French Fashion

week 4

Importance of Fashion

The first purpose of clothes... was not warmth or decency, but ornament.... Among wild people, we find tattooing and painting even prior to clothes.  The first spiritual want of a barbarous man is decoration; as indeed we still see among the barbarous classes in civilized countries.  ~Thomas Carlyle

The term fashion though is new to many; literally speaking fashion came into being with the advent of human being in this world. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves though at that time they had no concept of modesty. Ornamentation and adornment thus had always been a strong force behind clothing. Later civilizations seek different ways to adorn themselves. People of Stone Age tattooed their bodies, used leaves and twigs to cover their naked bodies. Pharaohs on the other hand loved to display their wealth by clothing in most extravagant ways. They wore wigs, painted their bodies, and embalmed their dead in most beautiful clothes.

Christianity preached moderation in dressing, but very few obeyed that. Islam on the other hand formulated a complete dress code for both male and female.

Modern fashion got strength during Renaissance time. Aristocrats of Renaissance time were great patrons of fashion. They developed new fashion and promoted it. Today fashion is very complex. It includes not only apparel, footwear, accessories and jewellery but fashion is the way we dress, the way we talk, technology we are using, food we are eating, friends we are having and a lot more.

No body can deny the influence of fashion. Each of us is constantly affected by fashion in one or other way. Print media and electronic media are most important in shaping our lifestyles. Even those who are anti-fashionionists are part of the fashion world in their own way. They are making their own fashion statements. As Cecil Beaton said that “truly fashionable are beyond fashion.”