EVENTS

Molecular Design Management in the Fashion Bazaars

(New Zealand) - June 2009

Earlier this month, FINZ and AUT hosted An Evening with Otto von Busch: "Molecular Design Management and the Fashion Bazaar". The award winning haute couture heretic, DIY demagogue and artistic fashion researcher from Sweden's University of Gothenburg wowed our audience during a fleeting visit to New Zealand as a guest of AUT/CoLab. Here's what he had to say ...

What is Fashion?

Von Busch likens fashion to a form of energy that is constantly renewing itself and transfers vigor to the wearer. “The ultimate aim of fashion is to look like everyone else, before everyone else,” he muses. “It’s that moment where the present meets the future and you’re wearing what it is that you want to become. You get the feeling that ‘I’m worth it’ and fashion gives us this energy.”

Freudian Impulses

The preface to von Busch’s research is self-admittedly Freudian by nature, stemming from a childhood spent trailing his parents from place-to-place and all too frequently feeling like the odd one out. All of that changed following a series of craft lessons, which spurred him on to create an AC/DC emblazoned camo-print anorak in his teens. “I went back to school and was suddenly untouchable,” recalls von Busch. A fascination with fashion was born, based upon themes of personal empowerment.

Molecular Design Management and the Fashion Bazaar

The fashion industry’s traditional ‘cathedral’ structure is a hierarchical one, with the designer-dictator at its apex. “We have this idea of innovation being driven by some kind of genius-inventor in relative isolation, with a very clear demarcation between the auteur and the audience,” says von Busch. “The fashion student’s dream is to be a brand, a god.”

This time-honored chain of command is now being challenged by the ‘bazaar’ – a flatter system open to interference, where democracy reigns and inspiration comes from all places at once. Von Busch points to street fashion website The Satorialist and its offshoot Lookbook, where pictures of people are posted and users vote on their favourite looks.

These networks collaborate in different ways, offering Pantone guides and the ability to search images by colour or garment, converting fashion-makers into fashion-followers. “Everyone participates by contributing their ideas, but this is sometimes perceived as subversive and an attempt to pervert the system by fashion’s gatekeepers.”

According to von Busch, the emphasis has shifted from the survival of the fittest to symbiotic relationships between species that simply cannot exist without one another. “The question is: ‘How can we harvest more love, rather than just trying to sell more stuff?’” Even big brands are yielding to the sway of the ‘bazaar’. High street giant TopShop is courting the affections of clothes swapping radicals with its new SwapShop.

“There is almost a genetic code in fashion – elitism and the trickle-down effect. The challenge for industry is how to form closer relationships between professionals, amateurs and consumers,” says von Busch. “There are other ways of organising the fashion system from design to production.”

Feedback

"I found Otto's talk to be a fast paced and innovative one, which was very relevant to where fashion is heading and why. Some great ideas to absorb and utilise."

Trevor Hookway - (director, Hawes & Freer)

"A great evening with Otto von Busch. He delivered some thought-provoking arguments, with humour and style. I enjoyed his critical analysis of the fashion industry and ideas about democratising it through the use of networking tools and encouraging more symbiotic relationships between designers and producers. He also made a point about something that's quite close to my heart - the unsustainable amount of energy and waste that's required post-purchase to wash and care for your clothes ... another reason the switch to eco-friendly products."

Malcolm Rands - (founder, Ecostore)

"Otto von Busch's lecture had all the elements. It was stimulating, entertaining and thought-provoking ... two hours that have enriched me as a person." -

Julie Roulston - (editor, FashioNZ.co.nz)

Dale Sko Hack

Take a look at the industry project that earned von Busch the special prize at the 2008 European Fashion Awards. During a three-day workshop, six established Norwegian designers and a fashion photographer went into a struggling footwear factory - using the existing 'hardware', but hacking the 'software' of its production line, by experimenting with different designs, materials, processes and methods.

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An Evening with Dr Otto von Busch

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