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Fashion illustration by George Barbier of a gown by Jeanne Paquin, 1912, from La Gazette du bon ton, the most influential fashion magazine of its era. In general, the term fashion refers to a prevailing mode of expression, whether it be custom, style of dress, speech, or other. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will change more quickly than the culture as a whole. More specifically, Fashion denotes a prevailing style of dress.[1] Styles in clothing have been used throughout history to allow the wearers to express emotion or solidarity with other people. Fashion is seen as a display of individuality; a person's fashion gives the world around them an idea of who they are. Fashion has been used as an indicator of social class or social status, or as a gauge of how attuned they are to the popular trends of the time. Fashions may vary significantly within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation, and geography. If, for example, an older person dresses according to the fashion of young people, he or she may look ridiculous in the eyes of both young and older people. The terms "fashionista" or "fashion victim" refer to those who slavishly follow the current fashions. The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the current popular mode of expression. "Fashion" is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamor and style. In this sense, fashions are a form of communal art, through which a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. "Fashion" can also be used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads, trends, and materialism. Modern Westerners have a wide array of choices available to them in the selection of their clothes and can choose to wear a style that reflects their personality. A fashion trend may start when people who have high social status or are popular with the public start to wear new or different clothes, and people who like or respect them start wearing clothes of a similar style. The evolution of fashion has been a response to cultural changes, but the fashion industry also has initiated its own clothing trends. It has also been suggested that shifts in trends force consumers to constantly spend money on new clothing that they do not necessarily need. While the opportunity to express creativity both by designers and consumers is a positive aspect of changes in fashion, the tendency of business people to promote fashion trends for profit, exploiting and encouraging materialistic consumerism, can be detrimental to society.
Contents
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1 History of Fashion
2 The Evolution of Fashion o 2.1 Fashion Evolution and Social Theory 3 Fashion in the Media o 3.1 Fashion in Television, Movies, and Music o 3.2 Fashion and Art 4 The Fashion Industry and Intellectual Property 5 The Future of Fashion 6 Notes 7 References 8 Credits
History of Fashion
Albrecht Drer's drawing contrasts a well turned out bourgeoise from Nuremberg (left) with her counterpart from Venice. The Venetian lady's high chopines (shoes) make her taller. It is evident that fashion dates back as far as the ancient Egyptians. Their wigs, hairpieces, make-up, and jewelry are evidence of an extensive fashion culture, and much of their art depicts the importance it held in their society. Ancient Greece and Rome also had their own fashion. Bright colors, the toga, and the Etruscan wardrobe are staples of ancient Greek and Roman fashion.[2] The habit of continually changing the style of clothing is a distinctively Western one. This idea can be traced back to the middle of the fourteenth century.[3] [4] The most dramatic manifestation was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment, from calf-length to barely covering the buttocks, sometimes accompanied with stuffing on the chest. This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers which is still with us today. The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century. Women's fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became equally complex and changing. Initially, changes in fashion led to a fragmentation of what had previously been very similar styles of dressing across the upper classes of Europe. The development of distinctive national styles continued until a countermovement in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, which imposed similar styles once again, especially those from Ancient regime France.[4] Although fashion had always been led by the elitists, an increasing affluence of early modern Europe led the bourgeoisie and even the peasants to follow trends at a distance, sometimes uncomfortably close for the elites a factor Braudel regards as one of the main motors driving rapidly changing fashion.[4] The fashions of the West find no parallel in antiquity nor in the other great civilizations of the world. Early Western travelers, whether to Persia, Turkey, Japan, or China frequently remarked on the absence of changes in fashion there, and observers from these other cultures commented on the unseemly pace of Western fashion, which many felt suggested an instability and lack of order in Western culture. The Japanese Shogun's secretary boasted (though not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years.[4] Ten sixteenth-century portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats. During this period, national differences were at their most pronounced, as Albrecht Drer recorded in his contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the fifteenth century. The "Spanish style" at the end of the sixteenth century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid-seventeenth century, French styles decisively took leadership, a process completed in the eighteenth century.[4]
Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,[5] the cut of a gentleman's coat, the length of his waistcoat, and the pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly. Men's fashions largely derived from military models. Changes in the European male silhouette were galvanized in theaters of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the Steinkirk cravat or necktie.
English caricature of Tippies of 1796 The pace of change picked up again in the 1780s with the increased publication of French engravings that showed the latest Parisian styles. By 1800, all Western Europeans were dressing alike (or thought they were): local variation became first a sign of provincial culture, and then a badge of the conservative peasant.[4][3] Although tailors, dressmakers, and the textile industry were no doubt responsible for many innovations earlier, the history of fashion design is normally taken to date from 1858, when the English-born Charles Frederick Worth opened the first haute couture house in Paris. Since then, the professional designer has become a progressively more dominant figure.
Identity is also important in discussing fashion. Different fashions cater to different personalities. Individuals may try to put their own identity and personality into what they wear in order to make who they are identifiable. Some reject mainstream fashion and create their own style through thrift stores or vintage and used clothing. Individuality is a reflection of larger social and cultural trends, and clothing is created in response to these trends. Sometimes a person's desire for what to wear and what they must wear for different roles conflict, and individual identity is stifled for a public persona. [9]