[Intro to Fashion Studies] Posting #5

Learning Portfolio Post #5 (250 words)

For your last LP Post of the semester, I would like you to reflect on the question “what is fashion?” which you were originally asked to answer in Week One. How has your understanding of fashion changed since the beginning of the semester? Give one or two specific examples to explain your answer. Your example(s) can come from anywhere, but support them with at least one quote from a class reading.

 

 

As I reviewed what I have posted throughout the semester on the Learning Portfolio, I found that I defined fashion at the beginning of the course as ‘any style that is prevailing among the crowd at a certain period’. Now that I spent a whole semester learning about fashion in the context of history and the system of society, I now reflect on the same question that I faced at the beginning of the semester in a different way. It isn’t that my initial answer was wrong – fashion is what is prevailing at the certain period – but my definition did not include the comprehensive influence and motivation of fashion. Fashion is way more than just a prevailing garment or accessory of a period.

Fashion is a network that connects to every element of our daily life which includes gender, age, race, and any other things as Susan Kaiser mentioned. It evolves with the change of each element. Within the period it is existing in, fashion helps individual to express their own identity and subjectivity. What is notable, however, is that fashion does not merely exist as a passive phenomenon that only follows the flow of the society and is utilized by individuals. Fashion does ‘convey a sense that people create their own ‘fashion statement’. However, they are also ‘constrained by what is available in the marketplace, by dress codes and social conventions, by political regimes and the like’ (31, Kaiser).

Fashion is indeed a very powerful concept. After learning the meaning of fashion in a larger context from the course, I realized that fashion can never be discussed without the thorough understanding of a period’s culture and background. Understanding fashion is eventually understanding the period, and understanding the history.

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