Transcript Fashion - marciawade

Fashion
What is Fashion?
In small groups of 2-3 come up with and write
down an explanation for these three questions:
(5 minutes)
1. What is fashion?
2. Why is it important?
3. How is fashion related to our study of media?
Your group will now join another group from the
other side of the room and discuss/compare your
explanations. (5 minutes)
What is Fashion?
Is the expression of feelings and attitudes
through appearances. - individuals
Self-expression,
Style
Trends
Cultural Diversity
Why is it important?
•
•
•
•
•
makes you feel unique
express yourself
individuality
look good, feel good
labels people in a good way – helps
people identify people
• communicates a message
How does it relate to media?
• communicates a message – visually and
sometimes olfactory (smell)
• helps us understand advertisements
• who we are
• how we interact
• what we value
• what a culture is like
What is Fashion?
For centuries individuals or societies have
used clothes and other body adornment as a
form of nonverbal communication to indicate
occupation, rank, gender, sexual availability,
locality, class, wealth and group affiliation.
Fashion is a form of free speech. It not only
embraces clothing, but also accessories,
jewellery, hairstyles, beauty and body art.
What we wear, how and when we wear it,
provides others with a short story to subtly
read the surface of a social situation.
Fashion as a Sign System
Fashion is a language of signs, symbols
and iconography that non-verbally
communicate meanings about individuals
and groups. Fashion in all its forms from a
tattooed and pierced navel, to the newest
hairstyle, is the best form of iconography
we have to express individual identity. It
enables us to make ourselves understood
with rapid comprehension by the onlooker.
The Need for Tribal Belonging
Group affiliation is one
of our primary concerns
with regard to fashion.
Humans want and need
to belong. Similarities
in fashion help establish
and reinforce that sense
of belonging or tribal
connection.
The Need for Individuality
Humans by birth are
guaranteed uniqueness
and fashion is one way
to express our
individuality. In mass
society, fashion is
another way to express
the freedom of the
individual.
Status and Purpose of Clothing
Those with high status jobs wear the
clothes they think others expect them to
wear. It’s from the clothes that people
wear that we get our first impression of
personality. They provide mental cues to a
person’s status and occupational role.
Clothes also act as an aid to modesty or
immodesty as the wearer so desires. The
state of a person’s clothes is a sign of
respectability.
Evolutions of new styles
New generations strive to differentiate
themselves from old ones. They try to find their
own group identity that give them cohesion as a
generation and distinguish them from the
mainstream. (music style, clothing style, speech)
To assure that the new style becomes a real
signal of identity, young people create a set of
rules that are incompatible with the values of the
style they are rejecting. This causes the style
they want to differentiate from, to play an
essential role in the shaping of the new style.
Evolutions of new styles
To shape a successful new style, the new
generation needs to find one or more
important characteristics of the
mainstream style and develop a signal that
is incompatible with these values. This
assures that mainstreamers find new
styles unacceptable/ incomprehensible.
For this reason most new styles are born
as a reaction of the old styles.
Punk Style for Example
The punk movement was born as a reaction
against the rigidity of British society. Punkers
reject the social formalism as a whole, reject the
social structures and become anarchistic, reject
the musical virtuosity of progressive rock and
instead play music that is as dirty and
unacademic as possible. Punks find that their
attitudes will not be understood and followed by
the mainstream, and thus they adapt them as
elements of their own identity
PUNK
Mainstream Response
One proof of mainstream’s disapproval of new styles is
“moral panic.” This kind of reaction shows that the set of
values and attitudes of the alternative style is
incompatible with some those of the mainstream. This
will reaffirm the alternative group’s identity in opposition
to the mainstream identity.
Gaining this rejection of mainstream culture helps the
new style to attract young people who are looking for a
group with whom to identity. The rejection assures that
their values are not going to be assimilated by the main
style, making the alternative style a safe paradigm to find
their group’s identity.
Process of Becoming Mainstream
• If a new style reflects the concern and
interests of a new generation, more and
more members of the society will adapt it.
When the adapters of the style reach
some critical point, the style is brought to
the attention of the general public. In this
way, the style is not an alternative signal
anymore; now is part of the mainstream
culture.
Cont.
At the beginning, the non-mainstreamers create a new
style as a reaction to the mainstream, and proudly see
their style evolve and become more rich and complex.
New style is very effective in communicating new set of
values against the mainstream. This gets the attention of
many early adaptors who understand the values and the
attitudes of the new style. The early adaptors learn the
secret code that allows them to understand and follow
the fashion changes proposed by the pioneers. Then
more and more people adapt the new style, and
unfortunately not all of them fully understand its
underlying principles but nevertheless follow the external
changes in the fashion. Thus, the new style has become
mainstreamed. The pioneers get frustrated because their
style does not serve as a differentiation signal anymore.
And Round n Round we Go!
Fashion:
Influence on Behaviour?
Does fashion influence behaviour?
or
Does fashion merely reflect the
personality of an individual?
Deconstruct Your Fashion Style
What does what you are wearing tell about you?
Take each fashion accessory that you are wearing
today (clothes, jewellery, make-up, tattoos, hair style,
glasses) and answer the following for each:
1. Where was my ________ made? By whom? For
whom?
2. How does my ________ reflect my values and beliefs?
3. What message does my ________ say to myself? to
others?
4. What do I like/dislike about __________?
Item
Shirt
Made
Thailand
For Whom?
North America
By Whom
Tommy Hilfiger
Reflect Values
Trendy, well made
Message to
myself..
Look good, feel good
…message to
Others
Non-thinking
imperialist
Like/ dislike
Can’t use the dryer
Find yourself two partners and get them to write
down what message they feel your fashion
portrays. Take their comment sheet and attach it
to your sheets so you can hand them in together.
This activity requires some seriousness, maturity
and establishing a little distance from the
situation. The goal is to examine your own views
on your fashion sense and how they are actually
interpreted by others.
Homework: Due on Thursday or Sooner 
Fashion survey
• Find 5 people you do not know well (introduce yourself to
someone from a different grade) and try to find the answer to at
least these questions.
• Are you concerned about being fashionable or in style?
• What is the biggest concern when you buy clothes? (price,
style, comfort, brand)
• Do you think fashion affects people’s behaviour or is fashion
just an expression of people’s personality?
• Do your friends wear similar clothes?
Prepare a report on your results. In your report you should
include the age and gender of the people you interview (I don’t
want names) and the results (what you found out) and your own
opinion for each question.