From élite fashion to mass fashion

The role played by fashion in the clothing market in Britain in the 60's is analyzed. The study is based on interviews with fashion designers & fashion journalists, & on the answers of a sample of several hundred consumers to close-ended questionnaires with few open-ended questions, on statistical data about the clothing market in Britain, on market research data, & on the available literature about the development of fashion as a mode of clothing behavior. Distinction is made between mass fashion & elite fashion as 2 different modes of clothing behavior, both reflecting responsiveness to innovations in style & design. The findings are roughly consistent with the hypotheses: (1) that clothing behavior in Britain in the 60's tended to be fashion-oriented, (2) that fashion in Britain in the 60's was age-group directed more than class-directed, (3) that mass fashion is disposed toward uniformity & the consumer's response is not primarily oriented toward the presentation of individuality, (4) that mass fashion tends to be anonymous & unpredictable as to the response of the consumers to each individual innovation, & (5) that varying participation in the process of diffusing fashion is conditioned by differences in respective perception of the part in the processes & by the patterns of communication among them. In the light of the prevalence of mass fashion & its implications, some modifications are suggested to the existing theoretical approaches to fashion. Modified AA.