DEFINITION OF FASHION •Fashion is the style or styles with popular or most popular at a given time. The term implies (hint, suggest) three components: style, change, and acceptance. • The prevailing (accepted after struggle) style of any given time; implies change in style. FASHION TERMS • • • • Style Change Acceptance Taste STYLE • Style is any particular characteristic or look in apparel or accessories. • A style may come and go in fashion, but that specific style always remains, weather it is in fashion or not. • For example, the polo shirt style will not always be in fashion, yet it will always have variations of the same styling and details, which make it a polo shirt. POLO SHIRT CHANGE • What makes fashion interesting is that it always changes. • Change means what we do today might be worthless tomorrow, but we have to accept that because we are in fashion. There is nothing safe forever in fashion. • Fashion is a train that will not wait for anybody. Get on it, or it’s gone. • Fashion changes only to stimulate (encouraging) buying. • If fashion never changed, the public would not buy clothing so often. • However, fashion is one way for consumers to visually express their relationship to current events and to life itself. • Fashion changes because – It reflects changes in people’s lifestyle and current events. – People need change. – People get bored with what they have. • The speed of change is influenced by modern communications, marketing, advances in mass production, greater income and seasons. • Because fashion is a product of change, a sense of timing (the ability to understand the speed of acceptance and change) is an important asset for any one involved with product development or marketing in the fashion industry. ACCEPTANCE • Acceptance implies that consumers must buy and wear a style to make it a fashion. • There is no fashion if nobody buys it. • However, different market segments adopt different fashions. • Advertising generating the public’s desire for new fashions. • Fashion acceptance therefore correlates with exposure, primarily in the media and on television in particular. • Acceptance by the public does not prove that a design necessarily beautiful, only that its timing is right and that it fills a need. • Acceptance by a large number of people makes a fashion successful. The degree of acceptance also provides clues to fashion trends for coming seasons. TASTE • An individual’s preference for one style or another is referred to as taste. • Good taste in fashion implies sensitivity to what is beautiful and appropriate. • People who have good taste also understand quality and simplicity. • Taste is usually developed by exposure to and appreciation for beautiful design and experience.
