Fashioning Globalisation

Drastic changes in the career aspirations of women in the developed world have resulted in a new, globalised market for off-the-peg designer clothes created by independent artisans. This book reports on a phenomenon that seems to exemplify the twin imperatives of globalisation and female emancipation. A major conceptual contribution to the literatures on globalisation, fashion and gender, analysing the ways in which women s entry into the labour force over the past thirty years in the developed world has underpinned new forms of aestheticised production and consumption as well as the growth of work-style businesses A vital contribution to the burgeoning literature on culture and creative industries which often ignores the significant roles taken by women as entrepreneurs and designers rather than mere consumers Introduces fashion scholars and economic geographers to a paradigmatic example of the new designer fashion industries emerging in a range of countries not traditionally associated with fashion Takes a fresh perspective on an industry in which Third World garment workers have been the subject of exhaustive analysis but first world women have been largely ignored

Drastic changes in the career aspirations of women in the developedworld have resulted in a new, globalised market for off-the-pegdesigner clothes created by independent artisans. This book reportson a phenomenon that seems to exemplify the twin imperativesof globalisation and female emancipation.* A major conceptual contribution to the literatures onglobalisation, fashion and gender, analysing the ways in whichwomen's entry into the labour force over the past thirtyyears in the developed world has underpinned new forms ofaestheticised production and consumption as well as the growth of'work-style' businesses* A vital contribution to the burgeoning literature on cultureand creative industries which often ignores the significant rolestaken by women as entrepreneurs and designers rather than mereconsumers* Introduces fashion scholars and economic geographers to aparadigmatic example of the new designer fashion industriesemerging in a range of countries not traditionally associated withfashion* Takes a fresh perspective on an industry in which Third Worldgarment workers have been the subject of exhaustive analysis butfirst world women have been largely ignored

List of Figures and Credits ixPreface xiSeries Editors' Preface xivAcknowledgements xv1 What We Saw and Why We Started this Project 12 Global Aspirations: Theorising the New Zealand Designer Fashion Industry 193 Policy for a New Economy: 'After Neoliberalism' and the Designer Fashion Industry 43with Richard Le Heron and Nick Lewis4 Cultivating Urbanity: Fashion in a Not-so-global City 69with Alison Goodrum5 Gendering the 'Virtuous Circle': Production, Mediation and Consumption in the Cultural Economy 996 Creating Global Subjects: The Pedagogy of Fashionability 1257 Lifestyle or Workstyle? Female Entrepreneurs in New Zealand Designer Fashion 1538 Conclusion: An Unlikely Success Story? 179Index 191