Förra årets modell

Catwalking och cool-hunting

Abstract

Catwalking became one of the means of production in the years of The New Economy, but it is also a skill with a long history. This paper discusses the cultural analysis of fashion, looking at the history of catwalking in the haute couture of 19th century Paris, the motor industry of the 1920s and 30s as well as the world of cool-hunters, event-managers and brand-builders of the 1990s. What happens when catwalking is moved from one arena to another?

Catwalking is about looking good, communicating an appetizing image with a brisk movement forward, but it is also about radiating energy: enthusiasm, will-power, self-confidence.

Catwalking is, together with 'cool-hunting', also about the production of newness, providing glimpses or promises of what is about to come. It thus needs to be analyzed in relation to the cultural processes of fashion, how does a brand, a product, a company move in and out of fashion?