Fashion and Happiness

 A figure like a giant tree in the fashion business world, Yves Saint Laurent said that good clothing is a passport to happiness. Another fashion legend, Hubert de Givenchy said it is most beautiful in the world to give happiness to people. + 

What does happiness mean?  According to an allegory, an English gentleman walking in the garden told the bird crying. ++

“I don’t cry(sing) because I am happy.”

Then the bird immediately responded, saying, “I am happy because I sing.” We don’t know whether birds sing or cry. Even if people think differently about this discussion, we would like to wish that the bird had sang without crying.

As widely accepted, happiness is influenced by seven factors like family and love, money, work, friends and social relationships, health, freedom, and self-esteem. At least four or five of these factors of happiness are related to ‘human relations.’ Even other factors that were excluded here are not irrelevant to human relations.

From this discussion, there are all kinds of clothes, but especially fashion clothes will bring happiness as long as people are social animals with frequent relationships. Certainly, the views of those fashion legends revealed earlier are correct. 

Of course, there are quite a few people who say that the rich are not always happy. In response, an American film and TV actress, Bo Derek responds eloquently. +++

“Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” 

When a household’s income increases, its expenditures that satisfy basic human needs such as food, clothing, and shelter increase, and accordingly, their happiness becomes more. Under these economic laws, shopping leads to an increase in consumer satisfaction that meets the needs of people. 

Given these general economic phenomena, a clear statement by an American actress is widely acceptable.

-Some of the popular Dongdaemun fashion items we exported last week, seoulclick.com- 

The economic phenomena of the well-known Engel’s law, it states that as household income increases, the ratio of food expenditure to income decreases. This economic law, therefore, means that as household income increases, the proportion of non-food expenditures such as clothing and shelters to income increases.

In this situation, one economist said that as the cost of manufacturing products with automation and technological innovation fell and cost of products in the labor-intensive service industry increased, many households’ consumption behavior changed, resulting in the so-called Baumol’s disease. ++++ This syndrome is caused by a fall in the price of manufactured goods and an increase in the price of service products.

On the other hand, luxury fashion products often increase the burden of household expenses for the products, although the products are manufactured labor-intensively. This is even more so because consumers who prioritize emotional value prefer the latest products amid rapid trend changes.

As such, it is natural that consumption expenditure on fashion products of many households increases rapidly with economic growth. However, for the general public, there will probably be a side effect of feeling relative poverty.

For these and other reasons, the growth of global SPA brand companies is following, and consumer preference for fast fashion products is increasing. In fact, global SPA brand companies are making a lot of money by supplying fast fashion at low prices, but they are unable to achieve sustainable management due to delayed shipment of trend-oriented new products and lack of diversity in merchandising.

As a marketing alternative, Dongdaemun merchants with comparative advantages in product, speed, and price are conducting sustainable management through partnerships with designers armed with craftsmanship and entrepreneurial executives and employees of small but strong sewing factories.

Even though sewing factories around the world have been shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the sewing factories around Dongdaemun market are now running 24 hours a day. And, thanks to the performance of their suppliers’ business, the Dongdaemun wholesale market is also busy commerce from 8:30 pm until the sun rises the next morning.

CEO of Seoul Click, Lee Yong-woo who currently exports Dongdaemun fashion products, fabrics and parts as an agent for purchase, said that we take great pride in selling good products at low prices to make global consumers happy. 

With quality management as the top priority, the company has an inspection system, and exports through five steps such as size measurement, detailed inspection, labelling, ironing, wrapping in plastic bags and putting bar-code, packing in box and shipping. CEO Lee is shouting. +++++

“Click on our website. We will give a gift bag with happiness to global fashion retailers and buyers.”

+ www. google.com

++ Richard Layard, Happiness: Lesson from a New Science, Penguin Book, 2005, p.188.

+++ www.google.com

++++ Andreas Chai, “Household consumption patterns and the sectoral composition of growing economies,” Griffith Business School, December, 2018.

+++++ www.seoulclick.com

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Bong Sul (Advisor, SeoulClick)

www.seoulclick.com

Read more: Bong (Bong Sik) Sul, Dongdaemun Style, ebook.kstudy.com, Seoul, 2019.