Society meets Fashion

The society plays a huge role in how fashion looks like today as clothing can tell us what kind of society group do we belong to and influence the way we think. Fashion can show what profession are we in. An example is a person wearing formal suit, it gives you an idea that he's working in the business sector or an impression of that person is highly education. Fashion helps us determine our social level with others in a formal or informal way.

In society, it's easier for us to tell our races or religion apart from fashion as well. Each religion has different element or a unique part about their clothing and some of them has their own religious meaning behind it. To make an example, Indian women wear their traditional saris and wrapped around their body in different ways while Hindu women wear short tops and slips. Another example is that female Muslim would wear a tudung, all parts of their body must be covered and revealing fashion are unacceptable. Even so they have their own restrictions on what kind of clothing they should wear, but it doesn't stop them from creating something new. Vogue is a well known fashion brand and there's actually a fashion line for them called Vogue India. Here, all the high fashion clothing are created base on Indian fashion trends.

The society of fashion could be fun and full of creativity but it also creates stereotypes and creates boundaries from different societies. The fashion we wear doesn't mean everyone is open enough to accept it. In simple way to put it, the older generation prefers the young generations to wear more conservative while the younger generation would prefer wearing something that's more out going and it represents themselves. It creates a boundary between old and younger generation just because of the fashion society. Another example is some people wearing formal suit, like business men etc doesn't mix well with people who wear like the hip hop culture. It's not that they don't like those people, is just that they find it difficult to accept those kind of fashion.

I feel that fashion is a type of tool that can bring people with the same fashion taste together but distancing the people who doesn't have the same flavor. It is up to designers to create something that can bring different society together and unite as one, even if it's through fashion. It could be challenging but beneficial to the society.



Research:

aboutreligion (n/a) Islamic clothing requirements. Available at: http://islam.about.com/od/dress/p/clothing_reqs.htm (Accessed 19 June 2016).

BergFashionLibrary (n/a) The psychology of dress. Available at: http://www.bergfashionlibrary.com/page/The$0020Social$0020Psychology$0020of$0020Dress/the-social-psychology-of-dress . (Accessed 20 June 2016).


Biography:
SpringerLink (2014) Dress, body and self: research in the social psychology of dress. Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40691-014-0020-7 (Accessed 20 June 2016).