Fashion, a general term for the style and custom prevalent at a given time, in its most common usage refers to costume The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style or clothing style. The more technical term, costume, has become so linked in the public eye with the term "fashion" that the more general term "costume" has in popular use mostly been relegated to special senses like fancy dress A costume party or a fancy dress party (British English), mainly in contemporary Western culture, is a type of party where guests dress up in a costume or masquerade A masquerade ball is an event which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. (A masque is a formal written and sung court pageant.) wear, while the term "fashion" means clothing generally, and the study of it. This linguistic switch is due to the fashion plates which were produced during the Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The, showing the latest designs.^{[citation needed]} For a broad cross-cultural The term "cross-cultural" emerged in the social sciences in the 1930s, largely as a result of the Cross-Cultural Survey undertaken by George Peter Murdock, a Yale anthropologist. Initially referring to comparative studies based on statistical compilations of cultural data, the term gradually acquired a secondary sense of cultural look at clothing and its place in society, refer to the entries for clothing, costume and fabrics. The remainder of this article deals with clothing fashions in the Western world The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical.^[1]

Clothing fashions

For detailed historical articles by period, see History of Western fashion The history of Western fashion is the story of the changing fashions in clothing for men and women in Western Europe and other countries under its influence from the 12th century to the present

The continually changing fashions of the West have been generally unparalleled either in antiquity or in the other great civilizations of the world until recent decades. Early Western travellers, whether to Persia The Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE), also known as the Persian Empire, was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, which encompassed the combined territories of several earlier, Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the or China China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity frequently remark on the absence of changes in fashion there, and observers from these other cultures comment on the unseemly pace of Western fashion, which many felt suggested an instability and lack of order in Western culture. The Japanese Shogun Shogun listen (help·info) (literally, "a commander of a force") is a military rank and historical title for (in most cases) hereditary military dictator of Japan. The modern rank is equivalent to a Generalissimo. Although the original meaning of "shogun" is simply "a general", as a title, it is used as the short form's secretary boasted (not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that Japanese clothing This article is about traditional clothing in Japan. Although this traditional clothing described below is still seen at traditional festivals and ceremonies, western-style clothing is more commonly worn in daily life by both men and women. Japanese clothing is styled to fit the seasons; for instance in autumn people will wear clothes with fall had not changed in over a thousand years.^[2] However in Ming China The Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming (simplified Chinese: 大明国; traditional Chinese: 大明國; pinyin: Dà Míng Guó, also anachronistically simplified Chinese: 大明帝国; traditional Chinese: 大明帝國; pinyin: Dà Míng Dìguó), was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led, for example, there is considerable evidence for rapidly changing fashions in Chinese clothing Han Chinese clothing or Hanfu , also known as Hanzhuang (漢裝), Huafu (華服), or guzhuang (古裝, meaning "ancient clothing"), and sometimes referred in English sources simply as Silk Robe (especially those worn by the gentry) or Chinese Silk Robe refers to the historical dress of the Han Chinese people, which was worn for millennia.^[3]

Changes in costume often took place at times of economic or social change (such as in ancient Rome Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world and the medieval Caliphate The term caliphate refers to the first system of governance established in Islam. The most common translation for the word which appears in the Quran is vicegerency (or caretaker). It is a constitutional republic, which means that the rulers are bound by a set of laws which they cannot break at a whim, and the people have the right to appoint), but then a long period without major changes followed. This occurred in Moorish Spain Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims (given the generic name of Moors), at various times in the period between 711 and 1492 from the 8th century, when the famous musician Ziryab Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘ (c. 789—857), nicknamed Ziryab (Persian language:Zaryâb, Kurdish: زۆراو Zorab), was a Persian, Kurdish or East African polymath: a poet, musician, singer, cosmetologist, fashion designer, celebrity, trendsetter, strategist, astronomer, botanist and geographer. He was active at the Umayyad court of Córdoba in introduced sophisticated clothing styles based on seasonal and daily timings from his native Baghdad Baghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated between 7 and 7.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt) and his own inspiration to Córdoba, Spain Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. An Iberian and Roman city in ancient times, in the Middle Ages it was a capital of an Islamic caliphate and one of the largest cities in the world. Its population in 2008 was 325,453.^[4][5] Similar changes in fashion occurred in the Middle East from the 11th century, following the arrival of the Turks Islam , Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Shamanism, Tengriism, Atheism, Agnosticism and Syncretic religion who introduced clothing styles from Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent and the Far East The Far East is a term used in English mostly equivalent to East Asia (including the Russian Far East) and Southeast Asia, sometimes to the inclusion of South Asia for economic and cultural reasons.^[6]

The beginnings of the habit in Europe of continual and increasingly rapid change in clothing styles can be fairly reliably dated to the middle of the 14th century Fashion in fourteenth century Europe was marked by the beginning of a period of experimentation with different forms of clothing. Costume historian James Laver suggests that the mid-14th century marks the emergence of recognizable "fashion" in clothing, in which Fernand Braudel concurs. The draped garments and straight seams of previous, to which historians including James Laver James Laver CBE FRSA was an author, art historian, and museum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959. He was also an important and pioneering fashion historian described as "the man in England who made the study of costume respectable" and Fernand Braudel Fernand Braudel was the foremost French historian of the postwar era and a leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three great projects, each representing several decades of intense study: "The Mediterranean" (1923–49, then 1949–66), "Civilization and Capitalism" (1955–79), and the unfinished " date the start of Western fashion in clothing.^[7][8] The most dramatic manifestation was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment, from calf In human anatomy the calf is the back portion of the lower leg (the crus). In terms of muscle systems, the calf corresponds to the posterior compartment of the leg. Within the posterior compartment, the two largest muscles are known together as the calf muscle and attach to the heel via the Achilles tendon. Several other, smaller muscles attach to-length to barely covering the buttocks, sometimes accompanied with stuffing on the chest to look bigger. This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers.

The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century, and women and men's fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became equally complex and changing. Art historians Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and look. This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics, furniture, and other decorative are therefore able to use fashion in dating images with increasing confidence and precision, often within five years in the case of 15th century images. Initially changes in fashion led to a fragmentation of what had previously been very similar styles of dressing across the upper classes of Europe, and the development of distinctive national styles. These remained very different until a counter-movement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, mostly originating from Ancien Régime Ancien Régime refers primarily to the aristocratic system that characterized French society and politics established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties from the 14th century to the 18th century). It was overthrown by the French Revolution France France is a founding member state of the European Union and is the largest one by area. France has been a major power for several centuries with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and in the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th.^[9] Though the rich usually led fashion, the increasing affluence of early modern Europe Early modern Europe is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Western Europe and its first colonies which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century. The early modern period is often considered to have led to the bourgeoisie In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late eighteenth century to now, the bourgeoisie is a social class characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture. A member of the bourgeoisie is a bourgeois or capitalist (plural: bourgeois; and even peasants A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally owns or rents only a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district . The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished farmers following trends at a distance sometimes uncomfortably close for the elites - a factor Braudel regards as one of the main motors of changing fashion.^[10]

Ten 16th century portraits of German A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, or Italian Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats, and at this period national differences were at their most pronounced, as Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since. His well-known works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the recorded in his actual or composite contrast of Nuremberg Nuremberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city. It is located about 170 kilometres north of Munich, at 49.27° N 11.5° E. The population (as of January 2006) is 500,132. The urban area of and Venetian Venice (Italian: Venezia [veˈnɛttsia] , Venetian: Venesia) is a city in northern Italy known both for tourism and for industry, and is the capital of the region Veneto, with a population of 271,367 (census estimate 1 January 2004). Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area (population 1,600,000). The name is fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right). The "Spanish style" of the end of the century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid 17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a process completed in the 18th century.^[11]

Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,^[12] the cut of a gentleman's coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly. Men's fashions largely derived from military A military is an organization authorized to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military. Militaries often function as societies within societies, by having their own models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk" cravat The cravat is a neckband, the forerunner of the modern tailored necktie and bow tie, originating from 17th century Croatia or necktie The necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the bow tie, ascot tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck ties are generally unsized, but may be available.

The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the increased publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles; though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France as patterns since the 16th century, and Abraham Bosse Abraham Bosse was a French artist, mainly as a printmaker in etching, but also in watercolour had produced engravings of fashion from the 1620s. By 1800, all Western Europeans Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity — the region lying in the Western part of Europe. Another definition was created during the were dressing alike (or thought they were): local variation became first a sign of provincial culture, and then a badge of the conservative peasant.^[13]

Although tailors and dressmakers were no doubt responsible for many innovations before, and the textile A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibres together industry certainly led many trends, the history of fashion design Fashion in Literature Nineteenth-century transatlantic literature reflected the importance and progression of fashion British author Charles Dickens references the importance of the female seamstress and her role in English society, as well as ideas surrounding femininity in his novel Little Dorrit . Dickens' American Notes continues to illustrate is normally taken to date from 1858, when the English-born Charles Frederick Worth opened the first true haute couture house in Paris. Since then the professional designer has become a progressively more dominant figure, despite the origins of many fashions in street fashion. The four major current fashion capitals are acknowledged to be Milan, New York City, Paris, and London. Fashion weeks are held in these cities, where designers exhibit their new clothing collections to audiences, and which are all headquarters to the greatest fashion companies and are renowned for their major influence on global fashion.

Modern Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's personality or likes. When people who have cultural status start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may start. People who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar style.

Fashions may vary considerably within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation, and geography as well as over time. If, for example, an older person dresses according to the fashion of young people, he or she may look ridiculous in the eyes of both young and older people. The terms fashionista or fashion victim refer to someone who slavishly follows the current fashions.

One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion language incorporating various fashion statements using a grammar of fashion. (Compare some of the work of Roland Barthes.)

Media

An important part of fashion is fashion journalism. Editorial critique and commentary can be found in magazines, newspapers, on television, fashion websites, social networks and in fashion blogs.

At the beginning of the 20th century, fashion magazines began to include photographs of various fashion designs and became even more influential on people than in the past. In cities throughout the world these magazines were greatly sought-after and had a profound effect on public clothing taste. Talented illustrators drew exquisite fashion plates for the publications which covered the most recent developments in fashion and beauty. Perhaps the most famous of these magazines was La Gazette du Bon Ton which was founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel and regularly published until 1925 (with the exception of the war years).

Vogue, founded in the US in 1892, has been the longest-lasting and most successful of the hundreds of fashion magazines that have come and gone. Increasing affluence after World War II and, most importantly, the advent of cheap colour printing in the 1960s led to a huge boost in its sales, and heavy coverage of fashion in mainstream women's magazines - followed by men's magazines from the 1990s. Haute couture designers followed the trend by starting the ready-to-wear and perfume lines, heavily advertised in the magazines, that now dwarf their original couture businesses. Television coverage began in the 1950s with small fashion features. In the 1960s and 1970s, fashion segments on various entertainment shows became more frequent, and by the 1980s, dedicated fashion shows like Fashion-television started to appear. Despite television and increasing internet coverage, including fashion blogs, press coverage remains the most important form of publicity in the eyes of the fashion industry.

However, over the past several years, fashion websites have developed that merge traditional editorial writing with user-generated content. New magazines like Runway Magazine, which is led by Nole Marin from America's Next Top Model, have begun to dominate the digital market with digital copies for computers, iPhones and iPads.

Sporting a different view, a few days after the 2010 Fall Fashion Week in New York City came to a close, Fashion Editor Genevieve Tax said, "Because designers release their fall collections in the spring and their spring collections in the fall, fashion magazines such as Vogue always and only look forward to the upcoming season, promoting parkas come September while issuing reviews on shorts in January." "Savvy shoppers, consequently, have been conditioned to be extremely, perhaps impractically, farsighted with their buying."^[14]

Intellectual property

Within the fashion industry, intellectual property is not enforced as it is within the film industry and music industry. To "take inspiration" from others' designs contributes to the fashion industry's ability to establish clothing trends. For the past few years, WGSN has been a dominant source of fashion news and forecasts in steering fashion brands worldwide to be "inspired" by one another. Enticing consumers to buy clothing by establishing new trends is, some have argued, a key component of the industry's success. Intellectual property rules that interfere with the process of trend-making would, on this view, be counter-productive. In contrast, it is often argued that the blatant theft of new ideas, unique designs, and design details by larger companies is what often contributes to the failure of many smaller or independent design companies.

In 2005, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a conference calling for stricter intellectual property enforcement within the fashion industry to better protect small and medium businesses and promote competitiveness within the textile and clothing industries.^[15][16]

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