Fashion, industrialisation and entrepreneurship are forever linked.

Something old. The word "entrepreneur" was made fashionable by someone who grew rich as a cotton factory entrepreneur. The French economic theorist, Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832), is credited as the first in continental Europe to write about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. He was inspired by Adam Smith.

Something new. Fashion continues to track important business trends. Briefly, to illustrate:

1.   fashion thrives in e-commerce and online social networking (there's an abundance of blogs about it,

2.   fashion manufacturers, retailers and unions use social branding in Australia (ie No Sweat),

3.   fashion grows publicity, it even has its own global fashion blog awards, The Fabbies,

4.   fashion depends on rapid innovation for survival (fashion cycles faster than ever before),

5.   fashion assumes outsourced manufacture is the norm, and

6.   fashion (particularly luxury brands) churn out a regular stream of lessons on brand building (see diagram).

Further reading on fashion: 

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Graphic credit: By Australian management author, Michael B. Beverland, University of Melbourne, Department of Management.