What is fashion

By Sai Verano

Fashion can be considered as an art. It requires skills and talent to start a trend and influence people to do the same thing. Fashion can also be defined as a way of life. What someone wears speaks of what lifestyle one has. Fashion can also be a way of expression. Many people wear something because they support an advocacy or believes strongly in something.

I once asked in Yahoo Answers "how would you define fashion?" and I got some interesting definitions from a different point of view like the following:

"Using your appearance to mold and shape what other people's views of you are. Expressing your mood/feelings/personality through clothing/outward image" - me

"the art that lies within clothing, and expressing yourself through it" - susie 

We can see from these point of views that people often consider fashion as an art of wearing something, whether clothes or accessories, and using your own moods, emotions and body to express the art side of a simple white shirt.

Fashion is culture. Fashion is influenced by culture. The norms of a community determines what clothes should be worn and what are those that should not be worn. This is very evident in ancient times. We can determine the nationality of a particular person based on what one wears. We would easily determine if someone is Chinese, Japanese, European and from what year they were born. Like in the United States of America, it's okay for girls to wear hanging blouses and short shorts but in the Philippines, once a woman wears something like that, she would be criticized of his personality and by the whole society considering that Philippines is a conservative country.

Fashion is a way of life. We often hear the term "fashion statement." From what people wear we perceive his/her way of life. We can easily determine from what class in the society a person belong because of one's way of carrying oneself in terms of clothes and accessories. You can easily see the mood and likes of a person through his fashion statement like the photos below: