Fashion, Culture and Region - Research Paper Example

Memo Report Fashion Community First 30 July Fashion, Culture and Region Introduction In todays world, it is increasingly becoming evident that nothing remains constant except for change that is taking place in different regions of the world within different cultures having different fashion. Fashion is one aspect of human beings culture that keeps on changing depending on the region individuals find themselves in. The term “fashion” is usually related to clothes and accessories, such as earrings, necklace, and shoes. Presently, majority of people associate fashion with the type of things they wear. Although fashion is used as a broader concept, in the recent years it has been narrowed to apparel, accessories, and fabric. Many individuals including great scholars have come up with a variety of definitions concerning the meaning of fashion. According to Severini (2015), fashion is a popular trend, in particular in manner of behavior and style of dressing. The above definition with other definitions that individuals and great scholars have come up with have a common concept, feeling and looking great. If an individual is fashionable, that individual is considered as being confident. That individual is sure that the right message is being conveyed to provide a specific impression to other individuals. This implies that being fashionable surely assists an individual in getting the courage to take the first step towards achieving set goals. In light of this, does the culture of a particular region play an important role in affecting its trend in its fashion industry? If it does, what fashion design programs can be created for this type of culture? This memo report will address these two questions. Let us begin with the history of fashion. Fashion History Throughout history, fashion has had a long history of errors and trials. What was known to be fashionable in the past might be similar to destroying fashion in the present times. Likewise, what is known to be fashionable in the present times might have been seen as fashion suicide by people living in the past. Therefore, the period of time and beliefs held by the individuals living in it, in addition to the culture in that particular period of time and that region go on to play a significant role in determining its fashion trend. Manufacturers and designers produce accessories of clothing and clothing items in relation to the culture of a specific region. This makes clothing and accessories of that culture the fashion of that region at that particular time. Due to this, individuals usually adopt a clothing trend that only relates to their culture and period of time. For instance, it is impossible to find women from the Muslim religion wearing miniskirts in Saudi Arabia or American women from the Christian religion wearing burqas. This means that fashion designers living in religious cultures need to create fashion design programs that cater for the specific needs of their region. Before we look at the fashion design program, let us examine fashion in different cultures found in different regions around the world. Cultures in Fashion in Different Regions In ancient Egypt, the fashion was greatly influenced by the culture during its era. They wore clothes that not only were comfortable to the hot tropical climate, but were also glamorous to them. Figure 1 in appendix shows how an Egyptian man dressed (Pinterest, 2015). The color white for clothing was the most preferred because it reflected light to ensure maximum comfort. Children and workers were mostly naked, with maximum jewelry and clothes being worn mostly by the rich people. The tropical climate of the region, in this case, affected the fashion of the ancient Egyptian people because heavy clothing made them uncomfortable leading to sweating. This also explains the reason why cultures living in tropical regions usually wear light clothing. This effect of having cultures that have a fashion that adapts to their climatic region is also shared with other fashion designers in other countries. Kochhar, a well-known designer in the fashion industry from India, gives his views stating that designers in the fashion industry all over the world are keen on promoting colors of vegetables and fruits of the season in their region in their fashion collection (Fibre2Fashion, 2012). He adds that in wearing these colors, an individual will always be in fashion, especially in regions with tropical climate. According to this, there is little doubt that the region in which people live in immensely play a vital role in influencing their fashion. The problem with this is that the fashion does not change with time because the region does not allow the culture to change their fashion. Let us look at other examples. In Australia, Emu is a native bird that can be located in many parts of the country. The fashion of Australia has head wears that are made of feathers from an emu bird. Light Horsemen of Australia also carry this head wear which has feathers from an emu bird. The millinery of Australia is greatly inspired by the fauna and flora. It relates its natural and scenic beauty with fashion making it a part of the culture of their country. This has the effect of influencing many Australians to wear clothing or clothing accessories that resemble the regions surroundings they live in. Similar to ancient Egypt, the problem with this type of fashion is that it does not change with time because Australians want to be identified by their surroundings. Unlike ancient Egypt and Australia, the outfits from the western regions, such as the United States and Europe are known to be taking the fashion industry by storm because they have a culture that is unique to their region. The United States constantly introduces new fashion trends that influence their culture, specifically the way people dress. During the early 1980s, the United States saw their people wearing Cowboy clothing because during that era, people were using horses as the main means of transportation (Agnew, 2014). However, during the early 1990s, the popularity of vehicles saw the trend changing from Cowboy to modern clothing, such as miniskirts, trousers and hot pants (Agnew, 2014). While in other regions, such as Egypt and Australia where their culture affects their fashion because of their weather, the United States fashion changes according to the culture of individual people, such as sports or music celebrities. For instance, if a musician like Rihanna wears a mini skirt during the cold season, her supporters will also wear miniskirts because they perceive miniskirts to be in fashion. This is one reason businesses in the United States are doing so well. If businesses want to market jeans trousers for women, they will find celebrities to wear them and create a culture of women that prefers jeans trousers over skirts. This culture of women wearing jeans trousers in the United States get adopted by women and, therefore, create a culture that perceives women who wear jeans trousers as looking beautiful. In light of the influence of culture on the fashion of a region, it is important to come up with a fashion design program that will cater for their fashion needs. Design Program for Different Cultures Designers utilize fashion programs in different regions of the world to come up specific fashion needs that cater to their people in a particular period of time. Fashion program can be divided into two: a fashion design program for cultures that have maintained their religious values, such as Muslims; and a fashion design program for cultures that change their cultural values based on influential figures and events during a particular era. A fashion design program for a culture that maintains its religious values, such as Islam, will mainly have the same type of clothing being designed in its program throughout the year. This means that designers will continually design the same clothing for its people. For instance, since burqas are considered the types of clothing that are respectable for women in Saudi Arabia, the fashion designer program will only have fashion designs that contain variations of burqas to differentiate from another womans burqas. Therefore, this burqas goes on to become the fashion for women living in the Saudi Arabia region. This impedes fashion designers from changing the fashion because people living in such a region cannot start wearing jeans trousers or miniskirts. Hence, the fashion program will remain the same throughout history unless there is a major change in the Islam religious culture. A fashion design program for cultures that change their cultural values based on influential figures and events during a particular era can have several fashion design programs. For instance, in India, women after marriage used to wear Sari because they had to stay at home while their husbands went to fend for their families. Currently, as women have started to contribute to their family matters, such as providing income, they have started to change their culture through wearing suits to work instead of Sari because they have to look professional. Two fashion programs could be created, where one caters for Indian women who stay at home wearing Sari and another where women who go to work wear Suits. This fashion design program will serve a culture that is changing its own culture to accommodate for working women. Thus, as culture continues to change in many regions around the world, fashion will continue to change significantly to adapt to their needs. Conclusion Culture has a vital role in deciding the fashion of a specific region in the world. As the culture of a region changes, the fashion also changes. In our discussion, we saw that the cultural change of clothing from Cowboy clothes to current miniskirts have changed the fashion industry of the United States. However, we have seen that cultures that have religious values like Islam tend to have a fashion that does not change. With different fashion design programs, fashion designers could create specific designs of clothing to a specific culture. Therefore, it is safe to say that the fashion trend of a region is tied to the culture of that particular region. Kindly let me know what you think about this topic of fashion, culture, region and the fashion design programs. Students First Name, Last Name References Agnew, J. (2014). The creation of the cowboy hero. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. Fibre2fashion (2015). Does culture of any region affect its fashion trends? Retrieved 30 July 2015, from http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/40/3973/does-culture2.asp Pinterest (2015). Egyptian clothing men. Retrieved 30 July 2015, from https://www.pinterest.com/jmoreno9505/egyptian-clothing-men/ Severini, M. (2015). 2015 woman fashion guide. State College, PA: IMU Ventures Publishing. Appendix Figure 1: Egyptian Clothing for Men (Pinterest, 2015) Read More