What is Fashion?

Describing

What I find particularly intriguing about topic one “What is fashion” is the difficulty of pinpointing what fashion means. When taking a closer look at what this implies, I learned that fashion is more than just the material that makes up the clothes we put on our back. This view is argued by Akdemir (2018) that clothes wear us, rather than we wear clothes. This concept urged me to think about the influence of greater society on how we think about clothing and challenge the rules and codes that govern our dressing behaviours. Which led me to explore the ways that fashion pushes us to either conform or rebel.

 In the book “The Fashioned Body” by Joanne Entwistle (2015), the concept of the fashioned body is discussed and how it is regulated, she argued that the body must be dressed in almost all social situations. From this, I developed a greater understanding of how society conforms to rules of dress that are rarely challenged or questioned because they exist in society as a norm, embedded within its culture. This piece of literature inspired me to examine the relationship between the natural body and the fashioned body. What I found particularly fascinating about my learning is the vast scale that societal norms influence dress, yet this is something that many people do not realise or care to examine further than just a surface level look. The most important insight I gained from my learning was ‘the looking-glass self’ a concept created by Charles Horton Cooley. When applying this concept to the rules that govern dress, I learned that when people conform to or rebel to societies standards, it can affect people’s perceptions of them and they then embody this perception.

Interpreting

From exploring the relationship between society and dress further, I drew a conclusion that defining fashion could be comparable to asking society to define ‘god’, you would receive different answers depending on multiple factors such as attitudes, values and societal norms. It is these influences I wanted to explore and question to gain a better understanding of human behavior concerning fashion and dress. Taking an in-depth look at fashion choices, I uncovered that fashion means different things to different people. Fashion can be viewed as a culture because it reflects the social structures that surround us.

 I decided to unearth some societal rules that effect dress through my reflection.

The first was modesty and exposure of the natural body that is subject to different perceptions depending on the culture of that society. This reminded me of a point raised by Entwistle in the book “The Fashioned Body”, where she discusses the fact that women’s dress is of a greater moral concern than what a man wears. An example is Americans state using a women’s clothing worn at the time of her attack as evidence in sexual assault or rape cases. This distressed me as it demonstrated one of the worse forms of monitoring women’s bodies by society.

The second rule I uncovered, is the governing of certain social events that require formal dress, not adhering to these inherently obvious rules means you could be subject to judgment from others. This is not to dismiss the fact that individuals are capable of making their own choices when it comes to dressing. However, they try to maintain an equilibrium of a personal view and societal view.

‘The looking-glass self’ concept discussed earlier gave me insight into the ways that individuals of a society base themselves on the perception of others, and that perception becomes a reality. According to ODI’s 2015 report, people receive social rewards for conforming, an example of these rewards are other people’s approval and standing within the community. I now realise that dressing differently can be seen as eccentric and freeing from the expectations of society, however at a basic level, all our bodies are governed by universalistic values of conformity. Rebelling against these norms could, in an extreme case result in social sanctions such as gossip, being ostracised, or violence (ODI report, 2015).

The last societal rule that I reflected on was gendered expectations that relate to dress. Gendered rules are typically set from birth e.g. boys in blue and girls in pink, as clothes are traditionally used a visual sign of gender identity. Fashion is a form of non-verbal communication that has become weakened over time (Akdemir, 2018).  An example of this is gendered expectations relating to dress having recently been blurred with the increase of unisex clothing. A possible implication of this could be as society is coming more liberal young people are beginning to question rules of dress that have been enforced from as early as they remember. 

Evaluating

When looking at the traditional gendered expectations that are governed by societal norms, it is clear they are enforced within society at such young ages. This demonstrates that cultural rules are imprinted on society over many years and are difficult to shift and it requires a proportionate amount of society to hold a consensus view to weaken these social structures.

This learning and interpretation has led me to rethink the lens I look through when making my own fashion choices. Prior to my research on this topic, I naively thought I was primarily making my own dress choices, however this reflection has shifted my thinking. By rethinking the lens that I view my own dress choices, I have drawn the conclusion that it is also through societies lens that I view how I am perceived.

As someone that is passionate about fashion and feel I am knowledgeable of the industry, this reflection has caused me to consider how profound my knowledge is. It has encouraged me to look past the surface level of the meaning of fashion and question the motivations behind all forms of dress. I have realised the importance of demanding freedom through dress when the governing rules are constraining us in society. For me, the most meaningful aspect of this task was reviewing how broad my scope of fashion is, this led me to uncover that I view dress in quite an individualistic way. This exploration of fashion at a deeper level has encouraged me to explore the ways that society and culture can forcibly influence dress. I can now understand it is less of just a personal choice. 

Planning

This newly founded outlook of dress will help me with my dissertation project which aims to explore how personal nostalgia affects trends in society. This reflection has changed my thinking about dress and made me question if fashion trends are adopted so that people can conform on a larger scale, rather than they like the style of clothing. This deeper understanding gained from looking at the outside forces of dress will help me apply more critical thinking while writing my literature review. I will not limit my perspective to just the consumer but consider the culture they are set in. This has helped me form a well-rounded and more dimensional view of dress that will help me in my career in understanding how society conform and rebel through different forms. When thinking about how I can apply this new founded learning to my future career, I think that understanding the outside forces of society on dress are key to predicting trends and catering to all cultures within society. To further develop what I have learnt, I will continue to read literature surrounding the rules that govern how we dress from multiple cultural perspectives to gain a more well-rounded view. This learning will finally help me to question the ways I can become more individualistic through my own dress, and challenge some of the traditional societal norms that are not contributing to a progressive society. 

References:

AKDEMİR, N. (2018). Visible Expression of Social Identity: the Clothing and Fashion. Gaziantep University Journal Of Social Sciences, 17(4), 1371-1379. doi: 10.21547/jss.411181

King, L. M., & Clement, R. T. (2012). Style and substance: Fashion in twenty-first-century research libraries. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 31(1), 93-107.

ODI. (2015). Social Norms, gender norms and adolescent girls: a brief guide.