What is Fashion?

The term fashion refers to a dominant mode of expression. Although the term fashion can apply to a wide range of fields, from interior design and architecture to economics and technology, many people associate fashion with clothing. What a certain culture understands by fashion is goodness and beauty.

What goes by these criteria will therefore be fashionable. What doesn’t fit in that particular mode of expression will be considered unfashionable. When used, the word fashion usually has a positive meaning and is frequently associated with the concepts of style and glamour. However, when referring to a person as being materialistic or trendy, the term fashion has a negative connotation. The idea of making a statement through fashion goes back to the sixteenth century in Europe, therefore we can conclude that fashion is more than four centuries old.

Still, what most people understand by fashion is expression through clothes and only began to express itself in the eighteenth century on the old continent. Fashion varies depending on many factors, among which the most important are time and society. How fashion changes over time is more than obvious. Young and people have distinct concepts of fashion. Their perceptions of fashion are not interchangeable; as everyone knows it would be ridiculous to see an old man dressed in a young man’s clothes and the other way around.

There are also multiple perceptions of fashion within a society, according to age, occupation, generation, social class and so on. The most prominent feature of fashion is that it is constantly subjected to change. Not too many people regard this constant change as productive, since it encourages consumers to purchase things unnecessarily, just out of the pleasure of constantly experiencing something interesting and new.

As far as clothes are concerned, how can we decide what is fashionable what is unfashionable? How do we decide what to wear? Do we go by the latest fashion trends and become fashion victims, or do we stick to what we know looks good on us? Tough choice isn’t it? The idea of fashion in the 21st century refers mostly to high-heeled shoes, handbags, sports suits, cheap designer jeans and ripped jeans and a whole lot more.

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