It’s never too late to be fashionably late The H&Mification of Oslo Ragnhild Brochmann Master thesis in Aesthetics – History of Art Supervised by Professor Kjetil Fallan Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, Faculty of Humanities UNIVERSITY OF OSLO June 2016 II It’s never too late to be fashionably late The H&Mification of Oslo Ragnhild Brochmann III Copyright Ragnhild Brochmann 2016 It’s never too late to be fashionably late: The H&Mification of Oslo Ragnhild Brochmann http://www.duo.uio.no Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo IV Abstract From 2010 to the present, a different, more fashion-conscious air has arguably been blowing into the capital of Norway; socio-culturally, media-wise and above all as a performed and visual part of the city’s everyday life. Namely, in the shape of the increasingly fashionable way young citizens dress themselves. However, and as argued throughout this thesis, the most notable change over the last few years has been the increasing commercial input from acclaimed design-neighbour Sweden: eight Swedish retail brands opening fourteen new stores within the city centre of Oslo between 2008 and 2015. In short, the shopping topography has changed, and our sartorial habits with them. Or so it seems. Taking my subjective observation, as well as the factual alterations above as my point of departure, I constructed the thesis by thinking the two together, asking the following questions: Why is the style and dress-practise of young, female Oslo citizens arguably more oriented towards international fashion ideals now than a few years ago? Might the change in dress code relate to the recent implementation of trendy, Swedish retail stores? And further, if there is a link between the two, what makes Swedish retail fashion particularly appealing to young Norwegian customers apart from the uplifting price tag? Based on extensive empirical research, I found the young and ‘fashionable’ to unanimously prefer Weekday, Monki and COS, as the H&M-subsidiaries made them feel unique and different. Thus in the end, the thesis came down to dissecting a paradox: How had a mass producing mega company managed to position itself as the one, trustworthy broadcaster of ‘unique’ and ‘different’ fashion? My guess: through dressing monoculture in camouflage and similarity as difference. Analyzing the H&M Group’s aesthetic-didactic aptitude as an incident of micro cultural imperialism, I turned to Tod Hartman’s analyses of the imperialist powers of related company Ikea, changing his highly critical and essentially negatively imbued term Ikeaization into the ambivalent, yet less condemning H&Mification. Through a novel body of empirical research, this thesis contributes to filling a gap in fashion academe, as research on the high street remains curiously limited even in the face of unprecedented fashion democratization. Further, conducting an analysis of Norwegian fashion as a contemporary, everyday practice, I frame two topics not yet researched: Norwegian fashion as a practiced phenomenon – as opposed to one designed and manufactured – and one too contemporary to yet having been granted its own scholarly account. In so doing, I finally venture to make a contribution to a field but sparingly V researched within Norwegian academe, and to a discipline not yet established here: fashion studies. VI Acknowledgements This thesis has represented the long move from slow-burning convalescent to well and back again. I could never have done it without my friends and family. Thanks to my mother and father for being the ultimate support regardless of matter. Thanks to my younger brother Jo for the years of living together, and my older brother Gaute for discussing thesis structure when fine-tuning was needed. Thanks to Mari and Halvor for reading the first chapters with cheering belief and clever remarks, and to Johanna Zanon for qualified feedback as well as the joy of meeting a new colleague. Thanks to Veronique Pouillard for enthusiastically commenting most chapters at a crucial time, and for doing so without any formal prerequisite to boost confidence. Thanks to Hedda for stepping in as a supreme reader towards the end, and to Erlend for polishing off the last Norwegian edges as well as weeding out the underwood of ‘Shakespearian spices’ – the formerly much-loved thus. Never again. Thanks to Freya for always being just a call away, and to Ingrid Alice for having eyes and ears for whatever question. Thanks to Sjur for spirited kitchen-conversations and to Carl for the meticulous tweaking of the Appendixes over two cans of tinned sardines. And thanks to Tale for being my rock. Last but not least, thanks to my supervisor Kjetil Fallan for showing calm persevering confidence, and for always being up for a good laugh disregarding the thesis’ uncharted ways, and however long it took to write it. In the end, it was all good thanks to a great love of the subject and the crew who came on board when the master-ship sailed at sea. Finally at bay, I think it is fear to say we made a good journey of it. VII VIII Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Something fashionable is stirring: Oslo 2010-2013 ........................................................................ 3 Literature Review: Framing neglected fields of research ............................................................. 6 Introducing fashion studies .............................................................................................................. 6 Existing research on high street fashion ......................................................................................... 7 Research on Swedish retail .............................................................................................................. 9 Norwegian fashion academe .......................................................................................................... 10 High street fashion as fashion proper and the unique vintage ................................................... 11 Aims and objectives ........................................................................................................................ 14 Thesis structure............................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1: Everyone should have the right to look good! On the global democratization of fashion from the post-war era to the present .................................................................. 17 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 17 The transformation of high fashion .............................................................................................. 18 The Teenager: How to conduct a fashionable revolt ................................................................... 20 A long awaited marriage draws closer .......................................................................................... 23 Answering the ‘so what’? ............................................................................................................... 25 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter 2: The empirical trident: Designing and conducting the empirical research.... 29 Carefully reading ‘glossies’ ............................................................................................................ 30 Designing and executing the questionnaire-based survey ........................................................... 32 Framing ‘the trap’: People and places.......................................................................................... 34 Hunting and gathering ................................................................................................................... 35 Constructing the collective interview ............................................................................................ 36 The successful spread of Swedish design-monoculture ............................................................... 37 – Ikeaization gets a related term .................................................................................................... 37 Self-criticisms .................................................................................................................................. 39 Future research trajectories .......................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 3: The style and style diffusion power of mainstream ‘consecrators of cool’ ... 42 Fashion magazines as cultural product and commodity ............................................................. 42 Empowered Norwegian fashion magazines: ELLE, Costume, Stylemag .................................... 46 ‘Consecrated Cool’: The Style Promoted in ELLE, Costume and StyleMag 2013- 2014 .......... 49 ‘Back to the 90s!’ The promoted ‘looks’ and accompanying copies .......................................... 50 Brands and Prices ........................................................................................................................... 53 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 55