Women's, men's, and children's apparel

Women's wear is the largest segment of the fashion industry. It sets the trends for other segments such as merchandising of ready-to-wear apparel, which has been centered in the fashion district of New York City, with other major markets in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta. The production of women's wear is segmented in several ways and companies may specialize according to particular categories: activewear, bridal wear; sizes, including misses, junior, petite, women's.

While men's wear changes more slowly than women's wear, the industry was quick to capitalize on the new interest in men's wear, offering increasingly diverse products by using increased automation. In children's apparel, however,  it is segmented by gender and by size categories. Designer labels in this industry are becoming increasingly important as are character and sports licensing. Furthermore, the segment that has simply been called children's wear can now be called children's and teen's fashion.

Leather and Fur

The most glamorous and sought-after textiles-leather and fur-are also the most controversial among society. Since leather is a by-product of the meatpacking industry, it is not the target of environmental as the fur industry. Basically, almost all leather comes from cattle, yet there are nine major categories of leather: cattle, sheep and lamb, goat and kid, equine, pig and hog, deer, kangaroo and wallaby, and exotic leather. The leather industry is a specialized operation that involves the prediction of trends far in advance; moreover; leather producers decide on what production method, textures, and colors they will use 8 to 16 months in advance. As a result, the leather industry's forecasters are considered the best and most experienced in the fashion industry. Instead of meeting consumer needs in a few fashion areas, today, the leather industry has changed in resulting three trends: enlarging market opportunities, increased competition from synthetics, and increased foreign trade. Furthermore, the industry's efforts to develop markets ensures future growth for the industry.

In the fashion industry, the wearing of fur exemplified one's wealth and status. Fur is still an enormous business in America. There are fifteen popular furs that are used in the fashion industry today, and they are: beaver, calf, chinchilla, coyote, ermine, fox, lamb, lynx, marten, mink, nutria, rabbit, raccoon, sable,. and tanuki. The fur industry is divided into three groups: (1) the trappers, farmers, and ranchers who produce the pelts and sell them at auctions; (2) the fur-processing companies; and (3) the manufacturers of the fur products. Although it was popular in the United States, the fur industry is slowly losing its fame due to the animal rights groups that have protested the wearing of animal fur as cruel and inhumane. Yet, the fur industry's response has been strong on a number of fronts. They stress that: fur farms do not remove animals from the wild, ninety-five percent of U.S. mink production comes from farms certified as humane, and unlike fake fur, real fur does not use nonrenewable petroleum by-products.
In all reality, as a fashion designer one must be aware of the animal treatment behind the production of both fur and leather. Then, one can base his or her decision on whether or not to use either fur or leather in his or her collection.

Dynamics of Fashion-Chapter 5

In chapter 5, the business side of fashion is thoroughly explained. Fashion is not limited to just apparel; it impacts our complete lifestyle as well as the products we buy. The business of fashion contributes significantly to the economy of the United States through the materials and services it purchases, the wages and taxes it pays, and the goods and services it produces. The fashion business is composed of 4 levels: primary level, the secondary level, the retail level, and the auxiliary level.
Companies compete with others at their level by offering advantages of price, quality, and innovation. Like other businesses, fashion companies grow horizontally or vertically by expanding into levels beyond the level of their original business. Similarly explained in chapter 4, at all levels, fashion business executives must be able to predict the tastes of the consumers who wear and use their merchandise.
The designer, the manufacturer, and the retailer play different roles, yet they need one another to function and, most importantly, to be successful.  Designers must continually study the lifestyles of those consumers for whom their designs are intended. Manufacturers, on the other hand, are committed to producing several new lines a year. Although retailers do not usually create fashion, they encourage its progress by the degree of accuracy with which they anticipate the demands of their customers.

The Dynamics of Fashion-Chapters 3,4

In chapter 3, it basically states how a cardinal rule in any business is "know your customer." That, in itself, is truly important in the fashion industry. As a fashion design major, one must know what is in style and must be updated with the latest trends. Moreover, it is also important to be aware of the conditions that affect a particular customer's environment and to know how the environment differs from one group to another. Four major environmental factors were explained in chapter 3 that affect fashion interest and demand: market segmentation by geographics, demographics, psychographics, and behavior, the degree of economic development and well-being of a country or society, the sociological characteristics of the class structure, and the psychological attitudes of consumers.
In market segmentation, geographics are population studies that focus on where people live. Demographics are population studies that divide broad groups of consumers into smaller, more homogeneous market segments such as age, sex, family size,  etc. The psychographics, however, are studies that develop fuller, more personal portraits of potential customers and their lifestyles. Psychographic studies more fully predict consumer purchase patterns and distinguish users of a product. Lastly, in an attempt to gather even more insight into customer preferences, some retailers and manufactures use research on behavior.
Another major environmental factor is the economic environment. In the economic environment, the growth of fashion demand depends on a high level of economic development, which is thoroughly reflected in consumer income, population characteristics, and technological advances. Consumer income can be measured in terms of personal income, and the more personal income consumers have the more socially acceptable they consider themselves to be. Consumer income has a great impact on the fashion industry as well as population. The majority of the population of the United States has some capricious income and can influence the course of fashion; moreover, by the size of the total population and the age mix of the population.
Thirdly, the sociological environment, is another factor that completes the environmental factors. We strongly need to understand the sociological environment in which fashion trends begin, grow, and fade away. Social freedom, mostly from women, exemplifies the changes that fashion undergoes within the sociological environment. For example, short skirts, popular in the 1920's are commonly interpreted as a reflection of women's freedom.  However, war, disaster, and crisis is also an exemplification of the sociological environment. People develop a need for fashions that are compatible with changes in their attitudes and also changes in their environment.
Lastly, the psychological environment has a great impact on the environmental factors as a whole. The five basic psychological factors that influence fashion demand are boredom, curiosity, reaction to convention, need for self-assurance, and desire for companionship. People tend to become bored with fashions too long in use, and that explains why the desire for change is so grand in the fashion industry. Curiosity causes interest in change for its own sake. Yet, one of the most important psychological factors influencing fashion demand is the reaction to convention. People's reactions take one of two forms: rebellion against convention or adherence to it. But, as human beings overall, the desire for companionship is fundamental.  Fashion plays its part in the search for all kinds of companionship.

Chapter 4 thoroughly explains the theoretical notion of how fashion is like a river; because of its continuous flowing-sometimes it is slow, while other times it is turbulent. All of this is true of fashion, too. There are specific factors that influence fashion movement. The accelerating factors, such as widespread buying power and leisure time, are ever growing and accelerating in the 21st century as the pace of life becomes rapid. On the other hand, the retarding factors are the development of fashion cycles     that either discourage people from adopting incoming styles or encourage them to continue using styles that might be considered on the decline. One important influence of the fashion movement is the recurring fashions. In the study of fashion history, we interpret that styles reoccur, with adaptions that suit the times in which they appear. Occasionally, an entire look is reborn; this is very common in the fashion industry.

Being in the fashion industry, on must learn to play in the apparel fashion game. The pieces of the game are the various parts of the female body: waist, shoulders, bosom, neckline, hips, derriere, legs and feet, as well as the figure as a whole. The rules of the game, however, begin with the most vital rule in which fashion emphasis and it does not flit from one area to another. The second rule of the fashion game is that only certain parts of the body can be exposed at any given time. The third rule is that fashion attention must always go forward.
Knowing that fashion must always go forward, as designers we must predict the movement of fashion. Basically, the successful forecaster of fashion must: distinguish what the current fashion trends are, estimate how widespread they are, and determine when these fashions will appeal to the firm's target customer groups. Fashions are accepted by a few before they are accepted by the majority. An important step in fashion forecasting is isolating and identifying those fashion leaders and keeping track of their preferences.

More or less, fashion leaders are people that constantly seek distinction and therefore likely to launch a succession of fashions rather than just one. Fashion today take its influence from people that are famous. Because they are seen so frequently, the public has a good sense of their fashion and lifestyles and can imitate them to the extent of the public's means and desires. Individual communities have their own fashion innovators and influentials, but fashion's acceptance ultimately depends on fashion followers.

A Century of Fashion-1920's

The 1920's was the start of a revolution to the fashion industry. It was the century in which both men and women indulged themselves in casual wear. Women abandoned their formal clothing and replaced it with short skirts and trousers. The "Roaring Twenties" was a nationwide phenomenon that inspired women to have a boyish figure; most importantly, one of the first women to begin this revolution was Coco Chanel. Coco Chanel, one of my favorite designers, changed the fashion industry forever.
Overall, in today's lesson, I was most interested in the 1920's than any other era in fashion history. Personally, I saw the 1920's as the foundation to modern fashion. Women today dress casually, yet they dress in formal wear when the time is necessary. They are not afraid to wear trousers as the men still do, and many have been known to still have hair resembling to those of the 1920's. The most intriguing aspect to the 1920's was the "flapper". Women who were flappers not only affected fashion but also they affected society as a whole. Suddenly, women began to smoke in public, curse on a daily basis, and drive automobiles. Of course, not every woman today does this regularly. But because of this period of time, women nationwide have the divine right to act as how they wish. I find the impact this era had on our modern times fascinating.