Fashion as Part of Youth Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fashion as Part of Youth Culture - Essay Example The essay "Fashion as Part of Youth Culture" analyses of clothing and fashion, classical ones in particular, have stressed consumption over production. Classical sociologists treated fashion as a concept of imitation which forms a basis of a trickle-down theory of fashion. When the highest class adopts a particular style, the class next to it, wanting to move up or even to appear to have already moved up, will proceed to adopt the new style which will continue a downward adoption through the classes until it reaches the lowest class economically able to afford it. As the fashion moves downward, its reproductions are usually made with less expensive materials and poorer workmanship. By the time the style has been consumed by the majority, it is no longer a sign of class status, and the highest class will have already begun the process over again by putting on a new fashion. Paper also provides a quick review on a movie "Devil wears Prada" where the editor of a powerful fashion magazin e puts the concept of fashion in interesting terms while trying to point out the relevance of fashion even to those who claim to be the most unfashionable. This Paper shows a phenomenon of visionary designers, who decide what would be worn by people for the next season as the ultimate in up-to-the-minute trends. It also examines the relationship between the world of fashion and youth culture, and the way this has affected fashion theory and practice. Essay establishes working definitions for the terms â€Å"fashion† and â€Å"youth culture†.... ove up or even to appear to have already moved up, will proceed to adopt the new style which will continue a downward adoption through the classes until it reaches the lowest class economically able to afford it. As the fashion moves downward, its reproductions are usually made with less expensive materials and poorer workmanship. By the time the style has been consumed by the majority, it is no longer a sign of class status, and the highest class will have already begun the process over again by putting on a new fashion.'(Kawamura, 2004, 6) But in the past few decades this theory has been repeatedly questioned, particularly with respect to youth culture and its role in modifying, focusing and even creating fashion. It will be my effort in this paper to examine the relationship between the world of fashion and youth culture, and the way this has affected fashion theory and practice. To do this we have to establish working definitions for the terms "fashion" and "youth culture", and the driving forces behind both so as to be able to understand the veiled interconnections, and how youth culture has managed to change the very definition of fashion in some cases. Fashion has been a part of human nature, an offshoot of our tribal ancestry which loved to adorn the body and home in an attempt to establish an iconographical identity and be seen as one of the group. It has served as a means of non-verbal communication of one's status, rank, occupation, locality and gender since time immemorial, and theorists have considered clothing in terms of aesthetics and semiotics: 'All the same, if clothing may, indeed, be said to satisfy needs that are 'natural' in the sense of being held in common with other creatures, we should recognize that it also serves needs of a more strictly