Chapter 1
What Is Fashion?
What Is Fashion?
Introducing Fashion
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What Is Fashion?
Chapter Objectives
Explain the different definitions of fashion.
Explain the difference between style and design.
Identify the needs satisfied by clothing.
Discuss the early history of clothing.
Identify specific styles in the 20th century.
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Fashion Defined
Definitions of Fashion
In the apparel industry, fashion is the
existing type of clothing that is preferred
by a large segment of the public.
To many people, fashion is a current trend
that is popular for frivolous reasons.
To retailers, fashion is whatever is
currently selling.
Section 1.1
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What Is Fashion?
Merchandise Categories
Fashion retailers group
merchandise into
categories—basic
merchandise and fashion
merchandise.
fashion merchandisegoods that are popular
at a particular time
staple items- basic
merchandise that
customers purchase on
a regular basis
Staple items are in the
basic merchandise category.
Section 1.1
4
What Is Fashion?
Fashion Basics
To be successful in the
fashion industry, designers,
producers, marketers, and
retailers must have an
understanding of basic
fashion terms, such as style
and design.
Section 1.1
style a particular
shape or type of apparel
item identified by the
distinct features that
make it unique
design a particular or
unique version of a style
because of a specific
arrangement of the
basic design elements
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Fashion Basics:
Design
Color
Line
Design
Elements
Texture
Section 1.1
Shape
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion BasicsDesign Elements
1. Color: Three dimensions of color are:
Hue—the quality of the color
Value—the lightness or darkness of a color
Intensity—the brightness or dullness of a color
2. Line is an element of design that directs the path of eye
movement.
Section 1.1
7
What Is Fashion?
Fashion BasicsDesign Elements Continued
2. Shape, or silhouette, is the overall form or
outline of a garment.
2. Texture is how the surface of a material, or
fabric, feels and looks.
3. Function is a 5th design elements that refers to
the intended use or purpose of an object.
Section 1.1
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What Is Fashion?
What Are Fashion
Products?
Fashion products include:
Clothing
Accessories
Home
Furnishings
Fashion is anything that has strong appeal at a given time.
Section 1.1
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What Is Fashion?
Economic Importance
 Fashion is one of the world’s largest industries.
 Fashion can be a reflection of the economic
environment and of lifestyle and culture.
 When people are unable to satisfy their basic
needs for food and shelter, style becomes less
important.
Section 1.1
10
What Is Fashion?
1.1
1.
What is the difference between style and
design?
2.
What are four basic elements of design?
3.
How do economic conditions affect fashion?
Section 1.1
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion History
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What Is Fashion?
Earliest Clothing
 The earliest clothing dates from about 20,000
B.C.
 The earliest clothes were developed primarily
for protection from the weather and
environment.
 The earliest clothes were made of fur,
animal skin, leaves, and grass.
Section 1.2
13
Why People Wear ClothesPeople have three basic clothing needs:
Physical Needs
• protection
• safety
Why
Clothing?
Psychological
Needs
• enhance
appearance
• cultural identity
Section 1.2
Social Needs
• affiliation/fitting in
• standards
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What Is Fashion?
Historical Trendsetters
Queen Elizabeth I -1600’s
-Clothing indicator of
social status
George Bryan “Beau” Brummell
- Dandyism 1880’s
dandyism during the
1880s, a style of dress
for men and a lifestyle
that celebrated elegance
and refinement
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Late 1950’s-60’s
– Understated elegance
The Beatles
– “Mop-top” hairstyles
Section 1.2
Vogue magazine was
first published in 1892 –
giving more exposure to
fashion styles
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The Early 1900s
In 1909, Vogue features new loose-fitting
clothing for women.
Women stop wearing corsets.
Skirts get a little shorter.
Section 1.2
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1920s
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel introduces sportswear
garments and trousers for everyday wear.
Chanel promotes the style of the “flappers.”
Chanel introduces the “little black dress.”
Section 1.2
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1930s–1950s
Movie stars set trends for hair
makeup, and clothes.
To save fabric during wartime, hemlines
become shorter.
Simple styles represent patriotism during
wartime.
American designers become more prominent.
Section 1.2
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1930s–1950s
Women’s styles become
more traditionally
feminine in the 1950s.
Christian Dior launches a
new style in 1947 called
the New Look.
Section 1.2
New Look a style of
the 1940s that featured
long hemlines, narrow
shoulders, and tightly
fitted bodices with long,
full, or narrow skirts
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1960s
Social changes, world
events, and music affect
fashion
Hippie style appears.
Section 1.2
hippie style of the
1960s, a fashion
consisting of clothing
from the Middle and Far
East, bright colors,
peasant embroidery,
cheesecloth, and safari
jackets
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1970s
Disco style appears.
Section 1.2
disco style of the
1970s, a fashion
consisting of gold lamé,
leopard print, stretch
halter jumpsuits, and
white clothing that
glowed under ultraviolet
lighting
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1970s
Punk fashion appears.
Section 1.2
punk fashion of the
1970s, a style featuring
intentionally torn clothing
worn by young people
with limited income, such
as students and the
unemployed
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1970s
Feminist movement
influences women’s
styles.
Section 1.2
feminist movement of
the 1970s, the organized
effort to establish equal
social, economic, and
political rights and
opportunities for women;
influenced women’s
fashions with shorter
hemlines and the pantsuit
for the workplace
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1980s
Professional women adopt “the power look.”
Business-casual attire appears.
Stretchy, synthetic athletic wear
becomes popular. (Spandex)
Section 1.2
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
The 1990s
Americans begin
dressing less formally.
Grunge style appears.
Section 1.2
grunge a style started by
the youth culture in the
Pacific Northwest region of
the United States in the
early 1990s; it is messy,
uncombed, and disheveled
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What Is Fashion?
Fashion: 20th Century to
the Present
Fashion Today
Consumers make well-informed choices about
what to wear, where to shop, and how much to
spend on products
Fashion makers and marketers need to be
more informed and aware of customer wants
and needs.
Section 1.2
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What Is Fashion?
1.2
A. What three basic needs are satisfied by the
use of clothing?
B. What was the first fashion magazine and
when was it first published?
C. What fashion trends emerged in the 1980s?
Section 1.2
27
What Is Fashion?
Checking Concepts
1. Define fashion
according to retailers.
2. Explain the meaning of
style.
3. Discuss the four
elements of design.
4. Name three needs
satisfied by clothing.
continued
four
of
1. The
2.
3.
4.
Retailers
Style
physical
is elements
aneeds,
view
particular
design
include:
fashion
shape
psychological
orastypecolor,
of
with dimensions of hue,
whatever
apparel
needs,
and
item,
is social
such
value, and intensity;
currently
as
needs
selling.
or
line,aormini-skirt
distinct,
Capri pants,
elongated
marks that
direct
the path
eye
identified
by of
the
movement;
shape, the
distinct features
overall form or outline
that
make it unique.
of a garment; and
Style
texture,becomes
or how the
fashionofwhen
it
surface
a material
feels
and looks.
becomes
popular.
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What Is Fashion?
Checking Concepts
5. Identify the materials
used to make clothing
as early as 20,000 B.C.
6. Name a person in
England who influenced
fashion in the 16th century.
7. Identify some factors
that affected fashion in
the 1940s.
continued
5. Queen
6.
7.
1940sclothing
Early
fashion
Elizabeth
was
was
I
made of by
affected
natural
products such
Hollywood
styles,
as
fur, animal
World
War skin,
II,
leaves, and grass.
technological
developments such
as synthetic fibers,
and French
designer Christian
Dior.
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What Is Fashion?
Checking Concepts
Critical Thinking
8. Discuss how the
feminist movement may
have influenced clothing
styles in the 1970s.
8. The feminist
movement focused
on social,
economic, and
political equality for
women, and
influenced styles
such as shorter
skirts and the
pantsuit for the
workplace.
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What Is Fashion?
The End
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