FASHION

FASHION

Fashion is a term commonly used to describe a style of clothing worn by most of people of a country. A fashion usually remains popular for about 1-3 years and then is replaced by yet another fashion. Even though there are a lot of changes in fashion, most people do not easily except the changes.A clothing style may be introduced as a fashion, but its use becomes a custom after being handed down from generation to generation. A fashion that comes and goes is called a Fad.During the mid-1800's, a mass production of clothing was made fashionable and available to more people for lower prices. This encouraged more people to wear more stylish clothes which is why we are wearing what we are today.

Clothing is made out of all types of material such as cotton, rayon, spandex, and polyester,and they are just a few used. Some clothing may even be made of 2 or more different types, this is known as " Blending."Clothing can be decorated or designed with all types of images and colors. The designs can either be embroidered onto the fabric, woven on to the fabric, silk screened, or ironed onto the fabric to create a desired look. Some images that have been used to enhance an article of clothing range from a simple design on front of a T shirt to a famous printing that has been woven into fabric creating a colorful piece of art that one can wear.The first purpose of clothes... was not warmth or decency, but ornament.... Among wild people, we find tattooing and painting even prior to clothes.  The first spiritual want of a barbarous man is decoration; as indeed we still see among the barbarous classes in civilized countries.  ~Thomas CarlyleThe term fashion   though is new to many; literally speaking fashion came into being with the advent of human being in this world. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves though at that time they had no concept of modesty. Ornamentation and adornment thus had always been a strong force behind clothing. Later civilizations seek different ways to adorn themselves. People of Stone Age tattooed their bodies, used leaves and twigs to cover their naked bodies. Pharaohs on the other hand loved to display their wealth by clothing in most extravagant ways. They wore wigs, painted their bodies, and embalmed their dead in most beautiful clothes.Christianity preached moderation in dressing, but very few obeyed that. Islam on the other hand formulated a complete dress code for both male and female.

Modern fashion got strength during Renaissance time. Aristocrats of Renaissance time were great patrons of fashion. They developed new fashion and promoted it. Today fashion is very complex. It includes not only apparel, footwear, accessories and jewellery but fashion is the way we dress, the way we talk, technology we are using, food we are eating, friends we are having and a lot more. Nobody can deny the influence of fashion. Each of us is constantly affected by fashion in one or other way. Print media and electronic media are most important in shaping our lifestyles. Even those who are anti-fashionionists are part of the fashion world in their own way. They are making their own fashion statements. As Cecil Beaton said that “truly fashionable are beyond fashion.”Fashion is a playground of paradox: creative and technical; art and profit; local and global. It throws a diverse set of people together to transform a creative vision into something tangible and profitable.Unfortunately the people involved in apparel development often operate as islands. Cut off from the rest of the process, they throw their messages out to sea, hoping they make it to the right people intact. Inefficient systems and tools litter their workday and force them into tedious routines. Disconnected and overburdened, they work to do their best, but without being able to see beyond their own isolated shore, they aren't given a chance to contribute to their full potential. What if companies could build bridges between those islands?And not just a bridge from one island to the next, but a system of bridges to form a strong, reinforced network and create community across development? Well they can. That's what it means to build collaboration into the heart of fashion development.The fashion industry is a product of the modern age. Prior to the mid-19th century, most clothing was  custom made. It was handmade for individuals, either as home production or on order from dressmakers and tailors. By the beginning of the 20th century—with the rise of new technologies such as the sewing machine, the rise of global capitalism and the development of the factory system of production, and the proliferation of retail outlets such as department stores—clothing had increasingly come to be  mass- produced in standard sizes and sold at fixed prices. Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, today it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold world-wide. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally. The fashion industry has long been one of the largest employers in the United States, and it remains so in the 21st century. However, employment declined considerably as production increasingly moved overseas, especially to China. Because data on the fashion industry typically are reported for national economies and expressed in terms of the industry’s many separate sectors, aggregate figures for world production of textiles and clothing are difficult to obtain. However, by any measure, the industry accounts for a significant share of world economic output.The fashion industry consists of four levels: the production of raw materials, principally fibres and textiles but also leather and fur; the production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors, and others; retail sales; and various forms of advertising and promotion. These levels consist of many separate but interdependent sectors, all of which are devoted to the goal of satisfying consumer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit.

The media plays a very significant role when it comes to fashion. For instance, an important part of fashion is fashion journalism. Editorial critique, guidelines and commentary can be found in magazines, newspapers, on television, fashion websites, social networks and in fashion blogs. In the recent years, fashion blogging and YouTube videos has become a major outlet for spreading trends and fashion tips. Through these media outlets, readers and viewers all over the world can learn about fashion, making it very accessible. At the beginning of the 20th century, fashion magazines began to include photographs of various fashion designs and became even more influential on people than in the past. In cities throughout the world these magazines were greatly sought-after and had a profound effect on public clothing 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 Guzette du Bon 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. One such example of Vogue's popularity is the younger version, Teen Vogue, which provides clothing and trends that are more targeted toward the "fashionista on a budget." 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 such as  Fashion –television started to appear. Fashion TV was the pioneer in this undertaking and has since grown to become the leader in both Fashion Television and New Media Channels compared to other Fashion Magazines. Despite television and increasing internet coverage, including fashion blogs, press coverage remains the most important form of publicity in the eyes of the fashion industry.However, over the past several years, fashion websites have developed that merge traditional editorial writing with user-generated content. Online magazines like iFashion Network, and Runway Magazine, led by  Nole Marin from America's Next Top Model, have begun to dominate the market with digital copies for computers,iPhone and iPads  . Example platforms include Apple and Android for such applications.

A few days after the 2010 Fall Fashion Week in New York City   came to a close,  The New Islander’s Fashion Editor, Genevieve Tax, criticized the fashion industry for running on a seasonal schedule of its own, largely at the expense of real-world consumers. "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," she writes. "Savvy shoppers, consequently, have been conditioned to be extremely, perhaps impractically, farsighted with their buying." Ethnic Fashion is defined as the Fashion of Multicultural groups such as African-American, Hispanics, Asians, etc. Examples of Ethnic Designer are FUBU, BabyPhat, FatFarm, Sean John, Etc. It is estimated that Ethnic Fashion has contributed over 25 Billion dollars in revenues, thus making them a large, very important part of the fashion industry.

Within the fashion industry, intellectual property   is not enforced as it is within the film  industry and music industry  . Robert Glariston, intellectual property expert at Creative Business House (organization specializing in fashion and trade marking), mentions in a fashion seminar held in LA that "Copyright law regarding clothing is a current hot-button issue in the industry. We often have to draw the line between designers being inspired by a design and those outright stealing it in different places." To "take inspiration" from others' designs contributes to the fashion industry's ability to establish clothing trends. For the past few years, WGSN has been a dominant source of fashion news and forecasts in steering fashion brands worldwide to be "inspired" by one another. 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, in this view, be counter-productive. On the other hand, 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.

Since fakes are distinguishable by their inherent poorer quality, there is still a demand for luxury goods. And as only a  trademark of logo can be copyrighted for clothing and accessories, many fashion brands make this one of the most visible aspects of the garment or accessory. In handbags, especially, the designer's brand may be woven into the fabric (or the lining fabric) from which the bag is made — this makes the brand an intrinsic element of the bag.In 2005, the World Intellectural 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. Fashion is something we deal with everyday. Even people who say they don't care what they wear choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day.

One certain thing in the fashion world is change. We are constantly being bombarded with new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear. Ray-Ban sold more sunglasses after the movie Men In Black. Sometimes a trend is world-wide. Back in the 1950s, teenagers everywhere dressed like Elvis Presley.

Who dictates fashion?

Musicians and other cultural icons have always influenced what we're wearing, but so have political figures and royalty. Newspapers and magazines report on what Hillary Clinton wears. The recent death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, was a severe blow to the high fashion world, where her clothes were daily news.Even folks in the 1700s pored over fashion magazines to see the latest styles. Women and dressmakers outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. The famous French King Louis XIV said that fashion is a mirror. Louis himself was renowned for his style, which tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.

Clothes separate people into groups.

Fashion is revealing. Clothes reveal what groups people are in. In high school, groups have names: "goths, skaters, preps, herbs." Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercings as a freak and outsider. But to another person, the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group, the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.

Fashion is a language which tells a story about the person who wears it. "Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand," according to Katherine Hamnett, a top British fashion designer. Hamnett became popular when her t-shirts with large messages like "Choose Life" were worn by several rock bands.

Prof. John Kurakar