The Meaning of Clothing and Fashion

2. 1 Chapter The Meaning of Clothing and Fashion

3. Objectives • Explain the basic reasons people wear clothing. • State why people make various clothing choices. • Describe fashion in terms of art and science, and private and public awareness. • Summarize economic and political influences on fashion. • Define basic fashion terms.

4. Reasons for Wearing Clothing • In ancient times, clothing of simple design was made from animal skins, plants, and other items found in nature • Today, clothing is made of various materials • Clothing satisfies these basic human needs • physical • psychological • social

5. Physical Needs • Clothing provides protection, or physical safeguards • As protection from weather, clothing provides comfort • As protection from environmental dangers, clothing provides many benefits • Shoes protect the feet • Helmets protect the head in accidents • Sterile gloves protect against germs continued

6. Physical Needs • As protection from occupation hazards, special garments protect workers • Special “occupational clothing” includes items such as hard hats and safety goggles • Athletes often wear protective helmets, gloves, and pads • Soldiers and police officers wear protective clothing and shields

7. Psychological Needs • Psychological reasons for wearing clothing are adornment and identification • Adornment, or attractive decoration, existed in all civilizations throughout history • Being adorned with clothing • gives people a positive psychological feeling • provides artistic expression • shows creativity continued

8. Psychological Needs • Cultureoften determines the type of adornment people use • Culture is a society’s set of social norms or values • How one culture views beauty can differ from how others view it • People’s ideas about beauty and adornment change over time as fashions change continued

9. Psychological Needs • Identificationis the process of describing • who someone is • what he or she does • Clothing helps the identification process • Example: Uniforms are specific to everyone within a certain group • Emblems, colors, badges, and jewelry also aid identification continued

10. Psychological Needs • The regular clothing of many people can be considered a type of “psychological uniform” • Some businesses and schools have dress codes, which are written or unwritten rules of appropriate attire • Clothes adhering to a dress code • promote group identity • help group members maintain a certain discipline of behavior

11. Social Needs • The social reasons for wearing clothing are modesty and status • Modestyis the covering of the body according to a culture’s or a society’s code of decency • U.S. standards of modesty have changed through the years • Each society or culture has its own accepted standards of modesty continued

12. Social Needs • Clothing is sometimes used to gain a higher rank in society or to show social or military rank • A person’s statusis his or her position or rank compared to others • “Good” or “high” status is usually associated with recognition, prestige, and social acceptance

13. Combined Needs • Today, people wear clothes because of a combination of needs, which include • receiving physical and psychological pleasure • expressing creativity • fulfilling basic physical and social needs • Clothing carries a highly visible message about who a person is, is not, or would like to be

14. Why People Select Certain Clothes • Clothing choices are influenced by a person’s • personality traits • tendencies toward conformity or individuality • values and attitudes • Values are the ideas, beliefs, and material items that are important to an individual • Attitudes are personal feelings or reactions to people, things, or ideas

15. Values and Attitudes • Clothing values and attitudes are passed through the generations. Influences include • ethnic and cultural traditions • economic and social conditions • different needs and values linked to populations of certain ages • personal desire for status, easy care, comfort, etc. • advertising

16. Conformity Versus Individuality • Pressure from other people has a great influence on how people dress • Conformitymeans obeying or agreeing with a given standard or authority • Children learn what they are expected to wear from parents and teachers • Peer group pressure also contributes to conformity continued

17. Conformity Versus Individuality • Too much conformity can mean a loss of personal individuality • Individualityis self-expression or the quality that distinguishes one person from another • Most people balance the influences of conformity and individuality in their clothing • They want to express themselves as individuals but also as part of a group

18. Personality Traits • Personalitycan be defined as the total characteristics that distinguish an individual • Personality traits are often reflected in how people dress • People who prefer • a lot of decoration tend to be very sociable • comfortable clothes tend to be confident, outgoing, and secure

19. Needs Versus Wants • Needs and wants are other factors that influence clothing choices • Example of a need: a heavy coat that provides warmth in a cold climate • Example of a want: a new coat that is simply more stylish • A needis something a person must have for existence or survival continued

20. Needs Versus Wants • A wantis a person’s desire for something that gives him or her satisfaction • The wanted item would be nice to have, but the person can get along without it • Both needs and wants affect buyers’ choices • Success in the fashion business depends on understanding how consumers make apparel decisions

21. Ongoing Fashion Perspectives • Fashion is • both an art and a science • highly personal yet very public • influenced by economic, political, and other events

22. Fashion Insights • As an art, fashion • incorporates creativity in its products • thrives on innovative, forward-thinking ideas • uses color, texture, line, and other aspects of design to produce stylish items to wear • complements current trends

23. Fashion Insights • As a science, fashion uses science and technology to • produce textile fibers with specific qualities • develop effective dyes for specific materials • revolutionize the way apparel items are designed, mass-produced, distributed, and sold

24. Fashion Insights • Fashion is a private matter. • It satisfies physical, psychological, and social needs • Apparel choices reflect an individual’s personal image outwardly to the public • The textile/apparel industry keeps new fashions secret as they are being designed continued

25. Fashion Insights • Fashion becomes a public matter as soon as new fashions are introduced • Fashion is constantly in the public spotlight through the press and other media • Consumers excitedly anticipate seeing, hearing about, and wearing the new fashions • Fashion is affected by shifts in the economy and the makeup of the population

26. Economic, Political, and Other Influences on Fashion • Fashion reflects economic conditions, political issues, current events, and popular entertainment • Fashions mirror the times • Centuries ago, people dressed according to what was allowed for their “social class” • Rare and expensive items such as silk, pearls, and the purple coloring became status symbols continued

27. Economic, Political, and Other Influences on Fashion • People’s moods are reflected in the way they dress • In hard times • clothing usually has a serious, conservative look • people loose interest in their appearance • In better times • styles are brighter and more adventurous • people are more willing to try different fashions

28. Industry Facts • Popular entertainment causes fashions to imitate a character of a movie, an actor, or a rock star • As movies, concerts, and other modes of entertainment are publicized, consumers want to identify with them • Fashion professionals stay aware of all the ways that apparel relates to society

29. Fashion Terminology • A garmentis an article of wearing apparel, such as a dress, suit, coat, or sweater • Examples of garment parts: sleeves, cuffs, collar, and waistband • Accessoriesare the articles added to complete or enhance apparel outfits • Examples of accessories: belts, hats, jewelry, shoes, gloves, and scarves continued

30. Fashion Terminology • A styleis identified by distinct features that create an overall appearance • Styles exist in architecture, painting, music, and most other forms of expression • In apparel, each style is a particular design, shape, or type of garment with unique characteristics • Examples: A-line skirts, Bermuda shorts, safari jackets, and crewneck sweaters continued

31. Fashion Terminology • The term style also describes an attractive condition • Certain trendsetters and fashion leaders are said to have style or to be stylish • Fashionis the display of the currently popular style of objects or activities • In apparel, a fashion is the leading type of clothing bought and worn by a large segment of the public continued

32. Fashion Terminology • Fashions consist of the styles, colors, and functionalities favored at a particular time • Styles come and go in fashion acceptance, causing fashions to constantly change • High fashionitems, which are the latest or newest fashions, usually are • innovative, expensive, and of fine quality • accepted by the first adopters of fashion changes • considered too extreme or unusual for the public continued

33. Fashion Terminology • Mass fashion, or volume fashion, accounts for the majority of sales in the fashion business • These styles are called “homogenized” because they are • produced in large quantities • accepted by the mass public

34. Industry Facts • A designis a particular or unique style version • Example: A jumpsuit (pants attached to a top) can have different collars, pockets, or trims. Each version is a different design of the jumpsuit style • The terms style and design • have distinct definitions • are often used interchangeably in the fashion industry

35. Fashion Terminology • Avant-gardeclothes are the most daring and wild designs • They are too unconventional and startling to be considered fashions of the times • Most features of these garments • disappear after a few years • are used to draw attention to the wearer, often on stage continued

36. Fashion Terminology • A fadis a temporary, passing fashion • It is an unusual garment, accessory, or look that has great appeal to many people for a short period of time • Fads provide a • feeling of adventure for the wearers • sense of belonging to a group • Eventually, most fads fade away continued

37. Fashion Terminology • A classic style or design is one that continues to be popular over an extended period of time • A garment of classic style or design • has simple, stylish lines that prevent it from being easily dated • is almost always acceptable • can have an updated look with only minor changes continued

38. Fashion Terminology • A fashion lookrefers to a total accessorized outfit • Specific fashion looks are often identified with a celebrity or certain groups of people • In fashion, taste refers to the prevailing opinion of what is attractive and appropriate • Good taste means sensitivity to what is artistically pleasing and appropriate for a given person and occasion

39. In Summary • People wear clothing to satisfy physical, psychological, and social needs • A person’s values and attitudes play an important part in clothing selection • Fashion is both an art and a science, involving creative thinking as well as technology • Success in the fashion business requires the understanding of clothing and fashion terms