When I answered the question initially, “what is fashion?”, I believe that I meshed the terms dress, style and fashion as one. I discussed that fashion was individual, and unique based on each individual, if not dressed from large forms of media. But you choice to dress a certain way is not “fashion”, rather style. Fashion is about self representation, but it is that forms of dress are dependent on a variety of factors or subject positions. Our gender, race, sexuality, age, place, class and our physical bodies effect how we dress. Yet, that does not necessarily define “fashion”. “Fashion as a social process encompasses more than clothing style”(Kaiser, 7), “it is a material practice” (12) . Fashion is a system that is undergoing constant change due to time and place. It is not about your specific decision to dress a certain way, but rather fashion is a concept, it is “a material mode of articulating distinction by […]adapting to what has often been described as the ‘rapid’ change in clothing and appearance” within a specific time in space and location (Jenss, 4). Fashion has associations with time, silhouettes, movements, celebrities, and music. It connects to infinite systems and effects all individuals in different or similar ways. I went into detail in my initial definition of fashion about how it is run on capitalism and forms of elitism, due to our society’s fascination with celebrity culture. I also added that fashion was not inclusive, rather ableist and limited. I think that my initial perception and definition of the problematic aspects of fashion due define it well.
Kaiser, Susan. Fashion and Cultural Studies. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2011.
Jenss, Heike, and Christopher Breward. Fashion Studies: Research Methods, Sites and Practices. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
