Beyond the Aesthete: Transforming the Role of the Fashion Designer in an Emergent Social Construct

The traditional role of the fashion designer is no longer relevant or sustainable. As the contemporary fashion marketplace reaches unprecedented levels of abundance and consumption, consumers’ needs and desires for design move well beyond the material realm. Thus, fashion designers can no longer maintain a singular focus on producing objects that offer conventional forms of value (e.g. material worth and function). Designers must now incorporate “emotional value” into their creations that targets consumers’ unique practical and emotional needs. This new practice requires the fashion designer’s role to transform. The conventional and outmoded ”designer-as-auteur” who espouses personal preferences and dictates to consumers must be replaced by designers who, through their use of advance research processes grounded in the social sciences, offer emotionally compelling products that provide emotional value to their audience. <a href="https://universityofflorence.medium.com/beyond-the-aesthete-transforming-the-role-of-the-fashion-designer-in-an-emergent-social-construct-9102129d3c0a">Website</a>