Abstract
Through in recent years, more papers have paid attention to the issues regarding how to protect the fashion industry with IP regulations, and in what originated degree should the protection be offered. All these discussions from the idea that fashion industry is composed with design process and the final works. However, empirical data shows that even if copy and counterfeiting exist in the fashion industry, the industry is still prosperous and profitable. This thesis therefore intends to focus on the nature of fashion industry and the function in its system of production. Main body of thinking is based on Professor Johanna Gibson’s theory of “community resources” and Professor Charles Taylor’s theory of “authenticity”. The thesis provides a discourse of the fashion industry and explains that IP regime is not the optimal ways to protect the industry. In the meantime, one should acknowledge that fashion industry is a local industry in Taiwan. The discourse of the fashion industry in Taiwan can not be separated from the social, historical, and cultural contexts in textile industry. It has its own features of community and dominant position, which provides a variant to the above proposition and is subject to conditions emerged from empirical studies provided herein, which composes the real landscape of the fashion industry in Taiwan. The finale of this thesis indicates that communal knowledge, internal regulations of the fashion industry, localization, and values of diversity in culture and environment should all be taken into account when people discuss the issues. And the findings in the thesis may serve as a guide or a new angle for further research of the related topics.