" Le plus beau métier du monde " - Dans les coulisses de l'industrie de la mode (Poche / Sciences humaines et sociales)

by Giulia Mensitieri

La mode est l'une des plus puissantes industries du monde : elle représente 6 % de la consommation mondiale et est en croissance constante. Depuis les années 1980 et l'entrée dans l'économie néolibérale, elle est devenue l'image étincelante du capitalisme, combinant prestige, pouvoir et beauté. Pourtant, cette industrie, qui apparaît comme un horizon professionnel hautement désirable, repose principalement sur du travail précaire, et ce aussi bien là où la production est externalisée qu'au cœur de la production créative du luxe, comme les prestigieux ateliers des maisons de couture.À partir d'une enquête en immersion auprès des travailleurs créatifs de cette industrie (stylistes, mannequins, créateurs indépendants, coiffeurs, maquilleurs, vendeurs, journalistes, retoucheurs, stagiaires, agents commerciaux, etc.), ce livre décrypte les dynamiques d'exploitation et d'autoexploitation à l'œuvre derrière la façade glamour de la mode.Des séances de shooting pour magazines spécialisés à la collaboration auprès d'un créateur de mode, en passant par des entretiens avec des stylistes travaillant pour de célèbres maisons de luxe et de couture, cette enquête dévoile les dynamiques invisibles sur lesquelles repose l'industrie de la mode pour mieux la " déglamouriser ".

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, France

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2020

Reviews

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

You may think the fashion industry is exploitative to the people who make your clothes but anthropologist Mensitieri shows in example after example how workers from designers to models to photographers to interns are systemically abused, exploited and mistreated. That many of them mostly work for free shocked me. Of course there are people making money in the fashion industry but it’s rare and the system is rigged. There are definitely parallels with publishing here but with fashion you’re uniquely so close to luxury and glamour without being able to partake of it. It’s very clear this book has derived from a PhD and is an academic work. It will leave you with no illusions about how deliberately profiteering and broken this industry is. Gosh capitalism is depressing.

[Katarína Laurošková · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world of fashion is universally acknowledged as something glamorous and mostly unattainable. To be able to wear newly designed clothes, walk the runway or cooperate with the designers is a dream of many. However, there is a price that is paid for life in this dreamland. Unpaid hours of work for people who cannot be bothered to learn your name even after months and expect you to be happy to even be there. So many would kill for the opportunity, right? This book shows the part of working in the fashion industry that usually stays hidden in order to protect the exclusivity and support the magic it so desperately tries to preserve. Created from a point of view of a person who tried it for herself in order to report it as believably as possible. And it is not always a nice thing to read about yet important to finish. Because maybe publishing stories like those that are present in this book can help to bring fair conditions for people who want to work in this beautiful world and are able to afford at least a bit of the glamour they represent.
I have enjoyed this book, especially the variety of different topics it discusses. I think this book is great for everyone who is even remotely interested in fashion. I guarantee that you will read your monthly fashion magazines with a much deeper understanding.

[M- · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enquête très accessible pour qui n'a pas l'habitude de lire de l'anthropologie parce que la théorie économique est toujours illustrée par des portraits de travailleurs et la description de situations vécues par la chercheuse. C'est à la fois passionnant et effrayant, avec une mention spéciale pour le stage de l'enfer auprès d'un créateur chez qui Giulia Mensitieri a choisi de postuler dans une démarche d'observation participative.

[Romy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an ethnographic study of the labour conditions in the world of luxury fashion. I really enjoyed it, the focus on the people Giulia met during her ethnography made it captivating as a book with no particular ties to this field. I like this approach of making academic work more accessible. I would love to read something similar that focusses on mid-range brands that we all purchase from (e.g. Kmart, Target, etc.). 4.5/5.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

* I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

The problem is that if you want to make beautiful things you have to work with psychopaths.

This pithy comment by one of her interviewees pretty much sums up anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri's deep dive into the fashion industry. It is an industry where exploitation of workers is rife, and the more involved that you are in making fashion, the more exploited you are.

Mensitieri explains that haute couture is essentially a loss-leading ad campaign to get people who could never afford to buy such clothing to spend big money on more affordable items such as ties, handbags and so on. The sellers of these items, who generate most of the profits for the fashion houses, get paid minimum wages which are supplemented by discount vouchers for the label's goods, which they still have to save up to buy.

The prevailing ethos of the industry is one of "you are lucky to be here, why should you expect to be paid?". Mensitieri talks of "symbolic capital" and "economic capital". The former is the opportunity to work with leading designers or magazines such as Vogue, or to participate in Paris Fashion Week. These opportunities are so sought-after that people get paid almost nothing for the chance to do them. They are driven to seek "economic capital" by doing work for lower-end designers and publications. The snag is that the more exposure they get doing "economic capital", the less attractive they are to the haute cuisine part of the business, destroying any aspirations of reaching the top of their profession. This is a dilemma which fashion workers buy into, against their own interests, sentencing most of them to a hand-to-mouth existence in search of a dream.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am an advocate for slow fashion and my business is slow fashion but I love clothes and am interested in the history of fashion. I thought I would really enjoy this book, but if I'm honest it's far too academic for me. I finished it, but it was hard work. The premise was fascinating, some of the material was really interesting but it was the style of the book that I found hard. It's clearly a piece of academic writing and as such it wasn't really something I could immerse myself in. I found it all too easy to put it down. For me, as a lay person there was too much academic language and far too many footnotes. If I was using this for research or work purposes no doubt it would be perfect, but it really wasn't for me. I was intrigued to learn about the world of haute couture, because when you read about fast fashion and fashion as a polluter or as a driver of commerce it tends to focus on high street brands and pile em high shops rather than the luxury end of the market. I learned a lot.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a frightful look into the world of Haute Couture/high fashion in Paris and Brussels. Only the actual designers make money. The industry has accepted that people work insane hours for free or for a pittance. I thought the interviews were very interesting in the book and enlightening. Fashion is deemed a "creative" sector and thus asks insane things from the people working in that sector. I especially found the moments from her internship enlightening.
Sometimes the book delved a bit too deep in explaining semantics of a term or going fully philosophical on it. While I understand the focus on higher end fashion, I really did expect at least a chapter on how the larger fashion industry is truly horrible.
It opened my eyes, and has made me even more sad about the fashion industry. The book was well researched and interesting.
If anyone from the fashion industry reads this - Please take a look at how this can be permanently changed for the better.

- I read the English translation of this book. The book was provided as an ARC by NetGalley.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excoriating examination of not just the high-end fashion industry but also consumerism and neo-liberal capitalism, globalization, and the vacuousness of celebrity culture. It reveals the astonishing exploitation of most people involved in the manufacture of this 'dream' - from models and seamstresses though to stylists and photographers - while the huge multi-nationals that are the parent companies of so many well-known haute couture houses make a fortune.

This book does show its origins as research for a doctorate in social anthropology, and contains a hefty dose of French Marxist theory. But it will leave you pretty sure that good ol' Karl actually had quite a few pertinent points to make about society - and things have only got a whole lot worse since he shuffled off this mortal coil.

Published in English translation as 'The Most Beautiful Job in the World: Lifting the Veil on the Fashion Industry'.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very honest and open book into the world of fashion. When I read it, it felt like I was there, it was so descriptive. This is an industry that I had always wanted to work in since I was little, but after reading this, I am so glad I didn’t. Dressmaking has remained my hobby until this day, but if I had worked at any of these places mentioned, I wouldn’t have had the same joy all these years.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

[Federica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking, beautifully written. The ethnographic details described by Mensitieri bring the field alive in our imagination. The theoretical argument is clear and compelling. Accessible ethnography even to non-specialists.

[Maxine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un livre très informatif et qui va dans le détail ; mais justement, tellement dans le détail que s'il on est pas sociologue ou en études de sociologie, il faut s'accrocher pour comprendre ne serait-ce que la moitié des idées.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The conversation on labor alone...but then the terrible, juicy deets?!

[Michael Paulini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal but interesting view into the competitive world of house couture based on a few example cases.

[nikki levinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I work in fashion so i am biases, but felt like a lot of complaining to me. I think if you didn’t work in fashion it would be fascinating

[Zoe Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional book on what some may term the ugly side of fashion. While the book is a scathing commentary on the gross inequalities and rampant exploitation that exist in the industry it does address the deeper question of how you reform or help those being exploited if they do not consider it so. How do you save someone who doesn't want to be saved? Overall I think this book is about obsession. About having the passion and deep love of something so all consuming that you become blind to its negative impact on your own life and the world around you.
A fascinating, well-researched read.