HOW FASHION HAS EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS

Fashion is not necessarily about labels,

Its not about brands,

Its about something else that comes from within you.

Ralph Lauren

What does fashion means to me? To me, it’s about creating love, encouraging creativity and confidence within myself. Will you believe it if I say “fashion is like eating”? Sounds funny right? But it’s true. Way we crave for variety of foods but choose to eat only those that suit our taste buds. We do that with fashion too. It is a way of expressing yourself uniquely in the world and helps to shape our personalities.

Fashion is like eating; You shouldn’t stick to the same menu.

Kenzo Takada

Confession and realisation

A good fashion style tells how much a person is up to date with new and upcoming trends.

But I must confess sometimes it is hard to catch up with the changes in fashion. The fact is fashion industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. But if fashion is important to you we have to keep up with it.

“What I find most interesting in fashion is that it has to reflect our time. You have to witness your moment.”

Nicolas Ghesquière

You must have realized that the clothes and accessories in your wardrobe never remain the same. The styles that you used to wear in the past are different from the present. I think almost everyone must have heard your moms talking a lot of times about how differently she used to dress when she was your age.

Think, how did we go from sari to salwar kameez to high street fashion? It’s because people change, so is Fashion. It can reflect social changes and events in society. So we can’t help but compare today’s trends to older times as it transforms over time.

A change that matters

The world of fashion is always evolving. The major events in the world have a surprising impact on the clothing we wear.

During World War I, when men went to wars women started wearing pants and more practical uniforms as they cannot afford to hobble in those ridiculous skirts anymore because they need to go to work.

Miniskirts became a symbol and icon of women’s freedom and rights when the feminist movement grew. Followed by hipster trends, hip-hop styles, the street style becomes the trend in the 21st century.

“Fashion should be a form of escapism and not a form of imprisonment.”

Alexander McQueen

Fashion: Love or Hate

One thing is for sure fashion always recycles; it is up to us to love or hate. Over the years, it has changed dramatically but has also kept trends from the past very much alive.

The products that were once a hit in the 90s like matrix glasses, chokers, scrunchies, slip dresses and bum bags; are highly in demand again, as seen in recent years.

Even if you think nothing about fashion you know enough about it to put clothes on your body. It portrays different cultures and values all over the world

When Sustainability comes into trend

Sustainable fashion has come into a trend because people have realized that reusing will save the planet. Buying one new t-shirt will contribute to carbon emissions.

So, the most sustainable clothes are the clothes that are already in your wardrobe.

Do you know? There’s a small town in Italy called Prato, transforming old scraps and wastes into new clothes. It is one step forward to sustainable use of resources and putting fewer burdens on our planet.

Recycling fashion is a need of the fashion industry because we know that the fashion industry is one of the top polluting industries.

The Influence of fashion

Fashion trends have always been influenced by popular admired figures in a culture like celebrities, musicians and other high-profile individuals, through movies and social media.

That often causes people to change their choices according to the latest trends they are following.

There is magic in it that can carry moods and abilities that exist outside of you into your bloodstream, your brain and change you, at least temporarily.

Fashion is more than just decoration of the body or protection from elements, clothes have power over our minds.

Have you ever heard about ‘enclothed cognition’?

Do you believe wearing specific clothing can have an effect on the wearer’s psychology and performance, and on those who see you? If you knew this then you already know the basic meaning of enclothed cognition.

Adam Galinsky and his colleague Hajo Adam experimented with a ‘ White coat ‘ study by dividing people into two groups wearing different fashion styles and giving them white coats, which concluded us that:

• If it belongs to a Doctor – Ability to pay attention increases sharply
• If it belongs to a Painter – No improvement in attention

So, this weird phenomenon is known as Enclothed cognition. It depends on the symbolic meaning and psychological experience of wearing clothes, constantly reminding us what those clothes represent.

As a result of this experiment, we came to understand that it’s all about what fashion or clothes mean to us, that’s how it affects humans.

Fashion doesn’t simply shape perception and self-expression, it also influences how we are treated by other people which in turn can impact one’s mental wellbeing. It can be positive and negative impacts as well.

What we wear can impact:

• How people feel
• How others perceive us
• work productivity

When people wear more formal clothing, they actually feel more powerful or look powerful to other people. Consciously or unconsciously it actually causes our brain to be in a state where they think abstractly, found in the study ” The cognitive consequences of formal clothing ” in Columbia University.

And your ‘Casual Friday’ may mean that you are giving up that creativity or insight things you might be doing otherwise.

So, think wisely about why fashion matters to you without losing your true self in the process.

When Covid 19 Strikes

Now let’s talk about the latest shift in trends due to COVID-19 that has forced us to re-evaluate our lifestyle and priorities.

Because most of the time, we are at home and spend a limited amount of time outside with other people, so it’s more about comfort now.

I love the idea of wearing comfortable clothes, athleisure, and pyjamas at home more than the glitz and glamour one.

Still, I want to confess that I do miss dressing up sometimes. So, whenever I get an opportunity to go out, I try to dress up to my full potential. It becomes a” like now or never” situation.

Matching different styles of masks with your outfits, keeping sanitisers and gloves, have become new pandemic trends.

Tell us your stories about how fashion affects you and what changes you have experienced during the Covid-19 phase in your fashion in the comment section. We would love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading. Your time is valuable to us.

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