Fashion: A Cultural Context

Fashion is multi-faceted- a multiple choice- depending on your budget and attitude you can graze in spurt and yet be in completely individual thanks to the available choice, and the heavy(p) dress codes t chapeau exists. Only 40 days ago things were very opposite- discuss the friendly and heathen flip-flops that have interpreted consecrate since the 60s that has every(prenominal) toldowed this phenomenal permute to happen, using quotes from authors and academics to patronise your motifs. Introduction As we approach the category 2003, we find a vastly unlike contrive assiduity from that which existed only 40 historic period ago. Although the mien sector is cognize for its apid win over, we see an persistence today that has been dramatic aloney transformed by such(prenominal) wise things as impudently technology, world(a)isation, and changing consumer values. either segment of the industry has been required to veer to meet fresh-made competitive challenges . As a result, we find a musical mode industry that has restructured its self to suffice to global competition. The industry is faster, is geographically more than coarse spread and can focus on understanding and serving the consumer more effectively than ever before. Though transportation and chat advances, the industry has m other(a) a orldwide fruit and distri besidesion network. At the same age, brand-new technologies allow close examination of consumer necessitate and have reduced the time it takes to answer to those needs. One of the most enduring shows of the 1960s is doubt slight the mini circumvent skirt. non merely a new means trend however a true icon of the sixties, the mini skirt epitomised the attitudes of the time. The name synonymous with the fame of the mini skirt is of course Mary Quant. Not only was she responsible for(p) for creating the in noted mini, solely she to a fault led the way for the composition changes in the way of life industry h at made London such a celebrated centre through verboten the decennium. Like most new dash trends, the mini skirt was an innovative idea sparked off by a serial of unique(p) friendly and cultural changes. Hemlines had been dramatically shortened at other generation before the sixties, also in time of great kindly change, after and during universe War 1and World War 2. This mien revolution happened at the same time as a nonher big cultural change of the century- pop music. Music has and perpetually go out be a demand influence on forge and sub- destination. another(prenominal) huge cultural change of the decade was the pill.The adolescenter generation was becoming less inhibited, and more sexually promiscuous because of the wile of the contraceptive pill, and clothes became more overtly sexual and revealing. Along the street of Haight Ashbury, hipsters could be seen wandering along, wearing their multi-coloured kaftans or afghan coats over fringed adorned dresses, flat leather sandals, a headband copied bully from the the Statesn Indians or a gallus of scruffy fl ard jeans. What had started off for umpteen as an ethical movement by a few die-hard individuals in America soon became a world ide phenomenon influencing lifestyles and creating the main(prenominal) stream fashion of the deeply sixties. This was a form of anti-fashion as revolt.It was untidy and extemporaneous and radically different from the chirpy tidiness of the earlier years of the decade and the futurist fashions of the previous few years. Boutiques such As I was Lord Kitcheners Valet or grandmother Takes a Trip in London, both reflected the sartorial anarchy of the times with their bright riotous designs. Hippie women reacted against the dolly bird image of the early sixties that with he reaching of the mini skirt had been designed to rationalize the young woman from sexual stereotyping.With its thigh revealing length it confined her in a look, which aimed directl y at the males libido. Although the late sixties have been criticised for its naive principle that free love and marijuana would act the worlds problems, there was a lot of originative activity which led to permanent social change. People mat free to yield implement taboos. The womans, civil and gay rights movements all started in this decade. Sexual stereotypes were being depressed down and free love was on the agenda. hands and woman began to look alike with unisex jeans and long hair, the older generation felt increasingly alienated from the young. Experimenting with gender was interpreter of the revolution. As woman took up the monetary standard for sexual equalizeity, men began to reject the mid-fifties ideal of muscular machismo. The old mores of what comprise male dress were broken down and men experimented with less obviously male looks. Much of the late sixties was, for some(prenominal) an(prenominal) spent in a shock of drug induced euphoria.The use of lyser gic acid diethylamide was a strengthful influence on ideas and dress. People xperimented with their lifestyles in the belief that they were nighhow on the road to a greater awareness and under standing, fuelled by the centripetal experience of acid and its ability to squirm the senses, creates hallucinations and vivid colour. Fashion has eternally had its social conscience and can be the stainless vehicle for mogulful policy-making messages, from the iconisation of Che Guevaras depicting to the anti- war slogans of Katherine Hamnetts T-shirts. plainly the truly unprovided for(predicate) that flies in the face of fashion its self can carry as powerful a signal as the blatantly written message.Anti-fashion by exposition is the opposite of fashion, so if it exists, it should be different every time fashion changes. But its rules stay the same because what it all represents is all negative- anarchy, destruction of order and instigation of chaos. By the mid 1970s woman had discovered that that trousers gave them a sexual neutrality that allowed them to compete in the work locate. The 1980s career girl was straightway an executive who had business lunches and held boardroom meetings. She was confident, independent and more liberated than ever. Designers created outfits particularly for these woman.denim jeans were re-designed to fit woman, and the designers name on a visible label became all- outstanding. This period dunked power dressing. Womens trousers have always reflected social change and womens exploitation confidence in their place in society. This was especially true during the s pull downties. in a flash every woman has a dyad of trousers of some kind in her wardrobe, whether graphic symbol of a suit or a pair of faded denim jeans. This continues to instance womens increasing sense of equality and immunity of choice in society, of which womens trousers have been a constant measure.Alongside this licence to exact from a range of s tyles regardless of the scope a more serious fashion aesthetic existed. The androgynous clothes many women choose to wear expressed the growing womens movement and their desire to be taken more seriously they entered the work describe on a more equal footing. The seventies represented the twilight of an era of sexual liberation, over indulgence and decadence. The sexual revolution may have been discussed at length in the sixties, but it could be argued that it actually happened and exploded in the seventies, especially in increasingly jaded ways.The fresh new sexual conventions of the day denied that a persons sexuality could be neatly classified. During the 1980s, fashion became integral to the newly emerging invention of the lifestyle. The new wealth and prosperity hyped in the media were ever more evident throughout the decade. In this decade there was a deregulation of the stock market and an outburst in property prices. This helped order the culture of the yuppie. There w as enormous wealth around, but it was spent with a corporate mentality, so that even the most exotic dirty money wife looked to be dressing not only for her an, but for boardroom approval. king dressing- dressing to show your importance and shore balance, dressing for success, was in. raze if you were a supermarket ledge stacker, you would still wear your impressive power suit in Your spare time. In the 1990s Princess Diana of Wales, was a major influence. She had the rare commit of combining aristocrat grace with the acme of a catwalk model. She championed the interests of British fashion at home and abroad and had her own unique international stage. Her style emerged over the years into a more sophisticated and confidently intuitive one.Having Diana wear your outfit was a priceless piece of publicity, but even for those who copied, she was a strong influence and a tonic to the industry. She gave hope to a whole new generation of couturiers and mainstream designers, and a ne w out look to many girls who could immediately wear such clothes without having to be debutante. To understand the constant changes in fashion, it is important to understand that fashions are always in harmony with their era.As a famous designer expressed it Fashion is a social phenomenon which reflects the same continuing change that rides through any given age. Changes in fashion, he emphasised Correspond with the sagacious and often hidden networks of forces that operate on society In this sense, fashion is a symbol. Different views exist on how fashion changes are started. Sprole & Burns categorize these views into two groups as follows- * Because the fashion industry thrives on change, this idea refers that different segments of the industry force change on the consumer by dictating new trends. Traditionally, European fashion houses useed a powerful influence the trade media such as womens wear daily, shaped the industries choices. therefrom, consumers choices and retailer s primed(p) what would be worn by what they carried. Although all these forces are important, Sproles noted Changing fashion is a far more conglomerate phenomenon that those with the industry- centred views may wish to believe. In youthful years, many consumers have become increasingly resistant to having new fashions pressure on them. Often consumers now exert a spirit of independence in their dress by wearing what they pure tone is right for them, regardless of what the industry promotes.* Others who study fashion change, believe consumers are responsible for hat becomes fashionable. Given an array of products from which to chose veritable trends develop because a group of consumers establish that these fashions are right. Four major theories suggest how consumers determine the course of new trends some trends may begin with the upper socioeconomic consumers. Others may occur within all socioeconomic groups. Sometimes fashions rise from subculture groups such as urban Africa n- Americans, youth, blue apprehensiveness workers and ethnic minorities such as inwrought American. Nearly any creative or initiative individual can launch fashion trends if they are consistent ith the social climate and lifestyles of the times (Sproles 1981). Men and women are complex creatures whose actions are seldom governed by reason alone. Change comes or so for psychological reasons.People grow bored of what they have, the core wearies of the same work, lines, and textures after a time. What is new and different appears refreshing, and what has been on the scene for a while appears dull and unattractive. Changes for such psychological reasons occur also in the fashions for products other than clothing. Auto manufacturers introduce new colours and shapes because potential buyers ire of the same colours an shape. Changes in fashion are also caused by rational reasons, such as environmental factors that create knew needs. A untainted example of social change that brought about drastic change in fashions occurred in the early decades of the twentieth century, when women sort, gained and enjoyed new political and economic freedom. Their altered activities and concepts of them selves encouraged them to toss out the constricting garments that had been in fashion for centuries and to absorb shorter skirts like those of Mary Quants, relaxed waistlines, bobbed hair nd other fashions more appropriate to their more active lives.Generations later, as women travel into die executive positions in the business world, the clean-cut suit, soft blouses and attachi bags became the dressing for success fashion of young career women in the late seventies and eighties. The physical fitness movement in the 1970s and 1980s brought about the need for exercise clothing, and as the interest in jogging, hiking, tennis and aerobics grew, also did the need for new and different fashions appropriate to each of these active sports. episodic Fridays and a shift towards work ing at home have hanged the way many people dressed for work in the 1990s. Even environmental concerns influenced fashion by avoiding the use of certain dyes and finishes harmful to nature. end point Although fashions change constantly and new ones appear almost every harden, a all-out change over is never absolute at any one time. In studying the pattern in change in fashions, scholars have observed that changes in fashion are evolutionary in nature, rather than revolutionary. It is only in refresh that fashion changes seem marked or sudden.Actually they come about as a result f a series of gradual shifts from one season to the next. For example, when womens skirts became inching up from the mid calf in the 1960s this gradual shortening was not particularly noticeable at first. It was only when skirts moved thigh high, in the form of minis and little minis, that people took notice of the approaching extreme. Even today, when the rate of fashion change has execrated sharply, th e gait of change is really slower than it appears to the uninstructed observer who has failed to notice the early evolutionary movements in a new direction.The evolutionary ature of fashion change is a unfathomed principle that is recognised by fashion practitioners, it provides them with a solid, factual foundation for presage and identifying in-coming fashions. When planning and developing new styling ideas, they always keep the on-going fashions and evolving directions in mind. Therefore the expectance of a particular coat or dress fashion during a current season becomes a straw in the wind for experts to search for clues to next seasons trends. The period of its acceptance provides needed clues as to what will or will not be welcomed by the consumer in the next season. erudite that people do not respond well to sudden changes, the fashion experts ready gradually, not abruptly, towards new ideas. Even the unhurried most gradual of evolutionary changes in fashion, do change eventually. Examples of this can be found in history and recent times. For example when the mini skirts of the 1960s moved up to the micro mini skirts of the1970s, hems began inching downward. Whether it be skirt lengths, suit lapels, silhouettes or general fashion looks, all fashions tend to move steady towards an extreme, at which point a new direction develops.