The Culture of Fashion
With special attention to decadism, Breward overviews the changes in fashion trends in the beginning of the twentieth century (184-185). Here, decades are characterized not only by specific preferences in clothing, but also by cultural and social features of the time. In other words, fashion is determined by sociocultural movements. The author highlights the importance of fashion’s temporality in organizing the chronology of the history of fashion. Particularly with this art, time frames may be easily outlined by months, years, or decades with high degree of accuracy. Therefore, fashion is described as a “cultural clock”, which is unconnected to historical events.
Fashion and Time
In the “The Impossibility of the Present”, Geiger tries to summarize different arguments about the behavior of fashion over time. She focuses basically on whether fashion is temporary or continual phenomenon. Not surprisingly, many people agree that fashion is constantly changing at a high pace. However, according to Geiger, this assumption is erroneous because it is context and details that are changing, whereas fashion exists with definite longevity (148-151). Despite that specific looks and styles have been changing, the general concepts and functions of clothes have been permanent throughout the whole history of fashion. With reference to philosophical ideas, Geiger supports her argument by saying that the present is always the same, and is not different from the past and the future. In relation to fashion, this concept of the present indicates the “impossibility of the present to be “up to date”. Thus, changes in trends are changes in details, while fashion itself is highly steady.
The Production of the Fashion Present
Van de Peer mainly argues that fashion has no actual ‘present’ (318, 334-335). In terms of fashion, the present is a relative parameter determined by a set of factors which include sociocultural and technological aspects, as well as comparison of looks and styles of different periods in the past. From that, is may be concluded that the present of fashion is a product of the refined past. On the other hand, it may be also defined as a “looking for the future”, according to Van de Peer”. Generally, she claims that fashion is a timeless, but at the same time temporary phenomenon, which is self-constructing, and should not be separated into “up to date” and “outmoded”.
Fashioning: Zambian Moments
In this work, Hansen uses the example of Zambian women wearing secondhand clothes imported from the US and Europe to demonstrate fashion’s “ephemerality and fleeting nature” is fallacious (302-304). At the same time, she claims that fashion is socially constructed. On the whole, the claim here is that fashion and clothing are determined by social and cultural values, specific situations and details, as well as personal perceptions of people. Thus, she concludes that things (clothes, for example) cannot have “social death”, as they may be used in different times, places, and contexts. That is why “Things do not have social lives. Rather social life has things.”
Common ideas in the readings
All four texts mainly focus on the nature of fashion with regard to time and history. Despite that there are some contradictions in determining steady or temporary behavior of fashion, all the texts agree that fashion is more about cultures than just looks and styles. Changes which happen over time are strongly tied with the context. Mostly, the readings support the view that there is no notion of “now”. Trends do not appear independently, they are always constructed upon perceptions of the past or possible needs and desires for the future. In terms of fashion history and chronology, the authors share the idea that timelines are easy to observe and boundaries are easy to outline, however it is impossible to accurately separate the “up to date” from the outdated. As a covert message, it may be inferred that authors try to imply that fashion is just one of multiple examples of how different things are socially constructed and are changed throughout the history under the pressure of social and cultural contexts.
Except for the Hansen’s work, the readings have a noticeable flaw: they are written with high degree of generalization, without paying attention to geographical differences in perceptions of fashion. In addition, the texts are rather theoretical, and the solidity of arguments and conclusions is therefore limited.
Reference list
Breward, Christopher. 1995. The Culture Of Fashion. Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Geiger, Annette. 2011. "Fashion And Time; The Impossibility Of The Present". Fashion – Out
Of Order ; Disruption As A Principle 187: 148-157.
Hansen, Karen T. 2003. "Fashioning: Zambian Moments". J Mater Cult 8 (3): 301-309.
doi:10.1177/13591835030083005.
Van de Peer, Aurélie. 2014. "So Last Season: The Production Of The Fashion Present In The
Politics Of Time". Jour Dres Bod Cul 18 (3): 317-340.
doi:10.2752/175174114x13938552557880.
