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The word fashion usually conjures up the image of designer clothes in these rapidly changing modern times.  The old cliché that clothes make the man has been reverberating down the ages since they were first coined in 16th century England. The term was later changed to ‘ye taylor maketh the manne’ and may be one of the first crude attempts re the use of slogans as a marketing tool.

What is most interesting about the complexities of vogue, as a subject, is the reasons why people, often spending huge amounts of money, follow trends and want constant change. The rate of fashion change has certainly accelerated since the beginning of the 20th century, due on the most part to changes of affluence, the industrial revolution, the availability of more leisure time that in turn created demand for apparel other than that of basic work clothes and department stores; however, Neanderthal cavemen can be attributed to being some of the earliest trendsetters with the application of various dyes to their fur skins and having the odd bone accoutrement fixed into their ears and nostrils. Not exactly an Armani or Lauren I admit, but in those days who knows the name of the fellow in question-probably no more than a grunt anyway?

Fashion has many different connotations, some of which bear stark contrast to each other. For example, is fashion seen as a statement of status and distinction from our fellow human beings? To the contrary, is it that we want to appear similar by wearing a type of basic tribal uniform that identify us into like-minded peer groups?-mods and rockers, teddy boys or punk rockers for example. A sense of identity and tradition certainly seem to be a major factor.  If I was to list a number of hat and shoe types, I would think most people would be able to identify their origins. Let’s give it a shot: sombreros, the fez, bowler hats, berets, stetsons, clogs and cowboy boots-not one of the hardest quizzes I hear you say!

To try to understand the reason behind trend statements, we need to look back to their origins in history. Dress basically used to separate the opulent upper classes from their downtrodden serfs, whose basic dress was practical, normally designed for work purposes and hardly changed over the centuries. Vogue was usually brought about by people who would be considered on a par with the film stars and sportsmen of today-nobility and royalty. High class robes were viewed as a means of expression; Queen Elizabeth I used her apparel, rich in beaded jewellery and sequins, to emanate power and wealth. Forms of dress have also been influenced by wars, religion, climate and culture.

Many designs of today are reruns and variations of themes from yesteryear. When new fashions take off, they have to be widely accepted; the wild and extravagant ranges do not necessarily gain automatic notoriety. The human mind, however, does tend to play tricks on us; I would challenge anyone who did not admit that they have at one time or another greeted new apparel with scepticism and disdain, only to admit later to becoming an aficionado. My particular admissions include bleached jeans and ones that like someone had had trouble with a roll of barbed wire ending up with tears without the scratches-within months of their introduction, yours truly was wearing them.

Clever marketing and advertising have a considerable influence on winning us over to what first appear to be outlandish or weird innovations. In this throw-away society, clothing suppliers want to ensure the average number of times we wear some our clothes does not mean they end up threadbare before we discard them. So the statement from the wizard of words, Mr Will Shakespeare, does seem to have a ring of truth in them-five hundred years on!

Authored By Maira Kamran, Pakistan

Tags: Fashion

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