The Four Levels Of The Fashion Industry

The business of making clothing is a popular trend known as fashion. However, people who believe in this definition will omit the important distinction between fashion and apparel. Apparel is functional clothing, one of humanity’s basic necessities; but fashion incorporates its own prejudices of style, individual tastes, and cultural evolution (Wilson, n.d.). This very distinction is what made fashion emerge to be one of the top ranking industries after steel and oil in the United States (Robbins, 1999). Looking back in history during the 19th century, the fashion industry developed under individual designers. For example, Charles Frederick Worth, who was the first to have the name of his brand sewn into clothing garments he fashioned. Fashion continued to expand its horizons and evolved the culture of capitalism since the 1900s, with the aid of mass amounts of cheap labor, established department stores and shopping centers, marketing and advertising trends, as well as consumption of brand names. Infrastructure plays a prominent role in fashion. Wilson (n.d.) explains how there are four levels of the fashion industry. The first being the primary level of textile production, which includes mills and yarn makers, the secondary level which, makes up the designers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and vendors; the retail level, including all types of stores and distribution points of sale, and lastly the fourth level, also known as the auxiliary level, which connects each other