The Nature of Fashion

FASHION

Webster defined fashion as "prevailing custom, usage, or style" and in this sense it covers a wild range of human activity. The term is used in this book in a narrower sense: fashion here means the styles of styles of clothing and accessories worn at a particular time by a particular group of people. Fashion in cosmetics and fragrances and in home furnishings is also covered. 

OR

A ​style that is ​popular at a ​particular ​time, ​especially in ​clothes, ​hair, ​make-up, etc.: Long ​hair is back in fashion for men. Fur ​coats have gone out of fashion. a ​programme with ​features on ​sport and fashion She always ​wears the ​latest fashions. follow (a) fashion › to do what is ​popular at the ​timelike it's going out of fashion informal › If you use something like it's going out of fashion, you use ​large ​amounts of it very ​quickly: Emma ​spends ​money like it's going out of fashion.

 THE NATURE OF FASHION

Fashion is and has been and will be, through all ages, the outward form through which the mind speaks to the universe. Fashion in all languages designs to make, shape, model, adapt, embellish, and adorn.

Fashion involves our outward, visible lives. It involves the clothes we wear, the dances we dance, the cars we drive, and the way we cut our hair. Fashion also influences architecture, forms of worship, and lifestyles. It has an impact on every stage of life from the womb to the tomb.

People started covering their bodies with clothes to keep warm and be modest, but adornment-decoration-was already an important part of dressing. Pressure from peer groups and changes in lifestyle influence the type of adornment considered acceptable in a particular group. Basically, of course, the reasons people have for wearing clothes have not changed. Today, people still wear clothes to keep warm or cool and for the sake of modesty, but what we select for those purpose is very much influenced by a desire to adorn ourselves.

Because people are social animals, closing is very much a social statement. By looking at the way a person dresses, you can often make good guesses about his or her social and business standing, sex-role identification, political orientation, ethnicity, lifestyle, and aesthetic priorities. Clothing is a forceful and highly visible medium of communication that carries with it information about who a person is, who a person is not, and who a person would like to be.

 THE IMPORTANCE OF FASHION 

During recent years, the general interest in fashion has increased enormously. Fashion is one of the greatest economic forces in present day life. To a great extent, it determines what people will buy. Change in fashion is the motivating factor for replacing clothes, cosmetics, furniture, housewares, and auto-mobiles. Fashion causes changes in consumer goods and at the same time makes the new products, since the thought of being unfashionable is a fate worse than death to many people!

As important as fashion is to the individual consumer and to fashion business, probably less is commonly known about fashion than about most other human activity. Although reams of material have been written about fashion, relatively little explains why and how a fashion begins, becomes popular, and declines, and what the principles are that govern fashion begins, becomes popular, and declines, and what the principles are that govern fashion trends. Students of human nature want to know  what fashion means-in the past, in the 2000s, and beyond. Is fashion a political statement? A social statement? Is fashion a measure of the national economy or an art form? Sociologists, psychologists, and historians study fashion in order to better understand society, human nature, and the past. Their findings provide us with insight into the meaning of current fashion. 

STYLE
The first step in understanding fashion is to distinguish between "fashion" and "style," words that most people use interchangeably although there is an immense difference in their meanings. In general terms, a style is the characteristic or distinctive artistic expression or presentation. Styles exist in architecture, sculpture, painting, politics, and music,as well as in popular heroes, games, hobbies, pets, flirtations and weddings.

Style is the characteristic or distinctive appearance of a garment-the combination of features that makes it unique and different from camp shirts as they are from peasant blouses. Riding jackets are as different from safari jackets are as different from safari jackets as they are from blazer jackets.

Styles come and go in terms of acceptance, a specific style always remains a style, whether it is currently in fashion or not. Some people adopt a style that becomes indelibly as sociated with them and wear it regardless of whether it is currently fashionable. The Duchess of Windsor's jewelry, Michael Jackson's glove, are all examples of personal style.
When such styles return to fashion, their basic elements remain the same. Minor details are altered to reflect the taste or needs of the era in which they reappear. For example, the flapper style of the 1902s was short, pleated, and body skimming. That style can be bought today, but with changes for current fashion acceptance.