Creativity versus branding

Totemism, Animism and the Pursuit of Uniqueness in Fashion

Bibliographic Data

ID2181470
AuthorsKasper Tang Vangkilde (0000-0002-0971-2827, Aarhus University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume10
Issue2
Pages178-190
Publication date2017-03-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cultural Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1753-0350 • E-ISSN: 1753-0369
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17530350.2016.1248473
OpenAlexW2292635270
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited35

In the contemporary organization of the economy, creativity and branding constitute two distinctive imperatives which generally point in different directions: the former towards newness and change, the latter towards continuity and recognisability. Numerous agents in corporate organizations thus face a conundrum of creativity versus branding, which is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in the fashion business. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a fashion company, I argue that these seemingly incompatible imperatives are inextricably entangled, as their paradoxical relation is solved, even dissolved, in a dynamic interplay between ‘a totemic logic’ and ‘an animist practice’. Thus, a dynamics of totemism and animism unites creativity and branding in the continual pursuit of uniqueness. While totemic and animist modalities are most commonly associated with non-western ontologies and perceived as mutually exclusive, I contend that they are also at work in contemporary commercial processes and that they are enmeshed in, and propelled by, each other. This suggests that these modalities operate together particularly when the making of distinctive identities is critical – as in economic competition today

Animism · Creativity · Sociology · Anthropology · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Psychology · Social Psychology