Fashion is a way of expressing oneself through what you wear. It is a multibillion dollar industry and it is always changing. Fashion reflects the current environment and trends, which can be seen all over the world. It can be shown up in clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, even language and styles of hair. Fashion is a mirror that shows a highly distorted picture of society.
Often it is hard to tell what is fashion and what is not, due to the fact that there is so much variety in clothing style, as well as in what people consider to be fashionable. The ever-changing nature of fashion is what makes it a constant source of fascination, and what causes people to keep buying and wearing new clothes, updating their wardrobes constantly.
Many times a change in fashion comes from a group of people who want to make a statement, or who are trying to express their creativity. Some examples of this are a rock band that starts wearing a certain type of hat, or the group of teenagers who start wearing baggy jeans. It can also be as simple as a designer creating a line of clothing and then marketing it to a specific clientele. These lines are sometimes called collections, although the term collection is typically reserved for high fashion.
Other times a fashion trend is started by a member of a particular social class or generation, as was the case when hip-hop fashion first took off. This is why it can be so hard to trace the origins of a particular fashion, such as how short skirts and boots became popular in England, or how jeans went from the streets of New York to the runways of Paris.
The ever-changing nature of fashion has some critics concerned that the fashion industry encourages consumerism and wastefulness. This is because shifting trends require people to continually purchase new clothing, which may be expensive, and often unnecessary. However, there are others who enjoy the diversity that fashion brings to the world and believe that changing fashion is a form of art.
Fashion is a reflection of the current culture and society, but it can also be a tool for social change. This is because it is used as a tool of communication, to convey ideas and messages about the world. Fashion has a very powerful influence on the world, which is why it is constantly evolving.
The Library of Congress provides access to a wide range of resources on the topic of fashion, including books, monographs, ephemera, periodicals, and primary sources. The resources available through this guide are intended to support researchers, students, and educators in a variety of academic disciplines and subject areas. This guide represents a small sample of the many materials available, and it is not meant to be comprehensive. In addition to the items listed here, researchers are encouraged to explore the entire collection of Library of Congress resources.