Consumers as Victims of Fashion Manipulation - Essay Example

Consumers as Victims of Fashion Manipulation ABSTRACT The present day man is in the hunt for perfection. Modern studies reveal that the attire of a person reflects his personalities and can even decide the day of a person. Many times it proved right but many times a lot of over-emphasis was given to the same. Moreover, the media and market manipulated the consumers to fall victims who are irresistible to buying things. The following pages are an attempt to examine the fact on the basis of media (advertisements in particular), semiotics and various other factors. The study aims to look at these matters along with the present globalization scenario. It also emphasizes on various psychological factors that leads to the situation where consumers are vulnerable to wastage of wealth on unwanted materials. INTRODUCTION Fashion is a word that everyone admires and all wants to be fashionable to be accepted in the egoistic society in which life prospers today. Everything from the color of the hand kerchief to the perfume used is a criterion to measure the position of the person in the society. It is more or less a pseudo-prestige donor that the people rush behind it even if their pockets and wallets do not permit. They are compelled to do so by many factors around. To be precise, they are manipulated to consume certain standard of products in the society so as to make others approve them. It is basic human nature to have an urge for praise and admiration and the manipulating factors are well versed with this fact. It is therefore a necessity to study the situation and suggest possible solutions for the situation. The study presented here is based on the topic and the method used is secondary literature analysis. Websites like google.com and wikipedia.org are used for the collection of various data. The concepts introduced are supported by the examples of various advertisements shown on media. Fashion as a practical concept Fashion is a relative concept. Being fashionable is al so the same. Fashion has changed from time to time. Today, it shifts and alters per second. It is more or less prestige that rules the industry more than anything else. Fashion and being fashionable can be seen as the second side of the coin. The other side is that of consumption. Every fashionable being is expected to spend as much as possible to gain the best possible fashionable attire or accessory. Experts say, fashion market is making the consumers passive victims of manipulation and they consume a lot more that what they should really consume. Fashion v/s consumption Consumption is a factor that arises out of desire for a thing which may be useful or not. “Consumption is seen here, therefore as being increasingly based upon desires, not simply upon need” (Bocock: 3). The definition of consumption may be entirely different on the basis of commerce or economics. But in fashion, it is based upon desire and prestige. Consumption increases as per the demand of fashion. Fashion v/s caste Culture is a great determinant of fashion. A dress worn in the west may not be accepted in the Middle East. This is based on the culture more than the climatic features or any other factor. The exposing clothes will not be accepted in the Middle East where the female is not supposed to show more than her arms and face as per the Islamic rules. Those following fashion disrespecting the culture will not be accepted in any society. Fashion v/s country Each country has its own rules and regulations regarding the dress that can be worn there. It can be very liberal to extremely strict conditions. For example, in India, the national flag cannot be worn as a design or even as a badge by rule. But the US flag has no such restriction and is an all time favorite design for many designers. Fashion v/s creativity Certain fashions can only be worn on the ramp, some others in parties and some casually. Whatever is the case, it is all about the creativity of the fashion designer. Any person who has a mind to be creative can design and wear their fashion in the best possible way. Many times it would need a lot of guts and daring attitude. Therefore fashion can also be called as the ‘art of attitude’. Fashion v/s cash This is the major factor affecting fashion. Any fashion followed by the people must be pocket friendly. There are many people who waste a major part of their income on their looks and its particulars. The fashion market has grown so well that any person would get tantalized to its spells. Many go in chase of international brands even if their pockets don’t permit. It is a sad reality that cash determines fashion and sometimes even life of the people beyond the limit. Fashion v/s common sense Fashion is unique to the person following it. That is, something suitable for one person need not be the best choice for other. Therefore, common sense is mandatory in choosing the correct outfit and accessories. But as per the well known phrase ‘common sense is not so common’, many times people are forced to witness ridiculous fashions with least amount of common sense used. Shopping or owning fashion Shopping maniacs are not a rare scene in the present day world. Shopping is always the chase for the latest fashion and therefore shopping can be called ‘owning fashion’. Shopping is basically a softer term for consumption. The shopping malls and other places of shopping have simply grown to an extend that the people going there grab all the things they need and don’t need. It is all about the appeal, price and status. The branded piece of shirting and the non-branded item may not vary much in quality. But the chase for brands empty the pockets but, bring in a pseudo-prestige. In fact, it is all about social status and approval and nothing more. But the sad fact is that even the middle class goes for the trend and they spend money on the unwanted things more than the most wanted things. In short, fashion sense manipulates the consumers and makes them irresistible to purchase. The shopping experience Once upon a time shopping was totally a women’s thing. But today, men are more beauty conscious than women. They spend thousands on shoes, perfumes, watches and cell phones. Many times they enter a shop just to accompany someone and come out as the owner of a new thing. This has become a habit or in a better way, an addiction to many men and women. Income is not the scale for purchase. They look for ‘D&G’ or ‘Scullers’ that anything other than the few letters are ignorable to them. Shopping as such has become an experience today that it is not going to a shop with a list and coming back with a bag of those written thing. It is a craze or an addiction or even a disease in disguise. Influence of media on fashion Media has been a major determinant of fashion today. Print media, television, movies and advertisements play a major role in what youngsters of that country wear. The term ‘youngsters’ should never be misunderstood as all people try to get young with the growth of their fashion sense. But as discussed earlier, common sense should rule over fashion. Else, the elder person trying to get young would become the laughing stock of the community. But there are certain disadvantages to the fashion culture produced by media. The third world countries are brought into the fame of glamour and fashion by a lot of ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs.’ World titles given to the ladies from such countries. This is with the intention to make the particular country into a whole sale beauty market. This is all happening with the pre set media agenda and media are getting well paid in the business and the people become the clowns in the play. Fashion in the semiotic form Fashion was once a part of semiotic features of a particular group or area. But today, the intermixing of cultures and the cosmopolitan attitude has put out the value of fashion in the semiotic form. It is no more a symbol or sign of a particular identity. Instead, it merely signifies a particular individual in terms of his/her finance, status, attitude and style. It is a sign that values for money more than anything else. Fashion and consumption Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson talks about the brand value of ‘Nike’ in the book ‘Nike culture: the sign of the swoosh’. They add that the brand name has a value more than currency at present. It is more or less a fact. The value of certain brands has gone so high that people do anything to own them. The shopping malls- the festive grounds of globalization have made all the possible moves to make people consume. The sense of socialism and equality vaporizes with the latest trends of fashion. Karl Marx in his classic essay ‘The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret’ denotes the urge for own commodities as a sort of ‘fetishism’. He takes it as a characteristic feature of capitalistic society. Often people oblige to its appeal than its usefulness. Also, due to the consumption mania, the gap between the rich and poor keeps on widening. Nevertheless people keeps on wasting money and the number of brand freaks and starving poor keeps on increasing. Consumption and post modernism Consumption is not a post modern trend. But consumption in the way it is today is totally a post modern issue. Talking about ‘issue’, consumption is indeed an issue happening in the world today. The amount spent on a lipstick by the urban rich lady is enough to feed a starving family. But the amount of compassion and care to be given to such matters have burned out in the post modern consumers and with the passage of time, people are shrinking to their own shells. The Second World War and the following occurrences demolished the economy of so many nations. The financial crisis that was a tsunami on the world economy also couldn’t turn out the gleam of fashion industry. Every country levies a heavier tax on the beauty products. But always, heavier the cost of the item, higher the demand. The irresistibility to the consumption of fashion materials can be understood on the basis of the human urge to appear beautiful. But how can it be justified if the amount spent on them is more to luxury than to usefulness? Consumption control It will not be right to mark or reduce the consumption of fashion goods in the industry. There are a lot of families that earn their daily bread from the industry. The laborers of the fashion industries are so much out of fashion that they hardly earn their daily requirements. The luxury items are necessary to an extend in life as well. But beyond that, it is harming the person as such and even the society. The greed for fashion goods harms the family budget. The fashion seeking society makes the national market to yet another market of the multinational fashion corporations. A part of the national budget which is kept back for the other highly required materials are wasted on brand names and beauty process. Another thing is that, much products of the industry are more or less the same. But everything called quality sleeps within a ‘few alphabets’ or names are discussed before. Also, the consumption of the international items or the craze to consume those is a slap on the face of the local fashion industry. The local fashion would certainly reflect the culture of the area and its value. But as per the new consumption trend, it is no where to be considered and it is all about getting stylish and forgetting own culture and tradition. Therefore, fashion is going senseless and it is mixing all the cultures and traditions making none. Therefore, it is high time a control arrives over fashion industry. Each age had its own fashion. But none of them insisted on following it and none of them had the dark intention of looting the money of its respected followers. Everyone should appear fashionable. But it must be with common sense and without prejudices. In short, it is evident that there is irresistibility to the consumption of fashion items in the present day world. It happens due to the manipulation from the side of the industry. It is a collective issue which can be fought by each individual to make a collective result. Therefore, it is the duty of each individual to give things the importance that they actually deserve and so should be the respect and love to fashion. Reference: Annie Phizacklea , Unpacking the Fashion Industry Bocock, R. (1993) Consumption. London:Routledge.  Fashion and Consumption, Accessed on 25th November 2009, available at URL, http://www.marquise.de/en/misc/fashion.shtml Fred Davis, Fashion Culture and Identity Goldman, R. and Papson, S. (1998) Nike Culture: the Sign of the Swoosh. London: Sage.  Lee, M. J.(ed.)(2000) The Consumer Society Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.  Lury, C.(1996) Consumer Culture. London: Polity. Michael. R.Solomon, The Psychology of Fashion Read More