Systems

“‘What does fashion do?’ Does dressing in a certain way enable you or me to develop new parts of identity? Or does it fix you or me in a role? A different line of enquiry would be what fashion does to consumer society, the environment or to workers in factories.

Fashion today is often about creative performances, affective experiences and flexible relations, defying any fixed meanings or stable identities.

On the one hand, fashion is, or rather pretends to be, forever changing and innovating. On the other hand, fashion follows change only with marginal differentiation (Lipovetsky), laying down rules as to what (not) to wear this season.” —Gilles Deleuze

The "fashion system" refers to the various industries, businesses and processes involved in the creation, production and marketing of clothing and accessories.

RCA FASHION explores the system within the widest sense, questioning, disrupting and exploring in order to resolve and respond to ongoing practices of Fashion Systems and the potential new areas of discovery it may bring.

Image Credit: Justine Masche