AbstractTitle: ?Fashion be in fashion? ? a qualitative study of the phenomen fashion blogs (?Mode är på modet? ? en kvalitativ studie av fenomenet modebloggar)Number of Pages: 46 (54 including enclosures)Author: Maria RydströmTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and communication studies DPeriod: Spring semester 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala universityAim: Contribute to the understanding of a yet unexplored domain, fashion blogs. And contribute to a discussion of the roll of fashion blogs in the swedish fashionindustry.Method: Qualitive textual analysis of three fashion blogs and interviews with the authors to the three fashion blogs. Completed with six interviews with experts from the fashionindustry and the blogworld.Main results: The authors behind the fashion blogs are young women living in big cities.They write about fashionnews, runway trends, fashion items and style outfits worn by them selves. Fashion blogs provide a new way to follow trends and spread them to the society.

Lindex has a strong fashion position and is one of northern Europe's leading fashion retailers. Unfortunately their logotype no longer measures up to the fashion level that is required. Surveys and interviews have been conducted with employees at Lindex, disscusing their logotype. I have come to the conclusion that what is needed from Lindex side is strict guidlines for the employees to follow so that all information from Lindex to their customers is made with a great touch of fashion to it and in a coherent way..

This thesis aims to describe how a fashion designer should balance art and commerce in order to succeed in the fashion industry. We aim to define the Swedish term KRÄDD, and sort out how a designer or CEO in the fashion business should relate to the term, as well as the balance between cultural and economic capital. We present theories of the origins and fluctuations of fashion, as well as social studies on cultural capital, and brand building. The study is made in a qualitative manner where the empirics consist of interviews with 13 respondents that have different positions in, and experience from the fashion industry, including designers, journalists, buyers, a CEO and a PR-professional. In our conclusion, we emphasize the need for a balance between cultural and economic capital in order to succeed as a fashion designer.

As companies exert themselves to find new ways of achieving market dominance and stronger brands, the phenomenon co-branding has become increasingly popular. By cooperation between two different firms the combined effects can result in synergies not only on the balance sheet, but even through softer values such as Brand recognition, equity and larger market share. Recently the fashion company H&M launched a collection together with the esteemed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. The objective of this paper is to examine the effects the collaboration had on consumer?s attitudes towards the two brands.

The purpose of our essay is to develop an understanding and an insight for the fashion industry. We want to examine what the creative industries can learn from the unique position that fashion hold in a field between commercialization and art. We used a theoretical ground to enlarge our understanding for the distinctive place that fashion holds. To gain further insight in the fashion industry we complete the theory with empirical facts. The empirical facts were collected through a qualitative method with deep-going interviews.

Today, branding is not a phenomenon but rather a prerequisite for a brand to be able to both survive and grow stronger. During the last couple of years, personal branding has come to be an established term, just like corporate branding. With the growth of the social media and the thousands of ways to interact with each other personal brands face great competition. It is more difficult than ever to maintain a strong brand, partly because of this. There are several growth options for brands.

The purpose of this study is to understand and get increased knowledge about what it means to see artists as brands. What are the typical assets and what kind of advantages and disadvantages are distinctive when it comes to applying a brand perspective on artists. Brands are an important part of our lives today, and the benefit of seeing a company as a brand has made that not only big companies are interested in building brands. Beyond companies even persons now want to become brands. The new perspective in seeing persons as brands is interesting and something that made us curious to investigate.

This research examines the effects of creative store window displays of Fashion brands in enhancing recall, attitudes, intentions and brand associations. A comparison has been made between high-end and low-end brands, creative versus non creative store window displays to identify differences in effects. The theory applied in this study has been used from creative advertising effects due to the lack of relevant research in store window display effects. Therefore this study is a contribution to the research of store window effects. The method used in this study compare fashion high-end brand with fashion low-end brand by placing the products in the store window display where the creativity has been manipulated.

The Secret Fashion Council blends spirituality with fashion, art and design. This jewellery collection shows the connections between parapsychology and quantum physics, based on the study of matter and energy, that everything in the universe is built of vibrations. Many believe psychics have the ability to sense this. By using the skills of a psychic, the Secret Fashion Council invites the wearer to have the jewellery ?read? and evaluated in a most special way, tracing the wearer?s spiritual past, present and future.

Ephemerality is one of the most essential characteristics of fashion, since fashion by definition is existing in the present, in the fleeing moment. Also, fashion is closely related to art and there is currently no clear theoretical distinction made regarding the boundary between these two domains. In this essay I have explored the concept of transiency and the relationship between fashion and art in relation to fashion in general and to the collection Haute Papier, made by the fashion designer Bea Szenfeld, in specific. The Haute Papier collection is constructed almost entirely out of simple white paper sheets and of this reason it can be regarded as ephemeral. The material also positions the garments in a void between fashion and art, simultaneously existing in both domains and in none of them.

Brands are the instruments corporates use to create and communicate brands reputation. Within the different industries for consumer products intangible assets such as brands are known to have great importance for corporate prosperities. When consumers experiences a specific brand symbolizes best possible value for money, the corporate behind it has managed to create a unique competitive advantage that should be to its full potential. Strong brands can pose the difference between winning or loosing on the market. Due to this brands should be considered as cost-effective instruments since they help create financial advantages such as consumer loyalty.

When the competition is getting stronger and companies must work harder to find new markets, new products and create new needs to reach growth, it appears strange that they overlook an obvious target segment right in front of their eyes. For some years ago, marketers of Fashion brands feared that older women would wear their clothes, because it gave bad promotion for the young economically viable target group. Today, older women have difficulties finding clothes with right fit, style and personal taste. They would gratefully accept a brand, they felt were aimed for them. The purpose of this study is to give new ideas to companies in the fashion industry, how to reach this target group, but also be a contributing reason for older women to see the market opening for them.

Thesis purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the interdependencies within the process of partner selection in the fashion and design sector and the emanating criteria for finding the ideal co-branding partner in order to use co-branding as a strategic brand activation tool. Methodology: Multiple Case Study Theoretical perspective: Brand Building and Brand Activation, Relationship Marketing, Strategic Alliances, Affinity Partnering, Co-Branding, Consumer-Brand Relationships Empirical data: Interviews with expert consultants and company representatives (adidas, BMW, BMW MINI, Diesel, H&M, Opel, Philips, Sharp, Volkswagen) Conclusion: Partner selection depends decisively on the different co-branding aims and incorporates the crucial step when using co-branding as a tool for strategic brand activation. The co-branding aim and the corresponding partner lead to various types of relationships, which, in this study, are anthropomorphized to connect the world of marketing and branding to real life. Fashion and design brands have proven to be particularly eligible as co-branding partners for brand activation due to their innovative and trend-oriented nature..

In a time of fierce global competition, where an immense amount of commercial messages reaches consumers around the clock and in every conceivable context, companies constantly seek to find new ways to reach out with their product. One way to do so, that has increased in popularity in recent years, is the use of gift bags. A gift bag may contain samples, miniature products and even products in full size, as a rule from several different brands, which the recipient receives free of charge. The gift bag is typically distributed at some form of event, such as store openings, fashion shows, theme parties and the like, and the receiver of the gift bag can then evaluate the content without any obligation to purchase. The ambition of the companies that choose to participate with their products in a gift bag is, of course, that the recipient will find their products satisfactory, and ideally, that he or she will continue to consume the brand in the future.There are numerous scientific research contributions related to the use of free samples, but very few that concern the gift bag, where a collection of samples from different sources and brands appear.

My aim with this study has been to examine how the fashion is a leading component in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.I have studied the role fashion plays in the novel and in which way it can be seen as a way of letting the reader know the important role of fashion in 19tcentury England and the morals of Oscar Wilde.To prove my thesis I have used literature that shows how Oscar Wilde uses influences from his own life in his writing of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have also used Judith Butler's theory of performativity in analyzing the characters in ordet to display their way of staging themselves and their lifestyles and their dependence of that performativity in their interactions. Even though the theory of performativity often is used to hold the importance of the sexes, I have concluded that it has an important role in the novel when Dorian Gray interacts with the character Sibyl Vane who is an actress. My results have shown that fashion in the novel is often a way of letting the reader know important elements of a character in the way that certain fabrics and items are mentioned when Wilde writes about his characters. I have also found that fashion is an important factor when the characters judge each when they speak about the way they dress.