Failure

Fashion thrives on fame and success, capitalism and culture. But beneath the luster and hype, fashion is also inevitably about failure – an essential part of its history and evolution. In his contribution to the Fashion in Action series of short books rallying readers to tackle pressing issues in fashion, Nick Rees-Roberts unravels the relationship between forms of creative and commercial failure to consider how we might begin to address the systemic failings of the fashion industry today. Positing failure as a speculative way to rethink fashion and focussing on the checkered histories of a number of designers and brands, Rees-Roberts explores how forms of commercial failure within a capitalist framework might actually be productive, enabling designers to retain independence and balance by potentially opting out of the fashion establishment, if not of the system altogether. He then goes on to look at the broader systemic failures of the 21st-century fashion industry, arguing that rather than keep focussing on doing and making, we should be undoing and remaking the idea of fashion itself in order to rethink design outside of the framework of a hyper-globalized industry. By applying failure as a critical mode of inquiry, this book invites readers to consider a new direction for the future of fashion – one that values resilience and reinvention over the relentless pursuit of the next big success.

Table of Contents:
Series editor preface Dress for Failure - a preface 1. Failure Mode 2. Aesthetics of Failure 3. Fame and Failure Regenerating Fashion after Failure: A Call to Action Notes Selected Further Reading Image Credits Index

About the Author :
Nick Rees-Roberts is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, France. He is the author of French Queer Cinema (2008) and Fashion Film: Art and Advertising in the Digital Age (2018), co-author of Homo exoticus: race, classe et critique queer (2010) and co-editor of Alain Delon: Style, Stardom and Masculinity (2015) and Isabelle Huppert: Stardom, Performance, Authorship (2021).

Review :
This sparklingly incisive analysis of when fashion 'doesn't work' cuts through the glossy triumphalism of 'the latest thing' to question clichés of fashion reception. It challenges, while analysing, the economic power - and limitations - of hype and PR and explores with considerable subtlety the way the industry interacts with the profounder aspects of the vagaries of taste, outrage and rejection. This book surprised me…in the best way. In a highly original and thought-provoking analysis, Nick Rees-Roberts offers a taxonomic re-theorization of fashion through the lens of failure. Failure prompts us to revisit our assumptions about the form and to see anew the histories it holds and the possibilities it has always incubated. Take a deep dive into the mishaps, the setbacks, the excesses and the imperfections of the fashion industry. Punchy and fast paced, Nick Rees- Roberts delivers a gem of a book that places fashion in clear perspective.