Fashion Cultures- Future Catwalk - Essay Example

Fashion Cultures-Future Catwalk Social s are of the most salient aspects in human life. Since time immemorial, the world population organizes itself into social units with some connecting factors. These units possess some shared cultural values, which tend to identify them from the other societies in the world. The cultural values developed by the society are responsible for defining the social make up for all members of the society. Some of the values appreciated by societies in the world include aspects of religion, social practices like marriage and rites of passage among other aspects (Bruzzi and Gibson 45). However, the social life of human beings undergoes dynamics just like the political and the economic aspects. Therefore, social and cultural values keep adjusting due to the changing times. The social dynamics that prevails in every human population presents subsequent changes in cultural values like practices and beliefs. Dynamics in the ancient societies depicted changes in typical values like beliefs and medieval practices. However, the modern and the postmodern societies go through dynamics in the aspect of fashion and life styles. The shift in fashion pillars in the social scene signifies the changes in practices and values of generations. It is important to note that, we can evaluate the aspect of fashion as a mark of social dynamic and the elements involved during social dynamics in the road of fashion (Bruzzi and Gibson 27). Fashion is the basic element of lifestyle in every society. In the social context, fashion means the latest trends in the cultural values and practices prevailing in any given social setting. Fashion marks the evolution and changes of the society in conformity with the prevailing trends and life styles postulated by the reference groups. Reference groups in the society tend to set new or modified standards that define the appropriate styles and fashion values. These trends are meant to be adopted by members of any society at any given time (Jen 52). The actual aspect of fashion materializes in the society through clothing items used by people in that society. These clothing items include foot ware, body accessories, and clothes. In the modern world, the aspect of fashion has been implicitly incorporated into the concepts of life styles and human behavior. These aspects of life style and behavior are included in the standards set by the reference groups in society. In this context, the industry of fashion, which is the prevailing indicator of social dynamics in the modern age, has occupied the principal channels of social communication in the society. In this context, the film industry and the catwalk platform are the main channels through which fashion messages are conveyed to the larger society (Jen 40). Media and the general film industry are the current medium through which fashion trends in terms of clothing, lifestyles, and behavior are communicated. Media channels like magazines, news papers, television and films and the social network platforms depicts the changes that are witnessed in the fashion industry. In the wake of the last century, fashion concepts started infiltrating into the media industry. Before the entrance of fashion into the media content, changes in political ideologies and economic situations were depicted and communicated through media channels. However, social dynamics usually succeeds political and economic changes. As a result, media channels started to focus on conveying trends and styles meant to the target audience of media content. Clothing, feet wear and other body accessories like caps, wrist wears, and trendy chains are the key elements dominating the media in the modern times (Jen 80). Apart from common media channels like magazines and television, films have been extensively used to advertise fashion icons in the media industry. The evolution of the movie industry has been used as the new advertisement medium through which new aspects in the economic and social concepts are conveyed to the public. The social members count the scenes created by the film industry in their products as ideal life situations. In this case, every new aspect depicted in the movie scenes will be swiftly adopted by those embracing fashion. The largest film industries are the main players of depicting fashion icons in the social scene. Film personalities are sponsored by the fashion designing companies to market their products through the roles they play in the scenes. Now, we can evidently appreciate the role played by the film industry in communicating the social aspect of fashion (Jen 86). The fashion communication channel of catwalk is the typical channel through which fashion dynamics were conveyed to the society. Catwalk or roadway is the other platform through which messages of fashion changes are conveyed to the public. This channel of communicating fashion elements was used extensively during the early stages of the fashion industry. The platforms containing catwalks are held in social environments where scheduled fashion walks are organized and displayed to the public. The catwalk channel incorporates models into the process of marketing fashionable products through the roadway (Bruzzi and Gibson 49). Catwalks are also communicated trough the media channels like television or recorded in catwalk films. Product designers usually select ideal personalities to display their clothing and footwear products to interested members of the public. Catwalks started during the early periods of the fashion industry development. Establishment of roadways in England during the early 20th centuries was initiated with the purpose of displaying the beautiful designs made by the royal fashion icons at the imperial residence. The idea later spread to the entire world through media channels. As a result, key clothing designers adopted it as a major channel through which fashionable products would be brought to the public domain (Bruzzi and Gibson 82). It is noteworthy that we can develop a comprehensive comparison between the two main mediums of communication fashion products, styles and behavior. In this context, the film industry has taken up the communication role, which was dominated by catwalk at the early states of the fashion industry. In this context, the shift in social dynamics in terms of life style brought up the integration of films into the cultural lives of individual in society. Modern societies embrace the watching of movies and other television programs more than the past societies. In addition, celebrities, models, and media personalities are dominating the film industry as actors in the movies. Catwalk industry used to display their products with the help of these known personalities. However, the migration of these personalities to the film industry resulted in a corresponding change in communication channels. Moreover, the film industry proved to reach a larger population than even television programs made to display catwalk contexts. In this regard, the film industry is taking up the role of communicating fashion elements in society, a role that was dominated by roadways of catwalks in the past (Jen 59). The change in the channels of displaying and advertising fashion trends in the society has sparked numerous evaluative processes by fashion experts in the industry. Some of these experts are designer while others are historical fashion and cultural professionals. According to these two fashion experts and designers, Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh, there is an imminent change in the future of fashion marketing. These designers, especially Pugh, have been in the fashion industry for nearly seven years. According to their works, these designers are predicting that marketing of fashion ideas in the future depends on the aspects of social freedom in the society (Bruzzi and Gibson 138). In their vision statements, most societies in the world, especially at the family levels still hold on to their old social and cultural practices. Therefore, the acceptance of fashion trends is still hindered by cultural aspects. In this case, it is not easy to predict the actual future of fashion marketing in current societies. However, these two fashion specialists say that the future of communicating fashion trends depends on the media and film industry more than the catwalk roadways. Pugh is a cloth designer and has displayed most of his work through films, and other film related media materials. Pugh has dressed some celebrities in the music and movie industry. In this context, Pugh and McQueen envision that the future of fashion marketing depends on the film industry. These fashion icons attribute the shift in marketing channels to the ability of film materials to reach a vast population of consumers than catwalk (Evans 161). In her works, Caroline highlights the concept of contemporary trends in the fashion industry. Designers in the modern fashion market play a significant role in dispensing fashion trends and values into the consumer market. Contemporary designs in the clothing and footwear industries seem to respond to the interests and needs of the current generations. Contemporary designs address the fashion needs of the society; hence are intertwined with the forces propagating fashion culture. The business market in the fashion and design industry dictates the steps used by the clothing and footwear industries in tailoring the products for the modern markets (Evans 28). These industries are committing substantial resources into carrying out research processes meant to provide the actual state of affairs in the fashion platform. The research findings highlights the vital properties that should be included in new design clothing in order to provide fashion solutions to the informed consumer market. In addition, contemporary designs have adopted appropriate and versatile materials and tools of developing fashionable accessories. New cloth making materials like parachute silk and mink are versatile and can be easily manipulated to produce the desired design. In addition, contemporary designs adopt the ideas of successful fashion instances depicted in sci-fi films. In the actual context, most of these scenes in sci-fi films is far from being practical. In this case, contemporary designs adopt them and modify some few features to create a representation of the ideal graphic in the movie scene (Evans 64). Social dynamics in the society is usually propagated by some external forces like globalization and international migrations of people from one society to another. These forces lead to the movement and adoption of fashion patters from one society to another. According to Evans, modernity is the most influential force that contributes immensely to the movement of fashion ideas from one society to another. In addition, modernity is responsible for the emergence of new fashion trends in the social fashion environment. The principles of modernity are propagated by the ideologies and philosophies of individualism (Evans 38). The modern society is fond of adopting and applying relative morality is its social institutions. In this case, every member of the society is entitled to conduct his/her own life in the manner that suits him/her. Presence of social and cultural values in the society and the practice of these social values by every member of the society is the basis of absolute morality. However, modernity disapproves of the social concept of absolute morality. Modernity gave birth to a society, which encourages the adoption of new fashion trends from every corner of the global village. As a result, those seeking for new trends in the international social scene adopt customized trends and clothing styles practiced by the reference groups as fashionable trends. Therefore, Evans attributes the fast shift in fashion trends to the aspect of modernity. In addition, modernity is blamed for the propagated use of films as a medium of communication fashion trends. Modern societies are embracing varied cultural materials developed in other societies in the world. Depiction of fashion instances in the movies and other film industry products and the social freedom generated by modernity propagates the growth of the fashion industry (Evans 73). In her works, Evans highlights that there is a relationship between fashion and commerce in the modern world. Since the beginning and development of the fashion industry, there has been a steady integration of business motives in this social aspect (Evans 121). Those in the fashion industry have commercialized their prospects into ripping revenues from the fashion embracing communities in the world. The current generations are receptive to any fashion product entering the market. In this context, fashion designers have embarked on mass production of the designed products. These include footwear, clothing like shirts and jackets, and other clothing accessories. This aspect of commercializing fashion has led to the growth of the fashion aspect with respect to the established conglomerate designer companies like Gucci and Prada (Evans 62). The promotion of fashion elements trough the most diverse film industry also facilitated the growth of the fashion industry. Integration of commerce into the fashion culture has presented some positive and negative effects to the social aspect. The positive effects are seen on the improved quality and variety of designed products in the market. Improvement in quality is attributed to the aspect of competition. Competition facilitates the efforts of innovations used by designers in the market. On the other hand, fashion designs used to be successful and received tremendous market reception in the past. However, that is not the case in the current fashion market. Many unsuccessful clothing items characterize the fashion industry, which enters into the market, unnoticed. Flooding of the market by armature fashion designers has resulted in failure of upcoming fashion companies (Evans 34). Based on the reflection of Evan’s work, it is evident that the researcher acknowledges the steady pace of fashion is becoming an inherent part of the society. She acknowledges that a society is not swift to adopt fashionable trends and lifestyles. However, the permissible social freedom is enough to facilitate substantial adoption of these fashion trends in clothing and behavior. In addition, then film industry acts as the mirror for gauging the conformity of society’s members to the latest trends in the international fashion platform (Evans 132). Works Cited Bruzzi, Stella and Gibson, Pamela. Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations, and Analysis. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print. Evans, Caroline. Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness. California: Yale University Press, 2007. Print. Jen, Jones. Fashion Design: The Art of Style. Pittsburgh: Capstone Press, 2010. Print. Read More