for Models of Support, New York: American Council for the Arts, 43–80.
Keane, Michael. A. & Weihong Zhang (2008): “Cultural Creative Industries or Creative (Cultural) Industries?”, H.Hu (ed.): China’s Cultural Industries Forum, Shanghai: Shanghai Peoples’ Press, 1–16.
Kong, Lily (2000): “Culture, Economy, Policy: Trends and Developments”, Geoforum, 31, 385–390. [Read this article]
KUM & OEM (2000): Danmarks kreative potentiale. Kultur- og erhvervspolitisk redegørelse, Copenhagen: Kulturministeriet & Erhvervsministeriet.
KUM & OEM (2003): Danmark i kultur- og oplevelsesøkonomien – 5 nye skridt på vejen, Copenhagen: Kulturministeriet & Økonomi- og Erhvervsministeriet.
Lipovetsky, Gilles (1994): The Empire of Fashion. Dressing Modern Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Löfgren, Orvar (2005): “Catwalking and Coolhunting. The Production of Newness”, Orvar Löfgren & Robert Willim (eds): Magic, Culture and the New Economy, Oxford: Berg, 57–71.
Melchior, Marie Riegels (2008): Dansk på mode. En undersøgelse af design, identitet og historie i dansk modeindustri, PhD dissertation, Copenhagen: The Danish Design School Press.
Melchior, Marie Riegels & Nikolina Olsen-Rule (2006): ”Konkluderende bemærkninger”, Thomas Schødt Rasmussen (ed.): Dansk mode. Historie, design, identitet, Copenhagen: MOKO, 91–93.
Mortensen, Erik (1993): ”Magasin a la mode”, Paul Hammerich (ed.): Magasin på tværs i 125 år, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 165–184.
O’Connor, Justin (2007): The Cultural and Creative Industries. A Review of the Literature: A Report for Creative Partnerships,London: Creative Partnerships Arts Council England.
Potts, Jason & Stuart Cunningham (2008): “Four Models of the Creative Industries”, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 14, 233–247. [Read this article]
Pouillard, Véronique (2008): “In the Shadow of Paris? French Haute Couture and Belgian Fashion between the Wars”, Regina Lee Blaszczyk (ed.): Producing Fashion. Commerce, Culture, and Consumers, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 62–81.
Pratt, Andy. C. (2005): “Cultural Industries and Public Policy: An Oxymoron?”, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 11, 31–44. [Read this article]
Rasmussen, Thomas Schødt (ed.) (2006): Dansk mode. Historie, design, identitet, Copenhagen: MOKO.
Rasmussen, Thomas Schødt (2003): “Patterns of Culture in Global Fashion: Production, Representation and Agency”, Scandinavian Journal of Design History, 13, 7–24.
Rasmussen, Thomas Schødt (2005): “The Return of the Fur Coat in a Commodity Chain Perspective”, Current Sociology, 51:1, 9–33.
Rasmussen, Thomas Schødt (2008): “Politik, branche og forskning: Brugerinnovation og den danske modebranche”, Tore Kristensen et al. (eds): Når Oplevelser Møder Økonomi: kreative virksomheder, brancher og steder., Århus: Forlaget KLIM, 205–226.
Skov, Lise and Janne Meier (2011): “Configuring Sustainability at Fashion Week”, Brian Moeran & Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen (eds): Negotiating Values in Creative Industries, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2011 Riegels Melchior, Skov, Faurholt Csaba
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
