Fashion is an umbrella term, comprising a variety of individual aspects of the style, appearance, and interaction with the rest of the world represented by clothes, shoes, accessories, hairstyles, makeup, and social behaviour. Fashion is also a cultural form of autonomy and self- expression in a certain context and time and at a certain place. The word ‘fashion’ in the popular idiom is used to designate the entire range of ideas, ideals, actions, modes of dress, modes of interaction, and materials associated with style and the recognition of difference. In its broadest sense, the word signifies a current style or current form of dressing that manifests as a marked change in clothes, habits, attitudes, and modes of life. The more narrow sense of the term, regarding a style or current fashion, denotes only particular styles or fashions.
In most discussions of fashion, one term conspicuously avoided is ‘costume’. Costume is closely associated with the idea of cheap, nasty, or inferior quality clothing, often worn in an unrefined and impoverished way. The idea of ‘cheap’ has become increasingly distasteful for modern consumers. However, fashions are often deliberately cheap, especially in the realm of the young and the old, who are arguably the fashion victims of our contemporary culture.
Fashion can be identified and distinguished by the variety and range of items of apparel that are worn or designed to be worn, as accessories to other types of garments. In addition to being worn to cover and protect bodies and clothes, apparel is worn to enhance styles, trends, and personalities. Common elements that constitute the ensemble of fashion include dresses, skirts, pants, blouses, tunics, and suits. Accessory items are typically clothing items such as neckties, bracelets, earrings, and shoes. Fashionable apparels are those styles that are considered attractive, but which may be used in casual settings. Fashionable fashions may be associated with brassy, trendy fashions worn by celebrities and supermodels, or they may be associated with elegant, tasteful fashions worn by more traditional, conservative consumers.
