fashion

1. The prevailing style or custom, as in dress or behavior: out of fashion.
2. Something, such as a garment, that is in the current mode: a swimsuit that is the latest fashion.
3. The style characteristic of the social elite: a man of fashion.
4. 1. Manner or mode; way: Set the table in this fashion.
   2. A personal, often idiosyncratic manner: played the violin in his own curious fashion.
5. Kind or variety; sort: people of all fashions.
6. Shape or form; configuration.

1. To give shape or form to; make: fashioned a table from a redwood burl.
2. To train or influence into a particular state or character.
3. To adapt, as to a purpose or an occasion; accommodate.
4. Obsolete. To contrive.

after (or in) a fashion

1. In some way or other, especially to a limited extent: She sings after a fashion.

[Middle English facioun, from Old French façon, appearance, manner, from Latin factiō, factiōn-, a making, from factus, past participle of facere, to make, do.]

SYNONYMS  fashion, style, mode, vogue. These nouns refer to a prevailing or preferred manner of dress, adornment, behavior, or way of life at a given time. Fashion, the broadest term, usually refers to what accords with conventions adopted by polite society or by any culture or subculture: a time when long hair was the fashion. Style is sometimes used interchangeably with fashion, but like mode often stresses adherence to standards of elegance: traveling in style; miniskirts that were the mode in the late sixties. Vogue is applied to fashion that prevails widely and often suggests enthusiastic but short-lived acceptance: a video game that was in vogue a few years ago. See also synonyms at method.

Style of conduct or dress being followed by individuals. The marketing person attempts to develop products that meet the current tastes and inclinations of consumers to enhance sales.

In a fairly literal translation from its French and Latin origins, the word fashion describes the make or cut of an item, the forming of its shape. However, over the centuries, the word has acquired a specific association with the design, making, and wearing of clothing. Fashion now implies an awareness of and a desire to be at the forefront of changes in styles of dress and personal appearance. It can be used to suggest an extravagance and frivolity far removed from the mere functional need to clothe the body for reasons of modesty or to offer protection.

Origins

There is general agreement amongst costume historians that the origins of what we understand as fashion are to be found in the late fourteenth century. The flowing, unemphatic full-length lines which had characterized the dress of both sexes since late antiquity were gradually abandoned. Men's dress changed faster than women's, with the adoption of short tunics and closely-fitted garments. This coincided with the newly formed guilds of tailors developing skills in cutting and fitting fabric to the figure, thus allowing a much wider repertoire of stylistic effects to be achieved, with fabric and padding emphasizing or exaggerating the contours of the body. Better trading links with the Near and Middle East had introduced wider ranges of fabric, new techniques for their manufacture, and fresh ideas about colour and decoration. Inevitably, fashion, even in this early phase, was the prerogative of the wealthy who could afford the rich silks and fine linens which supplemented the staple Western European woollen fabrics. Over the next two centuries the emergence of a wealthy merchant class with international interests in trade and banking widened demand for luxurious possessions. Sumptuary laws were introduced, prohibiting the wearing of certain fabrics and colours, and meting out punishment to those who dared to presume that mere wealth could ensure equality of choice with the ruling class. This reinforcement of the notion that fashion was the prerogative of the few recurred throughout the succeeding centuries.

Fashion changed relatively slowly in the period c.1500 to 1700, and the finest clothing was a valuable commodity, finding its way into inventories and wills, being remade and, not infrequently, stolen. The limited terminology of dress began to expand from the late seventeenth century onwards, with a proliferation of new terms indicating an increased rate of change in fashionable dress. This acceleration was underpinned by a more sophisticated process of manufacture and further improved skills but, of course, the speed of change also maintained the status quo. To be dressed in the height of fashion meant being rich or heavily in debt.

Fashion was both national and international with, in succession, Burgundian, French, and Spanish styles in the ascendant with some Italian, German, Dutch, and English elements in the mix. Curiosity about the fashions of others found expression in the costume books which began appearing in the late sixteenth century and, by the late seventeenth century, when Europe began to be dominated by all aspects of French culture, the production of exquisite engravings — precursors of the fashion plate — depicted what the most stylish French courtiers were wearing. This French hegemony was supported by the production of superb silks, delicate lace, and an ingenious array of accessories, and by a centralized court at which all the fine and applied arts from painting to dress were accorded equal attention. It is hardly surprising that the first dressmaker of international renown was Rose Bertin, who made clothes for Marie Antoinette at the French court in the 1780s; she and other dressmakers despatched fashion dolls dressed in the latest styles throughout Europe to add miniature, three-dimensional verisimilitude to supplement the available fashion illustrations.

Design and production

By the late seventeenth century a division had occurred between the provision of male and female clothing. Tailors continued to produce men's tailored garments, but female dressmakers undertook the making of women's clothing, with the exception of riding habits and corsets. A limited democratization of fashion occurred in the eighteenth century as some ready-made and partly made clothing allowed the less wealthy to keep in step with the growing pace of changes in fashion. The principle of exclusivity was reasserted by the continued use of the finest tailors and dressmakers by those able to afford their services and the expensive fabrics they recommended. By the nineteenth century the rise of the couturier whose name and clientele implied the height of fashion reinforced such distinctions. The idea of men being equally as interested in fashion as women declined sharply in the nineteenth century. The beaus, macaronis, and dandies of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, who were caricatured and ridiculed for their dedication to the more outré details of personal appearance, were replaced by dour, dark-suited men of business.

Fashion, from the period of the Englishman Charles Worth's rise to dominance over the design of women's dress, during the Second Empire in France (when he became the first great couturier as understood today), until the 1950s, was in the main, about women's clothing. The origins of the late twentieth century's multi-billion pound fashion industry can be traced back to Worth and his two sons. He created new designs to show to his clients rather than deferring to their ideas, a notable change from previous practice. These garments were displayed on human models for his clientele of royalties, aristocrats, and the rich bourgeoisie. His clothes were bought by foreign buyers, and became available in the capitals of Europe and the US, and he was treated like an artist rather than as a tradesman by his clients, although he always thought of himself as the latter. He also reinvented the idea that a man can understand and design for women as well, if not better, than another woman. This dichotomy has been preserved; there have been inventive, even great female couturiers — Chanel, Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Grès — but the male dominance of female fashion in France, in Italy, in America, and in Great Britain has been a feature of the last 150 years.

During this period there were important technical changes which influenced the creation and marketing of fashionable clothing. The introduction of the sewing machine in the 1840s, of aniline dyes in the 1860s, and of artificial fibres from the 1890s onwards offered important improvements to the process of production. Fashion also benefited from the growing sophistication of the media: specialist magazines, dedicated newspaper articles, photographic images, and the advertising opportunities offered by film, radio, and television all contributed to an international awareness, at many levels in society, of the latest fashion trends and ideas. Increased demand for novelty in all matters to do with dress caused misery amongst the employees of many dressmakers; cramped conditions, long hours, and pitiful pay combined to create sweat shops. Unfortunately, despite legislation, this problem is still found today, and not just in the so-called Third World.

Fashion designers, especially in the period from the 1920s onwards, diversified into ranges of ready-to-wear garments, scent, and cosmetics. Specialist suppliers of accessories became equally aware of the possibilities inherent in designer footwear, jewellery, luggage, and much more. Ultimately, as both compliment and curse, talented copyists ignored patent law to produce cheap facsimiles of the most luxurious labels, and, within the law, chain stores ‘imitated’ the latest suit, dress, shoe, or scarf, to offer affordable fashion to mass markets.

Even in the area of alternative fashion in the post 1945 period, the world of Teddy boys, mods and rockers, hippies, punks, new Romantics, and so on, the driving force has been a masculine one. And, to a degree, alternative fashion is about men reasserting their right to attention through the adoption of unusual, exotic, or bizarre forms of dress. Ironically, these so-called street fashions have in turn, influenced the expensive, handmade creations of the powerful fashion designers.

Today, so we are led to believe, we can create our own fashion statements by buying across the spectrum from charity shops to couture houses. Fashion is fun, it is adventurous, it defines us and our approach to life. In fact, the majority prefer to conform to the dress codes of their social group, accepting or rejecting the dictates of fashion according to their circumstances and means.

Theories about dress

No overview of fashion, however basic, can ignore the corpus of criticism and theoretical analysis that has surrounded it across the centuries. The Judaeo-Christian tradition laid considerable emphasis on modesty and simplicity in all matters concerning personal adornment. As a consequence both clerical and secular moralists felt able to criticize fashion on the grounds of the supposed morality or immorality of clothing and personal adornment. Any excessive display could be construed as the sin of pride and any unnecessary revealing or emphasizing of the body could be deemed a provocation to immoral behaviour. Women's fashions were a favourite target for such moral condemnation; undoubtedly this criticism expressed real or imagined concerns about loss of chastity or adultery.

Caricature and ridicule had also partnered the vagaries and absurdities of fashionable dress throughout the centuries. Artists disapproved of fashions that distorted and unbalanced their portrayal of sitters and, from the seventeenth century onwards, a number used so-called ‘timeless’ draperies to replace the fashions they disliked. In the nineteenth century, medical opinion was enlisted in order to question the effects on health that distorting the anatomy in quest of a fashionable silhouette might provoke. More idealistically, there was an interesting conjunction between groups of artists, doctors, and political thinkers which produced theories about aesthetic dress, dress reform, and universal suffrage which, if followed, would release women from their slavery to fashion.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century criticism was overtaken by a more analytical approach to fashion. Exponents of this approach were interested in applying their knowledge of anthropology, economic and social theory, sociology, and psychology to the reasons for the creation and popularity of certain fashions. A detailed consideration of these theories can be found in Valerie Steele's Fashion and eroticism (OUP, 1985). A few influential examples will indicate the range of their analysis. For instance, the American economist Thorstein Veblen, in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class, criticized fashionable dress as a symbol of conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, and conspicuous waste. In contrast, the German historian of dress and manners, Max von Boehn, promoted the appealingly simple idea that fashion is ‘a visible manifestation of the Zeitgeist’ in his book Modespiegel (1919). The sexual significance of dress was discussed by the psychologist J. C. Flügel in The Psychology of Clothes (1930), a work which popularized the theory of ‘shifting erogenous zones’; an idea he had extracted from the earlier work of Havelock Ellis. Flügel suggested that all clothing is charged with sexual symbolism. This was not a wholly new approach, for Richard von Krafft-Ebing had discussed ‘erotic fetishism’ and its place in the interpretation of dress in the Psychopathia Sexualis, published in 1886.

There have been many subsequent studies, some descriptive, some analytical, all of them drawing upon a wide range of source material. A recently launched quarterly publication — Fashion Theory; The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture — has chosen to begin its examination of fashion from the viewpoint that it is ‘the cultural construction of the embodied identity’. This offers a late-twentieth-century, multi-disciplinary approach to the subject by broadening and democratizing the term across the boundaries of gender, multi-culturalism, and sexual preference. This merging of body decoration, clothing, and fashion into one subject area for critical analysis suggests that the ephemeral nature of clothing the human form will continue to be debated for the indefinite future.

— Valerie Cumming

Bibliography

• Newton, S. M. (1974). Health, art and reason: dress reformers of the nineteenth century. John Murray, London.
• Ribeiro, A. and Cumming, V. (1989). The visual history of costume. Batsford, London.
• Ribeiro, A. (1986). Dress and Morality. Batsford, London

See also clothes; modelling, fashion.

Fashion has a very strong influence on the attitudes and actions of people. This is particularly so with regard to diet and exercise. The predominant fashion in Western cultures is for women to have slim, almost boyish looks. Being slim has not always been fashionable. One has only to look at a Rubens painting to realize that his feminine ideal was a plump, curvaceous woman. It is unclear whether the fashion industry originally created the trend for slimness or merely followed it. Nevertheless, since the 1960s fashion designers have been accused of creating the cult of the super-thin model, reinforcing the desire for thinness. In order to follow the fashions worn by models, many women have needlessly subjected themselves to weight-loss diets and exercise regimes, not to keep fit and healthy, but to look acceptable. Not surprisingly, this has led to many impressionable young women going to extreme lengths to achieve their goal. An increase in the incidence of the eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, have followed this fashion for thinness.

Until recently, apart from a few advertisements for body building, men were not under the same pressure as women to achieve a particular body shape. However, this has changed with the advent of mass parties where it is fashionable for young men to display their naked upper torsos. Consequently, there is an increasing trend for men to use artificial aids, especially anabolic steroids, to build bodies with well-defined muscles.

Regular exercise and a balanced diet are conducive to good health; an obsessive concern about diet and exercises which develop a certain fashionable body shape is potentially harmful, both physically and psychologically.

noun

1. The current custom: craze, fad, furor, mode, rage, style, trend, vogue. Informal thing. Idioms: the in thing, the last word, the latest thing. See style/good style/bad style, usual/unusual.
2. The approach used to do something: manner, method, mode, modus operandi, style, system, way, wise². See means.
3. A distinctive way of expressing oneself: manner, mode, style, tone, vein. See style/good style/bad style.

verb

1. To create by forming, combining, or altering materials: assemble, build, construct, fabricate, forge¹, frame, make, manufacture, mold, produce, put together, shape. See make/unmake.
2. To make or become suitable to a particular situation or use: acclimate, acclimatize, accommodate, adapt, adjust, conform, fit¹, reconcile, square, suit, tailor. See change/persist.

For more information on fashion, visit Britannica.com.

Throughout history the costumes worn by dancers have been influenced by contemporary fashions in their cut and fabric—even when they have been specially adapted to stage use. During the 20th century fashion designers were also directly commissioned to create costumes for dance—sometimes to create a particular look for the dancers, sometimes to bring in the added cachet of a voguish name. Diaghilev was one of the first directors to collaborate with a major fashion talent, commissioning Chanel to design the costumes for Le Train bleu (chor. Nijinska, 1924) with its cast of chic young people. (The work of his own designers, especially Bakst, also, conversely, had a profound influence on contemporary fashion designers, e.g. Poiret.) Later haute couture designers who have worked for dance include Halston, who designed nearly all of Graham's costumes between 1975 and 1988 (controversially, since some felt his costumes added an inappropriate sleekness and glamour to the choreography), Calvin Klein for Graham (Maple Leaf Rag, 1990), Versace for Béjart (ten works including Le Presbytère, 1997), Katherine Hamnett for Rambert Dance Company (Alston's Strong Language, 1987), Isaac Mizrahi for American Ballet Theatre (Twyla Tharp's Brief Fling, 1990) and for Mark Morris (several works including I Don't Want to Love, 1996), Oscar de la Renta for Twyla Tharp (Sinatra Suite, 1984), Lacroix for American Ballet Theatre (Gaïté parisienne and Swan Lake, both 1988), Jasper Conran for Royal Ballet (Bintley's Tombeaux, 1993), Scottish Ballet (Sleeping Beauty, 1994), and Swan Lake, 1995), Stuttgart Ballet (Bintley's Edward II, 1995), and Birmingham Royal Ballet (Bintley's Brahms Handel Variations, 1994, Nutcracker Sweeties, 1996 and Arthur, 2000), Rei Kawabuko for Cunningham (Scenario, 1997), and Hussein Chalayan for Michael Clark (current\SEE, 1998).

n.

A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.

    A king there was who lost an eye
        In some excess of passion;
    And straight his courtiers all did try
        To follow the new fashion.
    
    Each dropped one eyelid when before
        The throne he ventured, thinking
    'Twould please the king.  That monarch swore
        He'd slay them all for winking.
    
    What should they do?  They were not hot
        To hazard such disaster;
    They dared not close an eye -- dared not
        See better than their master.
    
    Seeing them lacrymose and glum,
        A leech consoled the weepers:
    He spread small rags with liquid gum
        And covered half their peepers.
    
    The court all wore the stuff, the flame
        Of royal anger dying.
    That's how court-plaster got its name
        Unless I'm greatly lying.
                                                            Naramy Oof

• Amy's Style Cafe Fashion, style, celebs and fun.
• FRENCH TRUCKERS Collective blog on fashion, beauty, health and seduction for men
• Visconti Is Me Humorous commentary on all things fashion.

Quotes:

"The great attraction of fashion is that it diverted attention from the insoluble problems of beauty and provided an easy way -- which money could buy... to a simply stated, easily reproduced ideal of beauty, however temporary that ideal." - Theodore Zeldin

"Fashion, by which what is really fantastic becomes for a moment the universal." - Oscar Wilde

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." - Oscar Wilde

"Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly." - Oscar Wilde

"Woman's first duty in life is to her dressmaker. What the second duty is no one has yet discovered." - Oscar Wilde

"It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions." - Voltaire

See more famous quotes about Fashion

For other uses, see Fashion (disambiguation).

In Following the Fashion (1794), James Gillray caricatured a figure flattered by the short-bodiced gowns then in fashion, contrasting it with an imitator whose figure is not flattered.

Fashion refers to the styles and customs prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage, "fashion" exemplifies the appearances of clothing, but the term encompasses more. Many fashions are popular in many cultures at any given time. Important is the idea that the course of design and fashion will change more rapidly than the culture as a whole. Fashion designers create and produce clothing articles.

The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" were employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the current or even not so current, popular mode of expression. However, more so in the modern era items termed 'not so current' may indeed fit into the term 'Retro.' Retro fashion allows rule shifts, such as 'old is suddenly new,' thus fashionable. The term "fashion" is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour, beauty and style^{[citation needed]}. In this sense, fashions are a sort of communal art, through which a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. The term "fashion" is also sometimes used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads and trends, and materialism.

There exist a number of cities recognized as global fashion centers or Fashion Capitals. Fashion Weeks are held in these cities where designers exhibit their new clothing collections to audiences. The main four cities are Paris, Milan, New York, and London - these four are renowned for their major influence on global fashion and are headquarters to the greatest fashion companies on Earth. Other cities, mainly Tokyo, Los Angeles, Berlin, Rome, Miami, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Sydney, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Madrid, Melbourne, Mumbai, Vienna, Montreal, Moscow, New Delhi and Dubai also hold fashion weeks and are better recognized every year.

Contents 1 Areas of fashion 2 Clothing 3 Changes 4 Media 5 Intellectual property 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Areas of fashion

Fashion as social phenomena is common. The rise and fall of fashion has been especially documented and examined in the following fields:

• Architecture, interior design, and landscape design
• Arts and crafts
• Body type, clothing or costume, cosmetics, personal grooming, hairstyle, and personal adornment
• Dance and music
• Forms of address, slang, and other forms of speech
• Economics and spending choices, as studied in behavioral finance
• Entertainment, games, hobbies, sports, and other pastimes
• Etiquette
• Fast fashion
• Management, management styles and different ways of organizing
• Politics and media, especially the topics of conversation encouraged by the media
• Philosophy and religion: although the doctrines of religions and philosophies change very slowly if at all, there can be rapid changes in what areas of a religion or a philosophy are seen as most important and most worth following or studying.
• Social networks and the diffusion of representations and practices
• Sociology and the meaning of clothing for identity-building
• Technology, such as the choice of computer programming techniques
• Hospitality industry, such as designer uniforms custom made for a hotel, restaurant, casino, resort or club, in order to reflect a property and brand.

Of these fields, costume especially has become so linked in the public eye with the term "fashion" that the more general term "costume" has mostly been relegated to only mean fancy dress or masquerade wear, while the term "fashion" means clothing generally, and the study of it. This linguistic switch is due to the so-called fashion plates which were produced during the Industrial Revolution, showing novel ways to use new textiles. 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

Main article: History of Western fashion

Some historians observe the frequently changing clothing styles as a distinctively Western habit among urban populations.^{[dubious – discuss]} Changes in costume often at times of economic or social change (such as in ancient Rome), but then a long period without large changes followed. In 8th century Cordoba, Spain, Ziryab (a famous musician of that time) is said to have introduced sophisticated clothing styles based on seasonal and daily timings from his native Baghdad and his own inspiration.

English caricature of Tippies of 1796

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.^[2][3] 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.

Marie Antoinette

was a major fashion icon during the late 18th century. 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, which remained very different until a counter-movement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, finally those from Ancien Régime in France.^[3]:317-24 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.^[3]:313-15

The fashions of the West are generally unparalleled either in antiquity or in the other great civilizations of the world. 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.^{[3]:312-3:323} However in Ming China, for example, there is considerable evidence for rapidly changing fashions in Chinese clothing,^[4]

Albrecht Dürer's drawing contrasts a well turned out bourgeoise from Nuremberg (left) with her counterpart from Venice. The Venetian lady's high chopines make her taller

. 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.^[3]:317-21

Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,^[5] 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.^[6]

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.

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.

Princess Diana was a fashion icon of the late 20th century

.

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.)

Changes

Fashion, by description, changes constantly. The changes are more rapidly in other aspects like the fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). For some, modern fast-paced changes in fashion embody many of the negative aspects of capitalism: it results in waste and encourages people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. Other people enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience "new" and "interesting" things. Note too that fashion can change to enforce uniformity, as in the case where so-called Mao suits became the national uniform of mainland China.

At the same time there remains an equal or larger range designated "out of fashion". (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back "into fashion" in due course, and remain "in fashion" again for a while.)

In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, for example, might favor things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese at a third. Globalization has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times, and has seen the introduction of non-Western wear into the Western world.

Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change. The impact of this influence depends on many things like economic status.

In an article appearing in the Econ Journal Watch economists Philip R. P. Coelho, Daniel B. Klein and James E. McClure took issue with economic research explaining fashion cycles as the product of short term monopolies and self identified social stratification. In their research Coelho, Klein and McClure demonstrated.

^[7]

Media

The Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen is one of the most famous faces seen on fashion magazine covers.

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 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 1902, 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 FashionTelevision 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.

Fashion Editor, Brooke Kelley said, "There's a misconception in the industry that TV, magazines and blogs dictate to the consumer, what to wear. But most trends aren't released to the public before consulting the target demographic. So what you see in the media is a result of research of popular ideas among the people. Essentially, fashion is a group of people bouncing ideas off of one another, like any other form of art." ^[8]

Media, social, political, and cultural influences have a significant effect on how fashion is viewed. In the United States in 2009, there was considerable interest and discussion in the media on the clothing choices of Michelle Obama, First Lady. The majority of articles praised her sense of fashion, irrespective of how her clothing selections fit within the larger realm of current trends in contemporary fashion. The political and cultural popularity of an individual can play a role equal or greater than artistic factors in how their sense of fashion is viewed by the media.^{[citation needed]}

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 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.^[9][10]

See also

Look up fashion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fashion

• Fashion accessory
• Fashion capital
• Fashion Net
• Fashion week
• Sustainable fashion
• List of fashion designers
• List of fashion topics
• Runway (fashion)

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, p. 62
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p317, William Collins & Sons, London 1981
4. ^ Timothy Brook:"The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China" (University of California Press 1999); this has a whole section on fashion.
5. ^ Thornton, Peter. Baroque and Rococo Silks.
6. ^ James Laver and Fernand Braudel, ops cit
7. ^ [1]: Econ Journal Watch, December 2004
8. ^ http://www.Composing-Moments.com
9. ^ IPFrontline.com: Intellectual Property in Fashion Industry, WIPO press release, December 2, 2005
10. ^ INSME announcement: WIPO-Italy International Symposium, 30 November - 2 December 2005

Further reading

• Cumming, Valerie: Understanding Fashion History, Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8967-6253-X

External links

• Fashion at the Open Directory Project

v • d • e History of Western fashion Ancient Ancient World in General · Roman Medieval Byzantine · Early Medieval · Anglo-Saxon · 12th century · 13th century · 14th century Renaissance and Reformation 15th century · 1500-1550 · 1550-1600 · 1600-1650 · 1650-1700 Enlightenment to Regency 1700-1750  · 1750-1795  · 1795-1820 · 1820s Victorian 1830s · 1840s · 1850s · 1860s · 1870s · 1880s · 1890s Edwardian 1900s · 1910s Between the World Wars 1920s · 1930-1945 Cold War 1945-1960 · 1960s · 1970s · 1980s Contemporary 1990s · 2000s

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - måde, mode, manér, vis, facon
v. tr. - forme, tilpasse, lave

idioms:

• after a fashion    på en vis måde
• fashion designer    modedesigner
• fashion plate    modebillede, modedukke
• in fashion    på mode
• out of fashion    gået af mode

Nederlands (Dutch)
mode, manier, vorm, hoge sociale stand, vormen, veranderen, maken (met vindingrijkheid/ fantasie), aanpassenafbeelding van modekleding, modieus gekleed iemand

Français (French)
n. - façon, manière, mode, vogue
v. tr. - façonner, former, confectionner

idioms:

• after a fashion    tant bien que mal
• after the fashion of    d'après/à la manière de
• fashion designer    modéliste, couturier
• fashion plate    (être) comme une gravure de mode, (sortir) des pages de magazine
• in fashion    à la mode
• in the fashion of    à la manière de
• out of fashion    démodé, hors mode, dépassé

Deutsch (German)
n. - Art, Art und Weise, Mode
v. - formen, gestalten

idioms:

• after a fashion    einigermaßen
• after the fashion of    nach Art von
• fashion designer    Modezeichner
• fashion plate    Modezeichnung
• in fashion    in Mode
• in the fashion of    im Stil von
• out of fashion    aus der Mode

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μόδα, τρόπος, μορφή, εμφάνιση
v. - διαμορφώνω, μορφοποιώ, σχηματίζω

idioms:

• after a fashion    κατά κάποιο τρόπο, κάποιου είδους
• fashion designer    σχεδιαστής/-τρια μόδας
• fashion plate    πατρόν
• in fashion    (μέσα) στη μόδα, της μόδας
• out of fashion    εκτός μόδας, ντεμοντέ

Italiano (Italian)
formare, modellare, maniera, modo, moda

idioms:

• after a fashion    in un certo modo
• in fashion    alla moda, di moda, in voga
• out of fashion    fuori moda, passato di moda

Português (Portuguese)
n. - moda (f)
v. - modelar

idioms:

• after a fashion    de forma regular
• fashion designer    estilista (m) (f)
• fashion plate    figurino (m)
• in fashion    na moda
• out of fashion    fora de moda

Русский (Russian)
выделывать, вылепить, моделировать, мода, образ, манера, фасон, покрой

idioms:

• after a fashion    не очень хорошо, по своему
• fashion designer    дизайнер моды
• fashion plate    одетый по моде, модная картинка
• in fashion    модный, модно
• out of fashion    не модный, не модно

Español (Spanish)
n. - modo, manera, moda, boga
v. tr. - modelar, moldear, hacer, formar, forjar, labrar

idioms:

• after a fashion    más o menos, en cierto modo
• after the fashion of    más o menos, en cierto modo, hacer algo no muy bien
• fashion designer    modisto
• fashion plate    figurín de moda
• in fashion    a la moda, de moda
• in the fashion of    a la moda de
• out of fashion    pasado de moda

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - sätt, klädmode, mönster, sed
v. - forma, göra

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
流行式样, 时装, 时尚, 风气, 样子, 方式, 形成, 作, 造

idioms:

• after a fashion    勉强
• fashion designer    时装设计师
• fashion plate    时装样片, 穿着时髦的人
• in fashion    时髦
• out of fashion    不流行

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 流行式樣, 時裝, 時尚, 風氣, 樣子, 方式
v. tr. - 形成, 作, 造

idioms:

• after a fashion    勉強
• fashion designer    時裝設計師
• fashion plate    時裝樣片, 穿著時髦的人
• in fashion    時髦
• out of fashion    不流行

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 유행, 패션, 풍습
v. tr. - ~을 만들다, 맞추다

idioms:

• in fashion    유행하는

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 流行, ファッション, やり方, 様式, 上流社会, 方法, 型, 種類
v. - 作る, 作り上げる

idioms:

• fashion designer    ファッションデザイナー
• fashion plate    新型服装図, ファッションプレート
• in fashion    流行の
• out of fashion    すたれて

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) موضه (فعل) يعدل , يكيف , يغير‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אופנה, מנהג, צורה, דרך‬
v. tr. - ‮עיצב, יצר‬

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