Abstract What does it mean to describe a fashion business – a designer, a label, a store – as independent? And how does one recognize it as such? Unlike in other cultural fields such as music or film, there is minimal research offering a comprehensive overview of the concept of “independence” in fashion, despite the sector being highly creative, engaging strongly with cultural and social issues, and enjoying increased visibility and impact through digital technology. This article, based in the Australian fashion context, begins to address this by providing a typology of contemporary independent fashion businesses and describing and examining the characteristics of two types. A multi methods approach is used, incorporating semi-structured interviews with sector participants and thematic analysis of social media and website content conducted over a 12-month period. Findings show that independent fashion is not anti-fashion, but instead is fashion conducted by those who wish to retain creative control of their work and to develop and foster close personal connections with their peers and consumers. Findings also suggest that independent fashion acts as an incubator for creative ideas and trends that find their way into mainstream fashion industry practices.

中文翻译：

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什么是独立时尚？澳大利亚视角

摘要 将时装企业——设计师、品牌、商店——描述为独立是什么意思？人们如何认识到这一点？与音乐或电影等其他文化领域不同，尽管该领域具有高度创造力，强烈关注文化和社会问题，并且享有更高的知名度和影响力，但很少有研究提供对时尚“独立”概念的全面概述通过数字技术。本文以澳大利亚时尚背景为基础，通过提供当代独立时尚企业的类型学并描述和检查两种类型的特征来开始解决这个问题。使用多方法方法，包括对部门参与者的半结构化访谈以及对社交媒体和网站内容进行的为期 12 个月的专题分析。调查结果表明，独立时尚不是反时尚，而是那些希望保持对工作的创造性控制并与同龄人和消费者发展和培养密切个人联系的人所从事的时尚。调查结果还表明，独立时尚是创意和趋势的孵化器，这些创意和趋势进入主流时尚行业实践。