Thesis advisor: Michael Malec / My motivation for this research study comes from my own experience with and observations of body image issues among female students on the Boston College campus, as well as my observations of and research into the homogenization of beauty in the high-end fashion industry. Through various social institutions, namely high-end fashion media, our society supports an extremely narrow definition of beauty for women (read: White and thin/ultra-thin). There is an overwhelming lack of representation of women of color and women who do not fall in line with the thin body standard. I aim to contribute where there are holes in the conversation regarding diversity and exclusionary practices in the high-end fashion industry. Chiefly, I seek to contribute to an understanding of how fashion industry producers might continue to engage in the homogenization of beauty while evading liability with intermittent diversification effort. I conduct a content analysis of 11 issues (past and contemporary) of the high-end fashion magazine, U.S. Vogue. The units of measurement for my data collection are images, articles, and text produced by Vogue, as well as featured advertisements produced by other industry players. My data consists of recorded frequencies and two major codes (Race and Body Type) with various sub codes. I ultimately conclude that: (1) despite our society’s supposed increased sensitivity to diversity and diversification effort, we have made little progress on this front in the fashion industry (especially body type representation); and (2) U.S. Vogue does in fact continue to engage in racial exclusion while concealing its liability via the practice of racial capitalism. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

This thesis examines the promotion of the British fashion industry in the underexplored genre of non-fiction British fashion film. Whilst critical attention has been paid to the role of fashion within fiction film, and costume within historical drama, the significance of fashion in non-fiction, state-sponsored British film has passed largely without exploration. The threshold of fact and fiction is the site of investigation in this analysis of film and media materials, that draw on fairy tale narratives of transformation to produce fashion as the 'integration of the two worlds of reality and imagination' (Bettelheim, 1975). The main focus of my analysis is a body of texts ranging from the forties to the present day. The corpus of study consists of films produced by British Pathé and the Central Office of Information (COI), film, televisual, and DVD outputs of royal weddings, and the BBC's live television broadcast of the 2012 Olympic Games. Fashion has a reputation for facilitating change and performing makeovers, and the texts studied here present three levels of transformation, powered by the magical fiction of fairy tales, the transformative potential of capitalism, and the renewing capabilities of the fashion industry. These texts demonstrate the way fashion stories are used to negotiate key historical junctures in British identity, finding in the structure of the fairy tale a way to articulate an economy of renewal that can be harnessed to a national, ideological state agenda aimed at women. This thesis argues that national events are commandeered as platforms for officially sponsored tales of Britain's heritage, which testify to the importance of fashion to the British economy and its role in political strategy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of country of origin (COO) on the UK fashion industry, with specific reference to retail and wholesale brands. In this study, the fashion industry encompasses both manufacturing and branding perspectives. This qualitative study comprised 23 in-depth interviews with key informants from large-scale retailers, manufacturers and textile consultancy companies, thereby analysing the issues from an industry, rather than consumer, perspective. The key informants were chosen using a judgmental sampling approach, and the data obtained were analysed using a thematic approach. The notion of country of origin is deemed important because the existing literature suggests that COO, has been considered as an effective branding device with which consumers associate when evaluating the quality of the product and when making purchasing decisions. However, no research has examined country of origin from an industry perspective, and the findings in the UK context are limited in the existing literature. Consequently, this study contributes to the body of knowledge about the importance of COO, and its implication on retail and wholesale brands in the UK fashion industry. The findings of this research also have practical implications for manufacturers and retailers, informing the debate on the value of the 'Made in [...]' epithet, and how country of origin can be used as a branding strategy. This study demonstrates that country of origin is considered important in the UK fashion industry in terms of its strategic importance to organisations. Moreover, COO is manifested in different ways, depending on brand positioning, long-term strategic plan, expertise, brand history and values. Another finding that emerged as a key theme is the blurring of retail and wholesale brands. Thus, the study has found that retailers are becoming wholesale-oriented businesses by selling own label products through third party retailers, including online via pure-play retailers (e.g. ASOS), and concessions within department stores. This is being done to expose brands internationally, to develop a global recognition, as well as improve the brand image. Furthermore, wholesale brands are becoming retail-oriented in order to enjoy superior profit margins, to have control over the product merchandise and to increase customer loyalty. Finally, the study developed a typology of strategic action and implications of country of origin to include the blurring of differences whereby, for instance, brand name is used to promote country of brand origin by both retail and wholesale brands, however, how this manifests itself differs in the sense that retailers promote via sub-brand name, and wholesales have associations with company's name.

The forming of M-shape Society changes the consume structure, and causes the fashion industry arisen. With the wave of acquisition in fashion industry in the 90¡¦s, now it has become only several fashion groups survive in the industry instead of numerous private independent companies. It¡¦s attractive for the companies to benefit from the connect effect of multi-brand coalition and single star brand. Therefore, we choose LVMH (Louis Vuitton - Moët Hennessy), a leading group in fashion industry, as the example in this thesis to analyze the M&A strategy of fashion groups. There are three issues we would like to discuss in this thesis: 1.To find out the motives and purpose of M&A strategy of fashion groups. 2.To find out how fashion groups choose the M&A objectives. 3.To understand what¡¦s the synergy that fashion groups pursue. Several important finding are as follow: 1.The motives of M&A strategies are enlarging the scope, entering new market and acquiring the resources and techniques. 2.Fashion groups value the brands with heritage, but acquire energy by the innovative brands. 3.The advantage of fashion group is the closed relationship between brands and the groups, and this can strengthen the position of each other in consumer mind. 4.Fashion brands depend on the star brands to operation effectively. Star brands are also the key factor to induce the synergy and the function of resources sharing.

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The negative impact of the fashion industry on both society and environment cannot be ignored, especially in recent years, due to news and reports on the negative impacts of the industry has raised awareness among consumers. Some of the consumers started questioning the fashion companies’ operations and demand for more sustainable supply chains. In order to respond the request coming from consumers’ side, the companies started to regulate their operations and communicate about them. Even though there are many different ways to communicate about sustainability approach, This study is questioning the potential outcomes of developing a common CSR label based on Higg Index 2.0 tool. To answer the research question, existing literature has analyzed from three different perspectives; social and environmental problems led by the industry and raising consumer awareness about negative impact of the industry. After the literature review, CSR communication approaches of the selected companies were analyzed. The second step of the research was, to apply a consumer survey in the Gothenburg Central Station to understand Swedish consumers’ perception. Outcomes of the consumer survey has compared with the existing literature and communication strategies followed by the analyses of selected companies.The company analyzes show that, even though, they are good at about regulating their supply chain with more sustainable approaches, the majority of fashion companies do not communicate about their CSR practices. Consumer survey expose that, consumers are lack of awareness regarding to existed CSR labels. Moreover, even though exist labels focus on only environmental factors or social factors, the consumers expect from labels to cover both areas. The data collected from the study expose that, even the majority of the consumer not completely influenced by the sustainability approach of the companies, there are consumers that influence by the companies CSR approach. Moreover, the lion share of consumers believes that a common labeling system based on Higg Index 2.0 will be helpful guide when they give their purchasing decision. Based on the findings from existed literature -consumer survey and analyze of companiesapproach-, it was observed that companies are lack of effective communication strategies which is a barrier for the consumers to get an action for to purchase more sustainable fashion products. Therefore, developing a common CSR labeling system that will controlled by third party institution such as Sustainable Apparel Coalition will increase the effectiveness of CSR label and influence the consumers response positively.

All fashion brands work with PR in some way, its importance is evident. At the same time it is expensive and difficult to say what it provides, consequently one may wonder whether if it is all worth it. Existing literature leaves a gap of missing research in PR and especially in PR events. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute with an increased understanding of PR events in the fashion industry, by an open approach. In more detail, the purpose is to explore the fundamental aspects of PR events in the fashion industry, and how such events contribute to brand equity. The method used was a qualitative case study, including descriptive and exploratory research methods. The data collection consists of participant observations, during an internship at a PR agency, and semi structured interviews with five participants. A cross case synthesis analysis method was used with a comparative approach. The fundamental aspects of PR events and its contribution to brand equity, was found to differ and depend to a great extent. The main dependent variable is the strategy and objective of the brand. The findings show that a PR event is a marketing activity and a communication tool/channel, of which the end goal is to create sales. Important aspects include relationships, reputation/image and experiences. PR events contribute to brand awareness and brand associations, however the contribution to perceived quality and brand loyalty was found to be less evident. PR events may have a positive effect, negative effect, or no effect. It is possible to evaluate events to some extent. Quantitative and qualitative aspects are discussed, both as possible and less usable methods. The results were found to be wide and extensive, opening up for more questions rather than providing answers. Future research could narrow the scope to a less extensive range of PR events, in order to generate answers that may be more useable. The data collection methods could, for the same reason, be more structured. The study adds knowledge to existing theories to the area of PR events. By the open approach, this study draws attention to the rather unexplored and undiscovered topic of PR events, and brings focus to the discussion of its value. The qualitative research method brings attention to considering both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The findings are of interest to brands that use or consider using PR events, and want to gain a more clear picture of the events and their contributions to brand equity.

Britain produces some of the best designers in the world, and UK fashion education systems provide a continuous flow of exceptional talent into the industry. However, the numbers of British designer brands being created are low in comparison to the high number of graduates being educated. Often fashion start-ups are not able to sustain a presence in the market place after their intial entry, and are not able to realise and recognise their growth potential.

As the oil sources continue to become depleted and global oil prices continue to drop, there are concerns that the current pattern of growth and development in Nigeria, a country that is heavily dependent on natural resources such as oil as drivers of economic growth, is neither inclusive nor sustainable. In order to shift its focus from the natural resource dependency dynamic, create employment and most importantly, stimulate sustainable economic growth; there is an urgent need for the Nigerian economy to begin harnessing and cultivate their underutilized resources and industries such as the fashion industry. In economics, entrepreneurship is considered as one of the key drivers of economic growth and development. However, the existing empirical and theoretical evidence show the institutional asymmetry and lack of alignment between formal and the informal institutions hinders the social and economic development of productive entrepreneurship. This study aims at exploring the role of institutions in promoting entrepreneurship in the Nigerian fashion industry by identifying the uncertainties and obstacles that existing and emerging entrepreneurs face while trying to start or run a viable business within the Nigerian fashion industry and then analysing how the existing institutions can be used to foster entrepreneurship in the industry. The findings show that there is high potential and diversity in the entrepreneurs’ experiences within the Nigerian fashion industry, which is in line with neoclassical economists that argue that the main challenge in developing countries is not the lack of skills, technology or knowledge, but rather, the lack of proper institutions. The overview of the current status of institutions within the Nigerian fashion industry identifies various regulatory, financial, social, cultural and educational institutions which are both encouraging and discouraging entrepreneurship in the industry, which is in line with the institutional theory. Thus, this study recommends an alignment in the formal and informal institutions in the economy as a way of solving the existing institutional asymmetries that are causing the poor performance of entrepreneurship in the country.

Purpose:   The purpose of this thesis is to describe and to understand how a company within Swedish fashion industry, namely Frank Dandy, enters foreign mar-kets. Background:   The Swedish fashion industry, defined as SMEs who have produced world-wide recognized brands created by designers and visionaries, has got a lot of coverage in media recently for its success abroad. Theories concerning in-ternationalization have previously not been applied to examine the latest development in the Swedish fashion industry or companies within it, such as Frank Dandy. A gap exists because previous studies have generalized re-tailers, textile industry, fashion houses, distributors and so on as fashion in-dustry. When in reality there is a big difference between these units, and what media refer to as the Swedish fashion industry. Method:   For this study, a qualitative method has been chosen and the abductive ap-proach of systematic combing has been applied when creating a case study concerning Frank Dandy’s internationalization process. The abductive ap-proach enables the authors to successively modify their framework as new empirical findings arise and thus match it with the best theory suited to give insight to how Frank Dandy enters foreign markets. Conclusion:   The purpose of this study has been fulfilled and the authors can conclude that Frank Dandy enters foreign markets through agents and distributors, as predicted by the Uppsala model. However, distributors are preferred over agents since they put less strain on the organization and finally that distribu-tors and agents are handpicked from an extensive international network.