Introduction “This is what I find remarkable about Americans – they believe that if you buy the right clothes you will be accepted by the right people, regardless of where you come from. It’s quite touching, really. I don’t know if I believe that. But I suppose it’s a good thing because it keeps the fashion business going.”- Suzy Menkes, leading fashion commentator, in the New Yorker, 2003 Every person desire of looking good and be apart in the socio-economic circle. Fashion are not just simply concern as the clothing you wear, it is more about for a person to blend in the same pursuit or become one in a particular group of people. During the 8 lectures, I learnt a lot of information in the design area. The most impressive lecture is “Style and Popular taste” by Dene October. This essay follows a case-study design, with in-depth analysis of this lecture. Dene mentions about the Fashion trend system – Bubble up and Trickle down. It is interesting to see how people take fashion as an identity proves. People surrounding me are tend to buy famous luxury branding products, such as LV, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana etc. And I wonder, does a Catier watch makes any difference compare to a normal watch? The only thing I can tell is, it is a lot expansive than a normal watch. But on the functional level, that makes no different between both. As a Chinese, I can see Asia becomes the biggest market of Western luxury brands. On the other hand, most of the people in Europe are
The Victorian Era is well known for puffy skirts and restricting formal garments while the Progressive Era was known for its more flamboyant attire and the World War II Era for its more conservative style to ration for the war. The history of clothing and fashion calls to question its importance in distinguishing identities of different groups of people as well as marking the different stages of the country’s cultural, political, and economic history. How are the different clothing styles reflective of the values and lifestyle of the multicultural United States and more importantly, how did it contribute to the creation of the American identity? 17th century inhabitants of the North American continent exhibited vastly different wardrobe choices
Kelsey Timmerman, from rural Ohio, is the author of the book Where Am I Wearing. The spark that influenced his interest in traveling to other countries was because of the pile of clothes on his floor. After Timmerman saw this, he looked at the tags on his clothes. He then wondered exactly where did his clothes come from. The group of people that this book surrounds are American Consumers. Timmerman wanted them to lose their consumer innocence. He wanted them to change their buying habits because the clothes equal the people. Kelsey Timmerman wrote this book because he wanted the American Consumers to see exactly where their clothes are from. He wanted them to understand what the lives of the people in
Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a
The consumption of luxury goods in China is mounting sharply. Not only those born to elite families, but also many common people are greedy for luxury brands (China, a Booming
Everyone follows the current fashion. People just want to fit in and be cool. In this generation, others make fun of the kind of shoes you have and what you wear. Therefore it makes us feel that we need to be like others and dress like others in order to be
Fashion reflects the attitudes of a society more than any other art form. Like art, fashion is a material record of the ideals that swayed the nations at the time of their creation. Through examining the styles, and tastes of a particular era, we can realize where the interests and priorities of a time lie. As Frank Parsons wrote in his 1920 study, The Psychology of Dress, "There is surly no better field in which to trace the devious paths of human thought than in that of clothes, where man has ever given free play to self expression, in a way which, thought not always a credit to his intelligence, is yet quite true to his innermost self, whether he will acknowledge it or
The fashion industry is rapidly growing and constantly generating new fashion trends almost weekly. Fashion for some may seem ridiculous and unnecessary; but fashion is not just a meaningless usage of article of clothing or farcical materials sew together for coverage. There is more to fashion than meets the eyes, fashion is precious and significant. It is a reflection of self-image, it speak the ream about who we are and how we review ourselves. Not only is fashion the reflection of self-image but also the reflection of our history as Coco Channel have said, “Fashion is not something that exist in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Fashion
Andy Warhol, a pioneer in the visual art movement once said: “Whenever people and civilizations get degenerate and materialistic, they always point at the outward beauty and riches and say that if what they were doing was bad, they wouldn’t being doing so well, being so rich and beautiful” (Warhol, 1975). Throughout history, luxury emerged as early as civilization did. For old Romans, the concept of luxury was a “disruptive power of desire”. They set up the first laws about luxury: “how much could be spent on banquets and adornment” (Ward, 2011). Since the rise of Christianity, luxury stared to changed its meaning to be related to lust and sexuality. Until 17th century, perspectives of
Branded watches have continuously been well-liked throughout the years and will still continue to be trendy in the years to come for the reason that after consumers buy into a brand, they reap countless benefits. With their knowledgeable purchasing routine, consumers continue to purchase in style brand watches for five important reasons.
During our life we construct many different identities of who we want to portray ourselves as to the rest of society; fashion plays a vital role in generating who we are. With the ideas from Storry and Childs they state that “the way that we dress can either serve to confirm or to subvert various facets of our identities, such as our gender,
People also utilize fashion as a way to be judged - or not be judged. Some people dress in high-end, fashionable clothing to show that they take care of themselves and want to stand out in a positive way. Others may wear clothes that allow them to hide - plain jeans and tops that allow someone to blend into a crowd. This shows that both making a statement and trying not to make a statement actually do end up making a statement - although trying not to make a statement states that you don't want to be noticed.
This behavior brings competitive advantages to the European luxury brands. Moreover, customers in different countries have different purchase behaviors. For instance, some countries’ customers are willing to move away from common recognized brand, because they want to purchase more exclusive products. Furthermore, because of the increasing speed of globalization, people are more likely willing to travel between different countries. These travelers will buy luxury good during their trips. In fact, Chinese tourists contributed over one third of sales in Europe. The luxury goods industry should notice to adjust the actual demand between local people and tourists in Europe
I agree with Simmel’s theories on fashion today. I feel as though fashion is a way of not only expressing yourself but also letting people know “who you are” in a way. Some people find it extremely important to dress in brand names because it makes them appear “rich”. However, some people who have millions of rupees dress ordinary and do not care to wear name brands as long as it looks good on them. So sometimes it can give people the wrong impression of where you stand based on how you are dressed. I would never judge someone by their clothes but when I do see someone wearing high end clothing i do say to myself “wow they must have a lot of money”. But this might not be true because some people wear very expensive clothes and shoes but in really they’re debt because of this. I feel like people should wear what they can afford and not try to present
To gain knowledge of how we communicate to others through the way we dress, we have to first understand what identity is. Identity is what we choose to represent ourselves as, be that a gender identity, a sexual identity; it is completely up to the individual as a person to make that choice. Identity forms the basis of one’s pride and being accepted socially only adds to that ego and integrity. The psychology of the matter is the way we dress is more or less based on our moods, habits, inspirations, past, present and future. The character of a person is reflected in the way that they dress, Clothing can act as a simple glance into someone’s life, as we are already know that different clothing can represent different means of culture; Clothes are used a language to communicate with society and to commonly let them know what you want to be viewed as.
1) Haute Couture – highest end, most exclusive, custom for wealthiest (Prada, Burberry, Hermes, Gucci, Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Louis