Vestoj Issue Six

Vestoj is a forum where academia, the museum world and the fashion industry can work together and with active communication.

We write about the cultural phenomenon that is fashion in a manner that opens up for dialogue between theory and practice in order to raise awareness for fashion as a cultural phenomena and field of research and cultivate an even greater understanding for the discipline. Issue Six: On Failure In a society that venerates success, few things are as alarming as the prospect of failure. The thought of failure is compelling though, irresistible even, perhaps both because it offers us a chance to empathise but also because it allows us to look at those who have failed and feel better about ourselves. Failure scares us as much as it fascinates us. We have all suffered from it, in one way or another, and we all will again. F. Scott Fitzgerald begins The Crack-Up by telling us that ‘all life is a process of breaking down,’ and considering that we are all headed towards death, that ultimate biological failure, he has a point. But while we’re still caught up in the makings and breakings of careers, love affairs and all the other particulars that let us push the thought of our own demise to the very back of our minds, our failures are of more prosaic substance. In the fashion business this is done all the time. No venture is ever a failure. Last season’s collection is always a success – so much better than the season before! Our marketing executives are master manipulators, kings of spin. With some subtle pulling of the correct strings, a downfall is transformed into a temporary glitch in the machinery, and a breakdown is nothing but an occasion to rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes. What’s not to love about a story like that – imagine all the bags it’ll shift! Language: English