Making Creativity, Not Innovation. Lessons from the Field of Fashion

Conceptualizing creativity as an ascription made by external audiences, this paper sheds light on the organized making of creativity, a process we label creativization. Creativitization is based on specific forms of knowledge and communication. By means of empirical illustrations from the field of fashion, we first view the utilization of knowledge in the form of materializations (in technologies), repertoires (of routines), and pooling (in projects). Second, we shed light on the significance of communication and demonstrate that communication in the form of themes, narratives, and storytelling not only serves external purposes of staging, but also fulfills internal functions of developing novelties. Third, we consider the (often lose) couplings between knowledge utilization and communication in the making of creativity. Finally, because manifest and highly institutionalized creativity expectations absorb resources and attention, we view creativization as an innovation barrier or even a substitute for innovations rather than its base.