Effects of restructuring the Australian fashion industry: From industry policy to cultural policy

Abstract

This paper examines recent developments in the Australian fashion and clothing industry as an example of a small‐scale industry attempting to come to terms with the impact of domestic industry restructuring within the rapidly changing global context of international trade. Most studies of the fashion, clothing and textile industries have concerned industries with major markets or highly specialised industries. There has been little attention to the particularities of smaller, peripheral industries and markets. The argument is that while the issues facing the Australian fashion/clothing industry are common to many industries, particular pressures have come from the contradictions between recent trends in industry policy (restructuring policies of recent governments) and in cultural policy (redefining aesthetic cultural production as industries). The paper discusses the implications of this conjoint approach to the iudustry.