In 2019 the beauty industry was valued at $532 billion and is continuing to grow at lightning pace (Biron). Clearly, the beauty industry is profitable, so why have so few people bothered to study it? In the Barrett thesis database, as of 2020 there were less than half a dozen theses addressing the cosmetic industry, compared to nearly 50 projects concerning football. In response to the lack of study in academics and general public knowledge concerning the history and impact of cosmetics, the multi-part podcast series, Making Ourselves Up: The History and Impact of Cosmetics/Makeup was created by Kaley Scott, a fashion and sociology student. The personal nature of makeup and cosmetics, making the intimate forum of a podcast the perfect medium. The podcast operates in five episodes. First is: Making Ourselves Up, Makeup Fueling our Memories and Selfhood which contains personal narratives of makeup through interviews, establishing the intimate and wide-reaching effects of cosmetics and makeup. The second and third episodes: How We’ve Made Ourselves Up, from Cleopatra to Helena Rubenstein and How We’ve Made Ourselves Up, from Elizabeth Arden to Glossier cover the entirety of the history of makeup and cosmetics, focusing on western beauty. The third episode: Making Faces, Applying Makeup, the Theories that Let Us Create which focuses on techniques and theories of color and makeup application. Lastly is, Making Change, Cosmetics as a Current of Social Change which reveals how cosmetics have led to social change and continue to allow us to reinvent our society and ourselves. Makeup and cosmetics have been incredibly important for the creator for much of her life and she created this project with the aim of proving how important they are to the rest of the world.

Fashion is an inherently political and reflective medium for the daily ramblings and revolutions of a society. Much of the time the influence is subtle. Silhouettes and fabrics reflect different stances on conservatism, on sex, on the degrees to which we fetishize luxury, and on infinite other attitudes of an era. Other times the influence is extremely direct, with text printed on the clothing that explicitly articulates a current societal dynamic. I began exploring fashion in 2016, as the country had reached an unprecedented and linguistically weaponized divide.

While taking a fashion technology course under the instruction of Galina Mihaleva, I developed a tracksuit incorporating concealed LED displays that are capable of scrolling customizable text on the sides of the garment. I expanded on this futuristic execution of politically charged clothes by utilizing a more realistic application of the LED technology in the Bouis Vuitton project. This project is a collection of six white vinyl bags with semi-flexible LED displays projecting revolutionary slogans through the vinyl textile.

The bags act as an appropriate housing for technology that is intended for significantly longer use, as bags have a longer lifespan in wardrobes than clothes and return to trend more frequently. The production investment in the technology is more equitable to the investment in the production of a bag and facilitates the wearer’s broadcasting of concise messages. The result is a collection of functional, utilitarian pieces with a clean, futuristic look and a mixed modern and vintage silhouette scrolling pro-revolutionary messages.

Broadcasting the knock-off name ‘BOUIS VUITTON’, I’ve inserted only my first initial into the reputable luxury company and paired it with slogans: ‘EAT THE RICH’ and ‘HEADS WILL ROLL’. The collection articulates a sense of nihilism felt by the youngest generations growing up on the outside of a very exclusive economic and political sphere. Three upcycled vintage luggage pieces evoke associations with the white American upper-class society of the 1960s. The luggage pieces were retrofitted in white vinyl and white-enameled metal fixtures. Three additional soft bags made of the same material reflect a utilitarian style of functional bags on trend with Spring/Summer 2019 streetwear. For the runway presentation of the bags, the models are dressed in navy-colored Dickies boiler suits, white retro-style Fila sneakers, and white ascots reminiscent of the historical male ruffled cravat. The contradictions of iconic silhouettes from both upper and lower-class American fashion history further the juxtaposition of anti-capitalist slogans posted on luxury goods.

Bouis Vuitton: Bags for the Revolution is intended to embody an unapologetic disregard for established wealth and political power in the most public of venues: the sidewalk, the mall, the high and the low-income neighborhoods – wherever people are wearing clothes. Fashion is the modern protest that requires no permit, and the new poster is a luxury bag.

Over the past two decades, the fashion industry has evolved to both create and respond to the consumer's demand for fast fashion, the industry of inexpensive clothing produced at high rates to respond to changing consumer trends. As fast fashion grew in popularity, the new standard of the industry was to create and manufacture every other week, producing continual new trends for a market designed for continual consumption. As the garments being produced were made for short life-spans, textile waste began to grow and the fashion industry was named the second largest pollutant in the world next to oil. Coming out of a market saturated with clothing, a new trend focused around sustainability and reuse has emerged: the resale market. With increased awareness for sustainability, circular fashion business models have emerged from a more linear and disposable supply chain. By focusing on environmental, social, and financial aspects of a supply chain, otherwise known as the triple bottom line, we discuss how second-hand shopping should be managed to satisfy customer shopping expectations.
The creative project of this thesis showcases various wardrobes that have solely been purchased second-hand. The purpose of the creative presentation is to show that no matter one’s style preference, occupation, or age, second hand shopping can appeal to every type of customer. Second hand shopping is not only for “thrifty” millennials, it it for everyone, and can encompass anyone’s clothing needs.

The purpose of this creative project was to investigate the process a start-up or small business must complete to have a sell-able apparel product manufactured. The initial goal of the project was to experience the manufacturing process from start to finish and complete a full production run from a professional manufacturer. The conclusion found was that start-ups and small businesses will have to begin production within the United States.

In the 1930s, several key fashion photographers were practicing Surrealists: Man Ray, Georges Hoyningen-Huené, Horst P. Horst, Cecil Beaton, and Erwin Blumenfeld. Each photographer explored surrealist-influenced fashion photography and drastically changed the way fashion was seen in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue magazine. While scholars believe the assimilation of surrealist aesthetic devices in fashion photography commercialized Surrealism during the thirties, such photographic output has yet to be assessed in relation to surrealist thought and practice. This thesis argues that Ray, Hoyningen-Huené, Horst, Beaton, and Blumenfeld did not photograph fashion in the surrealist style to promote desire for the commercial product. Instead, they created new pictures that penetrated, radicalized, and even destroyed conventions of mass culture from inside the illustrated fashion magazine.