The term fashion has multiple meanings, depending on the context of its use. It originates from the French façon, the action or process of making(1) with workmanship as an element in its value. Fashion can therefore be seen as a mode of design that combines form and function, spanning from craftmanship to automation, from bespoke to standardized mass production. It involves the creating of a particular shape, style or pattern, relevant to a prevailing custom, or current usage, and so fashion can be a means to stand out or to fit in. Fashion is also defined by its relationship to other terms, such as clothing, style or dress. For example, while clothing is often understood through its material and utilitarian qualities – as cloth that covers our bodies – fashion is a far more abstract concept.(2,3) It has important symbolic and communicative functions, fashion can be an “aesthetic medium for the expression of ideas, desires and beliefs circulating in society”.(4) The French philosopher Roland Barthes famously saw the difference between style and fashion in the speed of change; style in his view changes much more slowly than fashion.(5) Anthropologists who look for a more inclusive perspective in fashion expressions, beyond the Western fashion system, prefer the term dress, that also includes any items that may not easily fit into the Eurocentric concept of fashion.(6-8) Fashion in its many forms is one of the most distinctive ways in which we identify and distinguish ourselves as humans. It reflects the social, cultural, political, economic, environmental and technological agendas in relation to place and time.
FASHION
