What is fashion? Introduce different aspects of fashion.

What is fashion? Introduce fashion in your one language.

Elements of Design

Fashion:

Fashion is a term, which is referred to as a state of mind. This word comes from Latin word, which means, “to make.” Fashion is most commonly associated with clothing, but it even applies to anything from interior architecture, to models of toys. It is a spirit, where an individual is comfortable with his mode of clothing and converts this comfort into a personal style. It is a way of measuring a mood that can be useful in many aspects, culturally, socially even psychologically. Perhaps the most distinctive quality about the fashion since the early times is that it is increasing in simplicity.

However, fashion is commonly used to describe a style of clothing worn by most people of a country. Thus, as the word goes, fashion is generally associated with, textile, garments and trends. The word textile refers to woven cloths. It is a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live. A fashion remains popular for the period of time that a large segment of society accepts it; that could be for a few months or years. However, it is normal for the fashion trends to change according to the seasons. For instance, during summers the common colors worn are the pastel shades and lighter fabric. Come winter and the preferred color ranges are the darker and brighter ones and the fabric is heavier.

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Each season does bring into fashion a particular color and style. The trend of the sixties and seventies are in, with the gypsy style being a preference. Fashion is not just limited to female fraternity even men have been taken over by the fashion world. They have become more conscious of what is in and what is not. They pay more attention to their appearance than hey did earlier. Children are also aware and prefer to wear what is in fashion. While seasons are a major contributory factor, the glamour world of modeling and acting are the actual fashion leaders. Fashion houses endorse the latest trends through the media. So to know what`s happening and what`s not, you need to keep a keen watch on what models and actors are wearing, what kind of makeup do they have on and even their hair-do depends on the present fashion trend. So who said that keeping in times is difficult? Expensive maybe, but yet not beyond one`s reach!

For centuries individuals or societies have used clothes and other body decoration as a form of nonverbal communication to indicate occupation, rank, gender, sexual availability, locality, class, wealth and group affiliation. Fashion not only embraces clothing, but also hairstyles, body art, shoes, bags, jewellery and beauty products all constitute today`s fashion trends. Fashion in all its forms from a tattooed and pierced navel, to the newest hairstyle, is the best form of iconography we have to express individual identity. As far as clothes are concerned, fashion is based on fabric, color and cuts.

Fashion is something we deal with everyday. And one thing certain in the fashion world is change. The collections in Paris, New York and Milan, and now London, typically set the stage for the industry one-year in advance. Fashion stylists too get new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, television and even movies. Even the street is the real barometer of style. More and more designers are drawing their inspiration from life on the street. Indian fashion has some prominent names to boast off, like Ritu Kumar, Suneet Varma, JJ Vallaya, Ashish Soni. If a particular clothing or accessory is depicted by famous personalities, it definitely becomes a trend for the people to follow the same. Films have become catalogues and people are copying from the particular style of actors and icons. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, to name a few are considered as the trendsetters for the youth.

However, Indian consumers are the ones, which give the Indian fashion a distinctive quality and a mark of its own, here in India and in the international market as well. Thus, from various surveys one can say that India has about three categories of buyers.

The hi-class, people who are fashion conscious and who go for labels and name. Instead of the budget, they are more interested in designer clothing.

The upper middle class people who is fashion conscious and who make it a point to stay up to date with the ongoing fashion trends.

The last and final category consists of the youth, corporate group, who look out for regular wear clothesline and are budget conscious.

What we wear and how and when we wear it, depicts our personality for changing situations. It is from the clothes a person wears that we get our first impression of personality. They provide mental clues to a person`s status and occupational role, as well as being a means of conforming to peer group expectations. Fashion is important to us because it`s a means of self-expression. It helps to identify ourselves with a group of others like us–whether it`s a lifestyle, a religion, a profession, or an attitude. Thus, there are many reasons we wear what we wear.

Protection From cold, rain and snow: mountain climbers wear high-tech outerwear to avoid frostbite and over-exposure.

Personality Identification Those with high status occupations will wear the clothes they think others expect them to wear They also act as an aid to modesty or immodesty as the wearer so desires.

Physical Attraction Many styles are worn to inspire “chemistry.”

Emotions We dress “up” when we`re happy and “down” when we`re upset.

Religious Expression Orthodox Jewish men wear long black suits and Islamic women cover every part of their body except their eyes.

Identification and Tradition Judges wear robes, people in the military wear uniforms and brides wear long white dresses.