Editing Fashion (section)

==Fashion industry==
[[File:E1266601_(5398889640).jpg|thumb|upright|Model with a modern dress reflecting the current fashion trend at a fashion show, Paris, 2011]]
[[File:MaxMara-2542.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Kaia Gerber]] at the 2019 Max Mara Fashion Week in Milan]]
{{See also|Clothing industry|Fashion design|Fashion show|Fashion week}}

In its most common use, the term fashion refers to the current expressions on sale through the fashion industry. The global fashion industry is a product of the modern age.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/fashion-industry|title=fashion industry &#124; Design, Fashion Shows, Marketing, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=10 August 2023 }}</ref> In the Western world, tailoring has since medieval times been controlled by [[guild]]s, but with the emergence of [[Industrialisation|industrialism]], the power of the guilds was undermined. Before the mid-19th century, most clothing was [[Made to measure|custom-made]]. It was handmade for individuals, either as home production or on order from dressmakers and tailors. By the beginning of the 20th century, with the rise of new technologies such as the [[sewing machine]], the rise of global trade, the development of the factory system of production, and the proliferation of retail outlets such as department stores, clothing became increasingly [[mass production|mass-produced]] in standard sizes and sold at fixed prices.

Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, {{as of | 2017 | lc = on}}, it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold worldwide. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally.

The fashion industry has for a long time been one of the largest employers in the United States,<ref name="auto"/> and it remains so in the 21st century. However, U.S. employment in fashion began to decline considerably as production increasingly moved overseas, especially to China. Because data regarding the fashion industry typically are reported for national economies and expressed in terms of the industry's many separate sectors, aggregate figures for the world [[textile industry|production of textiles]] and [[Clothing industry|clothing]] are difficult to obtain. However, by any measure, the clothing industry accounts for a significant share of world economic output.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/cheap-clothes-2012-6/|title=How Bargain Fashion Chains Will Keep Themselves Cut-Rate – New York Magazine|work=NYMag.com|date=15 June 2012 |access-date=26 April 2015}}</ref>
The fashion industry consists of four levels:

# The production of raw materials, principally [[fiber]], and [[textile]]s but also [[leather]] and [[fur]].
# The production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors, and others.
# Retail sales.
# Various forms of advertising and promotion.

The levels of focus in the fashion industry consist of many separate but interdependent sectors. These sectors include [[textile design]] and production, [[fashion design]] and manufacturing, fashion retailing, marketing and [[merchandising]], [[fashion show]]s, and media and marketing. Each sector is devoted to the goal of satisfying consumer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit.<ref name="auto"/>