The Evolution of Fashion

Fashion is a social and cultural phenomenon that involves the relationship between people and their clothing, adornments, and accessories. It is a form of personal expression that also can serve as an indicator of social class, cultural identity, and even personality type. It is a dynamic process of evolution and change that can reflect long-term secular trends and shorter-term cyclical shifts, as illustrated by the recurrence of certain styles and silhouettes.

The origins of continuously changing fashion in Western Europe can be traced to the middle of the fourteenth century. The most dramatic early change was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment from calf-length to barely covering the buttocks, sometimes accompanied by stuffing on the chest – a style that created the distinctive Western male outline still worn today. The emergence of new clothing items from less-known parts of the world was another cause for fashion changes. New discoveries of exotic flora and fauna could trigger a resurgence in popularity for things Turkish at one time, Chinese at the next, or Japanese at yet another.

It has been suggested that modern fast-paced changes in fashion embodies many negative aspects of capitalism; that it encourages wasteful spending on clothing and that it can be exploitative by encouraging consumers to keep buying things they do not actually need in order to stay in the current trend. Some fashion designers and consumers enjoy the variety that changing trends provide; they see the rapid changes in fashion as a way to experience diversity.

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