Ready-to-Wear Fashion

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses several international haute couture designers, including Elsa Schiaparelli, Pierre Balmain, Geoffrey Beene and Kishore Biyani who began transposing their fashions for the ready-to-wear market and created an industry of mass merchandising.

From the Paper:

"Ready-to-wear collections are not custom made and are standard sized, which makes them more suitable for larger productions. Ready-to- wear collections consist of a normally represent a certain theme or perspective and to make a fashion statement. They are branded and sold in stores for the mass public marketplace. One of the first designers following this mode was Elsa Schiaparelli. Born in Rome Italy in 1890, she studied philosophy and then moved to the United States and worked as a film scriptwriter.
"In 1920, Schiaparelli went to Paris and designed and wore a black sweater knitted with a white bow. An American store saw this design and asked for an order, and her ready-to-wear business took off with hundreds of knitters producing the fashions. Schiaparelli's designs were innovative and very popular with their use of bright colors, often pink, and her imaginative use of conventional fabrics, zippers and very unusual hats and shoes."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Encylopedia Britannica Online. Pierre Balmain. 27 February, 2008.http://www.britannica.com/
• Rajshekhar, M. 2004. The man they wrote off. Business World 23: p. 15.
• Reich, K. 2006. Retail revolution. SAP 27 February 2008http://www.sap.info/public/INT/int/prnt/PrintEdition- 2706243d401ba642d0/0/articlesVersions-2706243d3f2b13aabe
• Schiaparelli, Elsa Who's Who in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 27 February 2008<http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&ent ry=t47.e1444>
• Schiro, A. 2004. Geoffrey Beene, innovator of American fashion, dies at 77. New York Times. 29 September, 2004, p. 34

More papers on Ready-to-Wear Fashion:

• Term Paper # 117624 : "Fashion and Youth in the 20th Century"
• Research Paper # 63453 : "American Women's Fashion"
• Essay # 52165 : "Georgio Armani"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: