The Most Beautiful Job in the World : Lifting the Veil on the Fashion Industry

“A powerful exposé of Parisian haute couture” – Book of the Week, Times Higher Education Fashion is one of the most powerful industries in the world, accounting for 6% of global consumption and growing steadily. Since the 1980s and the birth of the neoliberal economy, it has emerged as the glittering face of capitalism, bringing together prestige, power and beauty and occupying a central place in media and consumer fantasies. Yet the fashion industry, which claims to offer highly desirable job opportunities, relies significantly on job instability, not just in outsourced garment production but at the very heart of its creative production of luxury. Based on an in-depth investigation involving stylists, models, designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, photographers and interns, anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri goes behind fashion's glamorous facade to explore the lived realities of working in the industry. This challenging book lays bare the working conditions of 'the most beautiful job in the world,' showing that exploitation isn't confined to sweatshops abroad or sexual harassment of models, but exists at the very heart of the powerful symbolic and economic centre of fashion. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Preface Fashion and the dream Introduction When Fashion Becomes a System The 1980s: ‘Dress for success’ The 1990s: The ‘imperialization’ of fashion The New Economy and the cult of creativity Anonymity Part One Fashion and Capitalism: A System for Producing the Dream 1 Fabricating Desire: Press and Advertising The Heidi shoot Fashion photography: The link between production and consumption The dream of transformation 2 Haute Couture: The Apotheosis of the Dream The Abir shoot What is haute couture? The story of an haute couture dress The clientele Is haute couture a viable business? Haute couture: Fabricating an image of France and Paris all over the world The different types of dream 3 The Circulation of the Dream: Fashion and Globalization Pedro and the curse of ‘made in China’ Corinne against China Local people versus citizens of the world: Chloé, Micaela and the ancestral charm of delocalized workers Chloé Micaela Private fashion shows and global inequality Local elites, global elites Fashion in the world Part Two Working in Fashion, or ‘Lucky to Be There’ 4 On the Threshold of the Dream: The Salespeople Gilbert and the dream of luxury Selling the dream: David and the brand ambassadors 5 The Greater the Prestige, the Lower the Pay: The Rules of the Game for Fashion Workers The Mena shoot Working for free in fashion: Modelling Agencies The body as capital The rules of the game in fashion economies Visibility as a form of remuneration? Fashion work as post-Fordist work 6 Prestige and Precariousness: Symbolic and Material Geographies Mia at home The value of objects Between luxury and precariousness Fashion cities The precariousness of those who are caught in between 7 At the Heart of the Dream: The Designer-stylists Thierry, designer-stylist Thierry and Karl Thierry after Karl The arc of Thierry’s career: Fifty years of fashion history The transformations of Thierry’s work Thierry versus Karl: A question of visibility Elsa: The work of the designer-stylist today The rules of the game for designer-stylists Marguerite: The itinerary of a freelancer Reconstructing a framework Maintaining opacity Part Three The Dream, and Those Who Work in It 8 At Work with an Up-and-coming Fashion Designer Meeting Franck The beginning of our collaboration The next part of my ‘internship’ Departure for Paris Desirable projections The day of the show Untangling emotions 9 Knowing How to ‘Be There’: Work Relationships The Deauville shoot The tyranny of cool4 Flexible relationships in cognitive work 10 Getting into Fashion, Creating a Persona, Coping in Fashion, Getting out of Fashion Getting into fashion Creating a persona Coping Getting out Fashion: A place for the exception? Conclusion Loosening the knots What fashion can teach us Index "Fashion is one of the most powerful industries in the world, accounting for 6% of global consumption and growing steadily. Since the 1980s and the birth of the neoliberal economy, it has emerged as the glittering face of capitalism, bringing together prestige, power and beauty and occupying a central place in media and consumer fantasies. Yet the fashion industry, which claims to offer highly desirable job opportunities, relies significantly on job instability, not just in outsourced garment production but at the very heart of its creative production of luxury. Based on an in-depth investigation involving stylists, models, designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, photographers and interns, anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri goes behind fashion's glamorous facade to explore the lived realities of working in the industry. This challenging book lays bare the working conditions of 'the most beautiful job in the world, ' showing that exploitation isn't confined to sweatshops abroad or sexual harassment of models, but exists at the very heart of the powerful symbolic and economic centre of fashion"--$cProvided by publisher "Fashion is one of the most powerful industries in the world, accounting for 6% of global consumption and growing steadily. Since the 1980s and the birth of the neoliberal economy, it has emerged as the glittering face of capitalism, bringing together prestige, power and beauty and occupying a central place in media and consumer fantasies. Yet the fashion industry, which claims to offer highly desirable job opportunities, relies significantly on job instability, not just in outsourced garment production but at the very heart of its creative production of luxury. Based on an in-depth investigation involving stylists, models, designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, photographers and interns, anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri goes behind fashion's glamorous facade to explore the lived realities of working in the industry. This challenging book lays bare the working conditions of 'the most beautiful job in the world,' showing that exploitation isn't confined to sweatshops abroad or sexual harassment of models, but exists at the very heart of the powerful symbolic and economic centre of fashion"-- Provided by publisher