Fashion Textile Futures Theory - Essay Example

Fashion Textile Futures Theory Costly thy habits as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy, rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man; (Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, iii 70-73) In the beginning I would focus on dress in general and later in my essay I would draw a distinction between clothing and fashion. At times people do overlap dress and clothing and this causes a great misconception for the reader to understand the contribution of fashion in human history and how does fashion indicates changes in the life style of the society in general. Dress is defined as a style of personal apparel and costume (including style of hair, clothing and personal beautification) belonging to a particular nation, class or period.' Material objects, such as clothing, help to corroborate and give tangible cultural meanings to individuals. Clothes are the media through which cultural ideas flow. Clothing helps us to order our cultural categories; class, status, gender and cultural principles i.e. values, belief and ideas are determined which we hold regarding our world.' ' Cunningham. Anne. Patricia. Lab.Voso.Susan. (1991) Understanding Dress and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press. ' McCracken. Grant. (1988) Culture and Consumption. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP. It is pertinent here to define Culture which may be defined as the way of life, with share abilities, habits, beliefs and customs of people or social groups. It is the entire complex of learned behavior, transmitted to subsequent generations in an ever changing cumulative dynamic way.' We may call the artifacts; consumed and produced in a culture, a material culture. These artifacts are produced to express the unexpressed beliefs since the artifacts are understood in particular culture. Artifacts are unconscious and unintentional medium of attitudes, values and beliefs. But Prown says that artifacts are intentional expressions of an aesthetic which is equal in meaning and important to the unintentional expression.4 Cordwell and Schwarz noted that clothes were ignored in the studies of material culture. But later on it was realized that clothes; artifacts, are associated with 'a complex sentiments' and it channels the emotions and helps people to move in a 'culturally appropriate manners.' 5' Horn. M. J. & Gruel. L.M. (1981). The Second Skin. Boston: Houghton - Mifflin. 4 Prown. Jules D. et al (1985). "Material cultural studies: A Symposium" Material culture. 5 Cunningham. Anne. Patricia. Lab.Voso.Susan. (1991) Understanding Dress and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press To Schwarz clothing has a symbolic role to play more than any other material objects. It arbitrates the relationship among nature, people and their 'socio-culture environment.'6 The Study of Blue Denim jeans helps us to understand the statement of Schwarz and particularly his emphasis on the symbolic role of clothing. Blue jeans are all pervasive on the scene of cultural history of America since 130 years. During that period of time jeans exemplified different meanings and messages for the society. It became a symbol of rebellion, an outlet of personal freedom and creativity then it serves as an icon of awareness of fashion also. Change in the style of jeans is actually a sign of change in manners and attitude in the American society. These changes are the subtle but accurate barometers of trends in contemporary popular culture.7 In 1960s the concept of "Jeaning of America" came on the surface to give a jean new role in the American society. It was a great shift in the attitude of the society and particularly in youth when the new clique of rebels; "beatnik", the bohemians, started putting on black sweaters with blue jeans as daily wear to represent the urban intellectual, a dissenter, to rebel against the 'conformist society of the day.' To wear plain jeans and dark colors was to reject the more-is-better, new-is-better mentality of the Organization Man World. 8 By 1967, the youth dominated the sub-culture. Who had worn jeans as play clothes and grew up with James Dean and other cultural icons. The jeans were the symbols of anti-fashion to protest against the dominant world of fashion which was ever changing. Jeans represented freedom from duty and it refuted the concept of different clothes for work and for play (Valerie Carnes, Icons of Popular Fashion, 1977). The Punk also emerged as an antithesis and aggressive movement it was an expression of anti-fashion urban youth, representing the street culture. As mentioned in the beginning that fashion gives extra added values to clothing and those extra values persist in people's imagination and beliefs. Fashion is not visual clothing but the invisible element included in clothing.9 The above discussion aimed at to bring to point that subculture is synonym with the identity. Fischer suggests that sub-culturization is the result of urbanism. 6 Kaiser. Susan (1985). The Psychology of Clothing. New York: MacMillan. 7 Gordon. Beverly (1991). American Denim Blue Jeans and their Multiple Layers of Meanings. Understanding Dress and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press. 8 Gordon. Beverly (1991). American Denim Blue Jeans and their Multiple Layers of Meanings. Understanding Dress and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press. 9 Kawamura. Yuniya. (2005) Fashion-ology. New York: Berg. The reason may be that 'Dynamic population density causes a complex, structural differentiations resulting alienation, social disorganization, anomie and deviant behavior.' '' The subculture gives the sense of security to its devout against the multifaceted threats of urbanization. Cohen A. (1965) notes that an important aspect of distinct sub-culture group is 'the symbolic use of style.' Style determines a degree of commitment to the sub-culture. Style consists of three main elements; image, demeanor and argot. Image consists of costumes, hair style and artifacts. Demeanor is the way of expression and argot is a special vocabulary and its deliverance. The important aspect of style is the differentiation of work and leisure. (Cohen A. 1965) Employers are always apprehended of the values of leisure because such values are an antithesis to work. In the past work and leisure were strictly demarcated and it was work ethics that gave the concept of leisure hours. The work ethics has always been sarcastic about holidays since it holds holidays an anarchistic attack on work discipline. Work ethics was for simplicity and frugal spending but the mass production and consumption promoted the 'semi-mythical popular elite' with the magical wand of media and advertisement.'' '' Brake. Mike (1980) The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth: Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll. Routledge. '' Brake. Mike (1980) The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth: Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll. Routledge. Pizzorno (1959) and Alberoni (1964) suggest imitation of style and clothing denotes an attachment to the mythical elite giving an identity to the imitator which is an antithesis of traditional class structure. To assess a decade of fashion is a complicated issue but it s observed that the mood in the decade of 90s' was a defining one. It is observed that people did not spend much on clothing. After the advent of internet the emphasis was on styling to project one's individuality. Working at home was the common feature of the last decade of the last millennium and instead of following the gurus of fashion the people went for innovation in clothing. Rapid dissemination of information and a more relaxed attitude to clothes has led to a certain inevitable uniformity in cities thousands of miles apart.'' '' Thomas .Pauline, Weston 1990's Fashion History - The Mood of the Millennium < http://www.fashion-era.com/the_1990s.htm> December 8, 2008 Dressing Sexy A myth about wearing sexy dress is that some persons look great in their sexy dress. It is said that key to dressing sexy is know which part of the body is an assets to expose. The fashion designers suggest wear such dress which highlights the best part of the body of the wearer. Dressing sexy is a matter of providing a "peek" to the asset of your body. '' The sexy out fit was promoted by Hollywood. Berths wrote in 1960 that cinema had become model means of communication. The diva of Hollywood became the role models for the youth to follow and the cinema introduced some actress as sex symbols. The feminist object to promote woman as sex symbol for they believe that it is not the woman who is projected rather she becomes a commodity in such projections. It is to deny the human entity of woman. There is no doubt that such dresses are to amuse men and the underlined desire is to promote male chauvinism. It is observed that internet and IT technology will play a very important role in determining our life style. Now in architect the emphasis is given on spacious look to the life style which is not gaudy but accommodative to the new trends in the life of people. The global trends will overlap the national trends and we may an identity crisis in future. As subculture is about urbanization so we may the identical outlook in future. Spikes, rough and tough, look wearing loose out fit mostly. But interestingly women will go for skin tight dresses on their skinny bodies. Sexy dressing will be the genre of the special occasions and in day to day life the masculine outfit will be the choice of women. '' Bibliography Brake. Mike (1980) The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth: Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll. Routledge. Cunningham. Anne. Patricia. Lab.Voso.Susan. (1991) Understanding Dress and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press. Gordon. Beverly (1991). American Denim Blue Jeans and their Multiple Layers of Meanings. Understanding Dress and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press. Horn. M. J. & Gruel. L.M. (1981). The Second Skin. Boston: Houghton - Mifflin. Kawamura. Yuniya. (2005) Fashion-ology. New York: Berg. McCracken. Grant. (1988) Culture and Consumption. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP. Prown. Jules D. et al (1985). "Material cultural studies: A Symposium" Material culture. .Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University: Popular Press Thomas .Pauline, Weston 1990's Fashion History - The Mood of the Millennium < http://www.fashion-era.com/the_1990s.htm> December 8, 2008 Illustrations 1-Panting of Paul Klee (1879-1940) Read More