The Cycle of Fashion Essay -- Fashion Style Mode Essays

The Cycle of expressionFashion is fuelled by conversion. Designers continually persuade the public that their new ideas, thus far shocking they may seem, are in fact everything that a stylish crush requires. Next season, the same designers convince every atomic number 53 to give up their allegiance to much(prenominal) out-modish designs and embrace instead the innovative visual trends of the latest collections. The same garments are successively dubbed outlandish, in fashion and out-dated according to the apparent vagaries of prevailing fashionable sensibilities. Are we unfeignedly duped by such duplicity? Or are we willing participants in the cycle of fashion? And perhaps more significantly, what relevance does the cycle claim today in Western societys culture of mass consumerism?The idea that fashion in trim down follows a cyclical phase structure is non new. The sociologist, Quentin Bell made such an observation over fifty old age ago in his book, On Human Finery. More over, his observation was based on accumulated evidence of an uninterrupted cyclical flow in stage change in Western society since at least the 13th century.The sociologist, Ingrid Brenninkmeyer describes this flow by comparing it to the rolling of waves in the sea. As one fashion gains popularity, crests and dissipates, another stylistic wave is already forming behind it. tho extensions of this metaphor liken different stylistic features to variations in the waves themselves. For example, just as different wave patterns form on the basis of their force, size or length, so also different overlapping patterns can be traced in changes of fashionable hem length, silhouette, fabric, dcolletage and colour.Mere descriptions of the fashion cycle however do little to explain exactly why successful designers? ideas typically rise and fall in popularity. What is the motivating force behind such changes in fashion? What causes the cycle to move from one phase to the near? These questions c annot be answered simply. Perhaps sheer boredom inspires the continual search for something new. Or can novelty be related to ideas of sexual allure and leader? Do competing market interests in the fashion industry play a role in animating the cycle? Or could changes in dress function as markers of class differentiation?These factors and more have been diversely proposed and analysed by researchers into the socio... ...ns clothing? To look at the mens side of underclothing is different. One page of the calendar (April) does depict mens undershirts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.Even the English language has been influenced by undergarments. Several popular expressions adopt reference to underwear Loose woman comes from the connotations associated with uncorseted or loosely corseted women, poof says. A similar case is shiftless a shift was an 18th century support-providing undergarment, and Queen says the term was meant to characterize someone without support.Many great deal believe that underwear for women has changed as it has because of feminism and changing social attitudes. To a large degree, thats true, Queen says, but there are other factors as well. In the past, undergarments were often designed for their body-shaping features. But these days, thanks to the increase in exercise and athleticism among women, the body has become its own foundation and women no longer need to rely on cloth and whalebone for this purpose, she says.The choice, says Queen, is do we want to spend three hours a day in the gymnasium to sculpt the body, or do we want to put on a piece of cloth?