Forget the girls from New York’s Upper East Side. Forget about London’s socialites, Milan’s glamorous fashion tribes: fashion is a mass phenomenon that affects the emotions of the individual. It has been clearly established thanks to a research conducted by the Italian research institute ISPO and Prof. Renato Mannheimer on behalf of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion.

 Dolce&Gabbana Fall Winter 2012

The analysis was carried out in Italy on a representative portion of the population that responded to questions prepared by the analysts. For 49% of respondents, fashion is important in their lives. It is a source of comfort, happiness, and joy. Fashion puts people at ease. For 78% of respondents, fashion is a business card. It is true that fashion puts an emphasis on social and economic differences: 69% of respondents disagreed with the statement "I choose my clothing also to prove that I belong to a certain social class or category of persons that I feel close to. " Fashion is about self-representation in the world, in society, in social life. It doesn’t sound like a new concept, but in my opinion it has a considerable power: the survey was done on the entire population and not on a small circle of fashion addicts.

Dolce&Gabbana Fall Winter 2012

The surprising fact of this study is not so much the amount of people that say they love fashion (49%). The thing that was amazing to me, is that 59% responded that "fashion facilitates relations." Professor Mannheimer said that fashion is an issue that has to do with the "feel" then with "the look". The study noted that 75% of Italians agree with the statement "if I feel good about how I'm dressed I feel so trendy."

Andrew Garfield, the next Spiderman, in Dolce&Gabbana

The study also highlighted some aspects of the products. Respondents have stated which are the products they are willing to spend more money for: women prefer to order shoes, suits, coats/ jackets, purses, while men spend more on clothes, shoes, coats / jacket pants, shirts. Shoes and bags are products for which Italian fashion lovers are willing to spend more. Perhaps because these items can help with your relationships?
Apart from the irony that bigots could retrieve from poll because it gives so much importance to fashion, I believe that the conclusions were relevant and nailed the fashion community to its reponsibilities: fashion is a mass phenomenon that involves an individual’s emotions. A designer has the right to feel ok with himself when looking in the mirror, but he cannot ignore the emotional value that consumers give to his work. With great power comes great responsibility.

Giuliano Federico
Source: ISPO.it