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Fashion Wiki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fashion, a general term for the style and custom prevalent at a given time, in its most common usage refers to costume or clothing
style. The more technical term, costume, has become so linked in the
public eye with the term "fashion" that the more general term "costume"
has in popular use mostly been relegated to special senses like fancy dress or masquerade
wear, while the term "fashion" means clothing generally, and the study
of it. This linguistic switch is due to the fashion plates which were
produced during the Industrial Revolution, showing the latest designs.[citation needed] For a broad cross-cultural
look at clothing and its place in society, refer to the entries for
clothing, costume and fabrics. The remainder of this article deals with
clothing fashions in the Western world.[1] Clothing fashions
For detailed historical articles by period, see History of Western fashion
The continually changing fashions of the West have been generally
unparalleled either in antiquity or in the other great civilizations of
the world until recent decades. Early Western travellers, whether to Persia, Turkey, Japan or China
frequently remark on the absence of changes in fashion there, and
observers from these other cultures comment 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 (not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years.[2] However in Ming China, for example, there is considerable evidence for rapidly changing fashions in Chinese clothing.[3]
Changes in costume often took place at times of economic or social change (such as in ancient Rome and the medieval Caliphate), but then a long period without large changes followed. This occurred in Moorish Spain from the 8th century, when the famous musician Ziryab introduced sophisticated clothing styles based on seasonal and daily timings from his native Baghdad and his own inspiration to Córdoba, Spain.[4][5] Similar changes in fashion occurred in the Middle East from the 11th century, following the arrival of the Turks who introduced clothing styles from Central Asia and the Far East.[6]
The beginnings of the habit in Europe of continual and increasingly
rapid change in styles can be fairly reliably dated to the middle of the
14th century, to which historians including James Laver and Fernand Braudel date the start of Western fashion in clothing.[7][8] 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 to look bigger. This
created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over
leggings or trousers.
The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century,
and women and men's fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of
the hair, became equally complex and changing. Art historians
are therefore able to use fashion in dating images with increasing
confidence and precision, often within five years in the case of 15th
century images. Initially changes in fashion led to a fragmentation of
what had previously been very similar styles of dressing across the
upper classes of Europe, and the development of distinctive national
styles. These remained very different until a counter-movement in the
17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, mostly
originating from Ancien Régime France.[9] Though the rich usually led fashion, the increasing affluence of early modern Europe led to the bourgeoisie and even peasants
following trends at a distance sometimes uncomfortably close for the
elites - a factor Braudel regards as one of the main motors of changing
fashion.[10]
Ten 16th century portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats, and at this period national differences were at their most pronounced, as Albrecht Dürer recorded in his actual or composite contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right).
The "Spanish style" of the end of the century began the move back to
synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the
mid 17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a
process completed in the 18th century.[11]
Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,[12]
the cut of a gentleman's coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the
pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly. Men's
fashions largely derived from military
models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in
theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to
make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk" cravat or necktie.
The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the increased
publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles;
though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France as
patterns since the 16th century, and Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion from the 1620s. 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.[13]
Although tailors and dressmakers were no doubt responsible for many innovations before, and the textile industry certainly led many trends, the history of fashion design is normally taken to date from 1858, when the English-born Charles Frederick Worth opened the first true haute couture
house in Paris. Since then the professional designer has become a
progressively more dominant figure, despite the origins of many fashions
in street fashion. The four major current fashion capitals are acknowledged to be Milan, New York City, Paris, and London. Fashion weeks
are held in these cities, where designers exhibit their new clothing
collections to audiences, and which are all headquarters to the greatest
fashion companies and are renowned for their major influence on global
fashion.
Modern Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's personality or likes. When people who have cultural status
start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may start.
People who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar
style.
Fashions may vary considerably within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation, and geography
as well as over time. 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 someone who slavishly follows the current fashions.
One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion language incorporating various fashion statements using a grammar of fashion. (Compare some of the work of Roland Barthes.)
An important part of fashion is fashion journalism.
Editorial critique and commentary can be found in magazines,
newspapers, on television, fashion websites, social networks and in fashion blogs.
At the beginning of the 20th century, fashion magazines began to
include photographs or (PicS) and became even more influential than in
the past. In cities throughout the world these magazines were greatly
sought-after and had a profound effect on public taste. Talented illustrators
drew exquisite fashion plates for the publications which covered the
most recent developments in fashion and beauty. Perhaps the most famous
of these magazines was La Gazette du Bon Ton which was founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel and regularly published until 1925 (with the exception of the war years).
Vogue, founded in the US
in 1892, has been the longest-lasting and most successful of the
hundreds of fashion magazines that have come and gone. Increasing
affluence after World War II
and, most importantly, the advent of cheap colour printing in the 1960s
led to a huge boost in its sales, and heavy coverage of fashion in
mainstream women's magazines - followed by men's magazines from the
1990s. Haute couture designers followed the trend by starting the ready-to-wear and perfume
lines, heavily advertised in the magazines, that now dwarf their
original couture businesses. Television coverage began in the 1950s with
small fashion features. In the 1960s and 1970s, fashion segments on
various entertainment shows became more frequent, and by the 1980s,
dedicated fashion shows like Fashion-television
started to appear. Despite television and increasing internet coverage,
including fashion blogs, press coverage remains the most important form
of publicity in the eyes of the industry.
However, over the past several years, fashion websites have developed
that merge traditional editorial writing with user-generated content.
New magazines like Runway Magazine, which is led by Nole Marin from America's Next Top Model, have begun to dominate the digital market with digital copies for computers, iPhones and iPads.
Sporting a different view, a few days after the 2010 Fall Fashion
Week in New York City came to a close, Fashion Editor Genevieve Tax
said, "Because designers release their fall collections in the spring
and their spring collections in the fall, fashion magazines such as
Vogue always and only look forward to the upcoming season, promoting
parkas come September while issuing reviews on shorts in January."
"Savvy shoppers, consequently, have been conditioned to be extremely,
perhaps impractically, farsighted with their buying."[14]
[edit] Intellectual property
Within the fashion industry, intellectual property is not enforced as it is within the film industry and music industry.
To "take inspiration" from others' designs contributes to the fashion
industry's ability to establish clothing trends. Enticing consumers to
buy clothing by establishing new trends is, some have argued, a key
component of the industry's success. Intellectual property rules that
interfere with the process of trend-making would, on this view, be
counter-productive. In contrast, it is often argued that the blatant
theft of new ideas, unique designs, and design details by larger
companies is what often contributes to the failure of many smaller or
independent design companies.
In 2005, the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) held a conference calling for stricter intellectual property
enforcement within the fashion industry to better protect small and
medium businesses and promote competitiveness within the textile and
clothing industries.[15][16]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^
For a discussion of the use of the terms "fashion", "dress", "clothing"
and "costume" by professionals in various disciplines, see Valerie
Cumming, Understanding Fashion History, "Introduction", Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8967-6253-X
- ^ Braudel, 312-3
- ^ Timothy Brook: "The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China" (University of California Press 1999); this has a whole section on fashion.
- ^ al-Hassani, Woodcok and Saoud (2004), 'Muslim Heritage in Our World', FSTC publisinhg, pp. 38-9
- ^ Terrasse, H. (1958) 'Islam d'Espagne' une rencontre de l'Orient et de l'Occident", Librairie Plon, Paris, pp.52-53.
- ^ Josef W. Meri & Jere L. Bacharach (2006). "Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K". Taylor & Francis. p. 162.
- ^ Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, p. 62
- ^ Fernand Braudel, Civilization
and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday
Life," p317, William Collins & Sons, London 1981
- ^ Braudel, 317-24
- ^ Braudel, 313-15
- ^ Braudel, 317-21
- ^ Thornton, Peter. Baroque and Rococo Silks.
- ^ James Laver and Fernand Braudel, ops cit
- ^ http://www.newislander.com/ports/2010/02/fashions_own_sense_of_season/
- ^ IPFrontline.com: Intellectual Property in Fashion Industry, WIPO press release, December 2, 2005
- ^ INSME announcement: WIPO-Italy International Symposium, 30 November - 2 December 2005
[edit] Further reading
- Cumming, Valerie: Understanding Fashion History, Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8967-6253-X
- Meinhold, Roman (2008) Meta-Goods in Fashion Myths.
Philosophic-Anthropological Implications of Fashion Myths. In: Prajna
Vihara. Journal of Philosophy and Religion. Bangkok, Assumption
University. Vol.8., No.2, July-December 2007. 1-17. ISSN 1513-6442
[edit] External links
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