Fashion writing - Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Essay

Fashion writing - Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie - Essay Example The essay "Fashion writing - Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie" examines fashion writing of the Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie. The position thus presented him with an effective opportunity to influence the history of design and fashion through literatures, which had become the fastest growing medium. As an editor, Wilde understood his practice as a writer and therefore understood every word used analytically. Through this view, his first major activity at the news outlet was to vouch for the change of the name of the magazine. The magazine was prior to his employment called The Lady’s world, however with Wilde’s entry into the company, he argued that the word â€Å"lady† restricted the audience to a particular segment of the female audience. By changing the name from The Lady’s world to The woman’s world, Wilde arguably widened the audience f the magazine by targeting limitless female members of the society. For the two years that Wilde served as the editor of th e magazine, his contribution to the history of fashion and design was immense as he reached and influenced thousands of the magazine’s female readers. Wilde’s influence to fashion and design was through literature. He used his magazine to bring together top designers and their target audience thus proving the society with a seamless flow and changes in fashion. Prior to his assumption of office as the editor of the highly celebrated magazine, the term fashion befitted a specific caliber of women in the society. the society had few designers. who equally targeted the high society. fashion, design and trendy attires thus belonged to the society’s wealthy. Additionally, the absence of an effective means of communication complicated the development of fashion since both the designers and their markets lacked a medium of interaction through which they could share ideas thus shape the future of the profession. This made it difficult for fashion and design to spread to other societies. The rich had personal designers. Additionally, they maintained their interactions to the echelons of the society. This way, the rich domesticated fashion and design the expense of the middle class who as Wilde proved consisted of the majority and was therefore capable of changing the industry (Hollander, 1993). Wilde interacted with top designers and shared ideas with them. Even though he lacked fashion and design technical knowhow, he revolutionized the industry by providing the link between the designers and their markets through the media. Additionally, the lack of an effective media limited the interaction among designers. It was therefore difficult for the designers to consult and compare their designs among themselves. Through the magazine, Wilde interviewed and published hundreds of works by various designers. Through the magazine and the heightened interaction among the different tenets in the society, fashion and design became an interactive profession wit h more upcoming designers having a platform to socialize and share ideas with the established designers. The magazine demystified some of the misconceptions about the practice and the selective approach that most designers had adopted. The magazine widened the readership to the middle class female members of the society and in so doing drew the attention of the previously marginalized community as designers began targeting the class. Besides his role as the editor of the magazine, Wilde was also a playwright and managed a theatre. These provided the editor with an effective opportunity to infuse the two and use theatre to expand the