Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Fashion shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Fashion offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Fashion at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Fashion? Wrong! If the Fashion is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Fashion then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Fashion? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Fashion and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Fashion wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Fashion then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Fashion site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Fashion, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Fashion, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
Fashion is a term that usually applies to a prevailing mode of expression, but quite often applies to a personal mode of expression that may or may not apply to all. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will change more quickly than the
culture as a whole. The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the current popular mode of expression. The term "fashion" is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour and style. 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,
trends, and
materialism. Fashion capital cities are actually Milan,
Paris,
New York, but other cities like Rome,
Tokyo and
London are becoming very famous.
-->
Areas of fashion
Fashions are
social phenomena common to many fields of human activity and thinking. The rises and falls of fashions have been especially documented and examined in the following fields:
- Architecture, interior design, and landscape design
- Arts and crafts
- Body type, clothing or costume, cosmetics, grooming, hair style, and jewelry
- Dance and music
- Forms of address, slang, and other forms of speech
- Economics and spending choices, as studied in behavioral finance
- Entertainment, Game, hobbies, sports, and other pastimes
- Etiquette
- Management, management styles and ways of organizing
- Politics and mass media, especially the topics of conversation encouraged by the media
- Philosophy and spirituality (One might argue that religion is prone to fashions, although official religions tend to change so slowly that the term cultural shift is perhaps more appropriate than "fashion")
- Social networks and the diffusion of representations and practices
- Sociology and the meaning of clothing for identity-building
- Technology, such as the choice of 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. see "uniforms"
Of these fields,
costume especially has become so linked in the public eye with the term "fashion". The more general term "costume" has been relegated by many to only mean
fancy dress or Masquerade ball 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 and costume. The remainder of this article deals with clothing fashions in the Western world.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
Clothing
The habit of people continually changing the style of clothing worn, which is now worldwide, at least among urban populations, is a distinctively Western one. Though there are signs from earlier. In 8th century Cordoba (Spain), Ziryab, a famous musician and stylist migrant from Babghdad, introduced the first germ of fashion in Europe. He developed a sophisticated clothing fashion based on seasonal and daily timings. In winter, for example, costumes were made essentially from warm cotton or wool items usually in dark colours and summer garments were made of cool and light costumes involving materials such as cotton, silk and flax in light and bright colours. Brilliant colours for these clothes were produced in tanneries and dye works which the Muslim world perfected its production, for example, in 12th century Fez, there were more than 86 tanneries and 116 dye works.al-Hassani, Woodcok and Saoud (2007), 'Muslim Heritage in Our World', FSTC publisinhg, p.38-39.In daily timing Ziryab suggested different clothing for mornings, afternoons and evenings. Henry Terrace, a French historian, commented on the fashion work of Ziryab “He introduced winter and summer dresses, setting exactly the dates when each fashion was to be worn. He also added dresses of half season for intervals between seasons. Through him, luxurious dresses of the Orient were introduced in Spain. Under his influence a fashion industry was set up, producing coloured striped fabric and coats of transparent fabric, which is still found in Morocco today.” Terrace, H. (1958) 'Islam d'Espagne' une rencontre de l'Orient et de l'Occident", Librairie Plon, ParisParis, pp.52-53.
It can be fairly clearly dated to the middle of the 1300-1400 in fashion, to which historians including James Laver and
Fernand Braudel date the start of Western fashion in clothing.Laver, James:
The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, p. 62Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p317, William Collins & Sons, London 1981 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. This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers which is still with us today.The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century, and women'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 regime France.Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p317-24, William Collins & Sons, London 1981 Though fashion was always led by the rich, 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.Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p313-15, William Collins & Sons, London 1981
The fashions of the West are 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.Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p.312-3, p.323, William Collins & Sons, London 1981Ten 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.Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p.317-21, William Collins & Sons, London 1981Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,Thornton, Peter.
Baroque and Rococo Silks. 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 sixteenth 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. James Laver and Fernand Braudel, ops cit
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.
Fashion in clothes has allowed wearers to express
emotion or solidarity with other people for millennia. Modern Western societyerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's Wiktionary: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 significantly within a
society according to
ageing, social class, generation, Profession 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 (implementations of fashion).
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 definition, changes constantly. The changes may proceed more rapidly than in most other 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, especially young 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 (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.)
Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time, for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything, etc. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the
exoticism: 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. A modern version of exotic clothing includes
club wear. 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
celebrity), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.
Media
An important part of fashion is fashion journalism. Editorial critique and commentary can be found in magazines, newspapers, on television, fashion websites and in Fashion Blogs.
At the beginning of the twentieth 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 (magazine), 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.
Intellectual property
Within the fashion industry,
intellectual property is not enforced as it is within the
film industry and
music industry. Chris Sprigman and Kal Raustiala, "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design" (August 2006). University of Virginia Law Review. While brand names and logos are protected, designs are not. The New York Times: Why That Hoodie Your Son Wears Isn't Trademarked by Hal R. Varian, April 5, 2007 Smaller, boutique, designers have lost revenue after their designs have been taken and marketed by bigger businesses with more resources. The New York Times: That Looks Familiar. Didn't I Design It? by Amy Kover, June 19, 2005 Some observers have noted, however, that the relative freedom that fashion designers have to "take inspiration" from others' designs contributes to the fashion industry's ability to establish clothing trends. Tempting 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. Chris Sprigman and Kal Raustiala, "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design" (August 2006). University of Virginia Law Review.
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. IPFrontline.com: Intellectual Property in Fashion Industry, WIPO press release, December 2, 2005 INSME announcement: WIPO-Italy International Symposium, 30 November - 2 December 2005
Quotations
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." -
Oscar Wilde
See also
References
Further reading
- Cumming, Valerie: Understanding Fashion History, Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8967-6253-X
External links
Fashion is a term that usually applies to a prevailing mode of expression, but quite often applies to a personal mode of expression that may or may not apply to all. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will change more quickly than the
culture as a whole. The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the current popular mode of expression. The term "fashion" is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for
glamour and style. 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,
trends, and
materialism. Fashion capital cities are actually
Milan, Paris,
New York, but other cities like
Rome,
Tokyo and London are becoming very famous.
-->
Areas of fashion
Fashions are social phenomena common to many fields of human activity and thinking. The rises and falls of fashions have been especially documented and examined in the following fields:
- Architecture, interior design, and landscape design
- Arts and crafts
- Body type, clothing or costume, cosmetics, grooming, hair style, and jewelry
- Dance and music
- Forms of address, slang, and other forms of speech
- Economics and spending choices, as studied in behavioral finance
- Entertainment, Game, hobbies, sports, and other pastimes
- Etiquette
- Management, management styles and ways of organizing
- Politics and mass media, especially the topics of conversation encouraged by the media
- Philosophy and spirituality (One might argue that religion is prone to fashions, although official religions tend to change so slowly that the term cultural shift is perhaps more appropriate than "fashion")
- Social networks and the diffusion of representations and practices
- Sociology and the meaning of clothing for identity-building
- Technology, such as the choice of 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. see "uniforms"
Of these fields, costume especially has become so linked in the public eye with the term "fashion". The more general term "costume" has been relegated by many to only mean
fancy dress or Masquerade ball 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 and costume. The remainder of this article deals with clothing fashions in the Western world.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
Clothing
The habit of people continually changing the style of clothing worn, which is now worldwide, at least among urban populations, is a distinctively Western one. Though there are signs from earlier. In 8th century Cordoba (Spain), Ziryab, a famous musician and stylist migrant from Babghdad, introduced the first germ of fashion in Europe. He developed a sophisticated clothing fashion based on seasonal and daily timings. In winter, for example, costumes were made essentially from warm cotton or wool items usually in dark colours and summer garments were made of cool and light costumes involving materials such as cotton, silk and flax in light and bright colours. Brilliant colours for these clothes were produced in tanneries and dye works which the Muslim world perfected its production, for example, in 12th century Fez, there were more than 86 tanneries and 116 dye works.al-Hassani, Woodcok and Saoud (2007), 'Muslim Heritage in Our World', FSTC publisinhg, p.38-39.In daily timing Ziryab suggested different clothing for mornings, afternoons and evenings. Henry Terrace, a French historian, commented on the fashion work of Ziryab “He introduced winter and summer dresses, setting exactly the dates when each fashion was to be worn. He also added dresses of half season for intervals between seasons. Through him, luxurious dresses of the Orient were introduced in Spain. Under his influence a fashion industry was set up, producing coloured striped fabric and coats of transparent fabric, which is still found in Morocco today.” Terrace, H. (1958) 'Islam d'Espagne' une rencontre de l'Orient et de l'Occident", Librairie Plon,
ParisParis, pp.52-53.
It can be fairly clearly dated to the middle of the 1300-1400 in fashion, to which historians including James Laver and
Fernand Braudel date the start of Western fashion in clothing.Laver, James:
The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, p. 62Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p317, William Collins & Sons, London 1981 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. This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers which is still with us today.The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century, and women'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 regime France.Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p317-24, William Collins & Sons, London 1981 Though fashion was always led by the rich, 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.Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p313-15, William Collins & Sons, London 1981
The fashions of the West are 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.Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p.312-3, p.323, William Collins & Sons, London 1981Ten 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.Fernand Braudel,
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p.317-21, William Collins & Sons, London 1981Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,Thornton, Peter.
Baroque and Rococo Silks. 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 sixteenth 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. James Laver and Fernand Braudel, ops cit
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.
Fashion in clothes has allowed wearers to express
emotion or solidarity with other people for millennia. Modern
Western societyerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's
Wiktionary: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 significantly within a
society according to ageing, social class, generation, Profession 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 (implementations of fashion).
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 definition, changes constantly. The changes may proceed more rapidly than in most other 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, especially young 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 (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.)
Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time, for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything, etc. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exoticism: 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. A modern version of exotic clothing includes
club wear. 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 celebrity), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.
Media
An important part of fashion is
fashion journalism. Editorial critique and commentary can be found in magazines, newspapers, on television, fashion websites and in
Fashion Blogs.
At the beginning of the twentieth 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 (magazine), 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.
Intellectual property
Within the fashion industry,
intellectual property is not enforced as it is within the
film industry and
music industry. Chris Sprigman and Kal Raustiala, "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design" (August 2006). University of Virginia Law Review. While brand names and logos are protected, designs are not. The New York Times: Why That Hoodie Your Son Wears Isn't Trademarked by Hal R. Varian, April 5, 2007 Smaller, boutique, designers have lost revenue after their designs have been taken and marketed by bigger businesses with more resources. The New York Times: That Looks Familiar. Didn't I Design It? by Amy Kover, June 19, 2005 Some observers have noted, however, that the relative freedom that fashion designers have to "take inspiration" from others' designs contributes to the fashion industry's ability to establish clothing trends. Tempting 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. Chris Sprigman and Kal Raustiala, "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design" (August 2006). University of Virginia Law Review.
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. IPFrontline.com: Intellectual Property in Fashion Industry, WIPO press release, December 2, 2005 INSME announcement: WIPO-Italy International Symposium, 30 November - 2 December 2005
Quotations
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." -
Oscar Wilde
See also
References
Further reading
- Cumming, Valerie: Understanding Fashion History, Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8967-6253-X
External links
- Fashion at the Open Directory Project
Fashion - Telegraph
Find the latest fashion advice and news from the Telegraph. Your source for fashion, news, sport, business, travel, jobs, motoring and property
London Fashion Week
Schedules for semi-annual presentations.
FASHION
FASHION; Don't follow fashion LEAD it! Styles of dress are a matter of personal taste and you have a wide choice of apparel here
Fashion Galleries, Room 40 - Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum’s fashion gallery Room 40 houses a large collection of European fashion items from the 18th century to the present day.
fashion.co.uk - Fashion.co.uk in Focus #1
Fashion.co.uk - Fashion is all about trends, fashion designers, fashion magazines such as vogue, hair and beauty, fashion design, shoes, clothes, sexy silk lingerie and stylish ...
Fashion news, fashion tips and trends - Times Online
UK and world fashion news. Fashion shows, icons, designer interviews. Advice and tips on which style is right for you.
Fashion, from the concrete to the catwalk | fuk.co.uk
London designer interviews and runway archive, photo shoots, street style, weekly updated news and a fashion clinic.
Fashion, Jewellery & Accessories - Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum houses one of the largest collections of fashion and textiles in the world, dating back to the 17th century.
Fashion & Beauty | News, Beauty Advice and Tips and Celebrity Style ...
Fashion & Beauty | News, Beauty Advice and Tips and Celebrity Style ... 2008 News Group Newspapers Ltd. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of ...
London Fashion Weekend - First for Fashion
London Fashion Weekend 24th - 28th September 2008 at the Natural History Museum. London Fashion Weekend is the UK's ultimate fashion event. It's the highlight of the fashion ...