frfashion1-1, Exercise 3: Choosing claims to test

Model answer (check the details), using two claims from the table:

Claim 1: "Paris is the capital of fashion."
Evidence to look for: where the major houses are based and where their sales come from, the number of international buyers and journalists at each fashion week, the headquarters of the luxury groups, and the histories of other centres such as London, Milan and New York (Chapters 7, 8 and 10). Where to find it: the federation and the fashion weeks' own reports, company accounts, and industry studies. The claim is defensible for couture and luxury, but "capital" needs a definition, and Milan, London and New York each lead in other respects (check).

Claim 2: "Haute couture is a dying art."
Evidence to look for: the number of official couture houses over time, the number of clients, the share of sales from couture, and the number of workers in the ateliers (Chapters 5, 7 and 9). Where to find it: the federation's lists, company reports and studies of the craft trades. The claim is partly true of numbers (there were far more houses in 1950) but couture has also found new clients and has been used as a marketing tool, so "dying" may be too strong (check).

In both cases, state what would change your mind before you look at the evidence.

Care: do not treat a slogan as a measurement. Check which period the claim is about.