No. SI1 (2025): Special Issue
Essays

Relational records: Exploring historical prosperity fashion within business history

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  • Alice Janssens,
  • Liz Tregenza
Alice Janssens
University of Southampton
Bio
Liz Tregenza
University of the Arts London
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3121

Published 14-07-2025

Keywords

  • collectivity,
  • business history,
  • methodologies,
  • education,
  • prosperity

How to Cite

Janssens, A., & Tregenza, L. (2025). Relational records: Exploring historical prosperity fashion within business history . Fashion Highlight, (SI1), 62–71. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3121

Copyright (c) 2025 Alice Janssens, Liz Tregenza

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The profit-centric mentality within much of the global fashion industry causes great harm to societies, environments, and international economies. This focus has come under stark criticism from academia, industry, and consumers who call for broader, more inclusive definitions of success. These should consider people, places, interconnections, and relationships, alongside financial gain. This paper explores how our engagement with fashion’s future can be expanded by looking into its past. This backwards gaze employing a ‘sustainable prosperity’ approach can provide both context and examples for current and future industry application. Focusing on fashion businesses established prior to the rise of fast fashion, we indicate the value of non-traditional sources and viewing business success from a more holistic perspective. We ask how ‘prosperity’ might be defined for a more diverse range of fashion firms. Utilising examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, we suggest that the boundaries of business history of fashion methodologies and sources should be extended. These should account for social, environmental, and collective as well as economic and technological success. If we wish fashion to extend the concept of prosperity, this approach should also be applied within historical contexts as well.  

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