Fashion

Academic English Reading and Writing Topic: Is fashion important' Written by: Smakova Meruyert ID: 20092696 Is fashion important' - I like when people dress up in their own way and are not necessarily following the fashion. - Why' I like fashion. I think even those people who say they don’t care about what they wear, anyway choose clothes every morning, and these clothes say a lot about them and how they feel that day. And this is all about fashion. - I didn’t say I don’t care about how I am dressed up. I just think that fashion is a term commonly used to describe a style that is worn by most people, for example, of a one country. I don’t like when all people are putting on the same clothes. - But people may put on the same clothes and it either can look completely unfashionable! So choose those clothes which make your self-expression in the best way! - So do I, but I won’t choose designer clothes from fashion shows, because most of them are exaggerations of a theme. Some designers such as John Galliano (Christian Dior) present so extravagant looks that no one in their right mind would wear them on the streets. Fashion is a style of dressing or behaving that is the most popular at a particular time. The most significant and certain thing in fashion world is a change, as we are constantly being bombarded with new and new fashion ideas. They usually remain popular for about 1-3 years and then are replaced by other ideas. Fashion has its roots from the very ancient times, it existed in all ages. For example, even the famous French King Louis XIV had a definite fashion sense, which included tendency towards extravagant laces and velvets. Another example is that centuries ago most women were forced by fashion to wear puffy dresses, tight corsets, wigs and different types of fans. In those times it was unacceptable for women to wear other types of clothes. But, as a lot of time went by and socioeconomic status of women changed in the society, the fashion industry became less able to dictate them how to dress. This fact calls approval in me, as it satisfies my position towards this issue. Personally, I hold the view that no matter what the latest trends say, people should not be entirely influenced, but create their own styles and develop their own tastes by wearing what they really like and not being in the pursuit of fashion. When fashion says what is “hot” this season, people start to rush to stores and buy those popular things. For example, this winter the most popular trend was wearing boots which name is ‘Uggs’. So, on the legs of almost every girl in KIMEP and even boy (!) were such boots. Or let’s remember ‘Alaska’ coats – the latest fashion of 2006. Every second citizen of Kazakhstan and Russia had “Alaska” coat in his wardrobe. I perceive these gestures as a refusal of these people to look individually unique just by stepping in the crowd and being faded. More and more people, especially teenagers, would like to have slim and beautiful bodies as most fashion models have. As an example, FTV is almost screaming about models’ perfect sizes and saying like “You are never going to reach such perfection”. But, two questions arise at the same time: “What for do we need to reach that'” and “Who set these beauty standards'” The answer is we don’t have to reach that just because someone set these rules. My opinion is that every person should have a figure which was given to him by a nature. And then, of course, he or she should care of it and support it by healthy food, physical exercises and giving up bad habits. Unfortunately, the picture that we have now is that people, mostly teenagers, are forcing themselves to sit on various types of unhealthy diets with an only aim to sweat off their weight. This can contribute to serious problems with their health in their future. In fact, the reason why people do such actions is a trying to attract attention of the opposite sex. Fashion is used as a tool in the development of youngsters’ personalities. It is exploited by teenagers as an outward means to express their sense of identity. Through contact with and via media (video clips of stars on MTV, fashion magazines, popular sites) youngsters search for and decide upon their styles and, consequently, which social group they want to be a member of. So they dress up in different styles and signal to their peers and the rest of the world to which grouping they belong to (“rap”, “punk”, “goth”, etc.). Another point is that fashion brands, especially the ones related to billboard categories such as mobile phones, sneakers, garments play special role as they have become important ingredients of personal culture, reputation and the way of life of almost each teenager. But, it can turn into a bad tool as these youngsters are becoming fashion addicted and it spoils them as more people of colleges are just doing nothing else more than fashion and being careless for their studies. Young people start to judge other people’s personalities by the way they dress or, in other words, by the ‘shoes they choose’. They forget that judgements should be made based on people’s way of thinking, their words and actions. They start to watch other people as well whether they are dressed ‘up to date’ or not. They don’t understand that most people dress with what they have according to their money available. Or some people dress more conservative than others. So young people either forget again or simply do not even know that every person is unique and judgments on simple appearance are often wrong if you are really interested in character. To look from other side to this issue I can say another one example how young people may judge others: nowadays, boys, nevertheless, will prefer a slightly silly girl with a blond hair and height 176 m who looks like a supermodel rather than a philosophy graduate girl who looks quite beautiful too but hates mini skirts. Moreover, fashion consumes huge amount of money and resources that could be put into uses that would help more to the society. Have you ever wondered how much designers pay for celebrity to sit in the front rows of their fashion shows' Singers such as Rihanna and Beyonce are paid $100,000 or more, and film celebrities such as Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are paid approximately $80,000 each. Or can you guess how much was the cost of the last Victoria’s Secret* fashion show' It was all about $10 million. These numbers are cosmically enormous to be spent on fashion industry! And now, think about lots of worldwide problems, majority of which need more financial support in order to be solved. These problems are devastating destructions after natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, avalanches, wildfires, volcanoes, etc.), ill and hungry people in Africa and not only in Africa, but also from other places of the world. For example, in 24th of December of 2004 there was the 2nd greatest earthquake and tsunami ever recorded for the past 40 years. It occurred in Sumatra island of Indonesia, but it also touched Malaysia, Singapore and India. The magnitude was 9.3 and this earthquake took a heavy toll of about 227 thousand people. A lot of countries voluntarily came out to give financial support to the victim countries. Even the school where I studied, Kazakh-Turkish high school, managed to gather money in order to send them as a help – the amount was not so big, but it was at least something that we could do at that moment. Imagine, what if all this money spent only on designer shows and the money celebrities receive just by sitting in front rows of these designer shows would be joined and sent to Indonesia Island, Malaysia, Singapore and India' What a really good deed it would be! However, fashion industry creates an impression as if designers and fashion consumers do not care at all about anything but their glamour world by escaping the real life and not solving the real problems. Fashion is something which influences a great number of people’s clothing choices from year to year. Some people have no interest in this whatsoever, whereas others will not stop until their wardrobe is filled with the season’s top garments. Why do they become fashion addicted' They either want to emulate the looks and even lives of celebrities and glamour models, or by wearing the same clothes with others want to be the part of the community they belong to. These people treat fashion as if it makes who they are, though it is far from the real truth. Fashion existed in the past times as well. However, over the past one hundred years women became less tended to be influenced by what says the fashion as their socio-economic status started to rise: women became less dependant on men by having equal opportunities to have an education and then make a career. So their prevailing sensibility was “I know this look flatters me, and I will continue to wear this regardless of whether or not this particular skirt length is considered ‘in’ this year or not”. I give my respect to these women as you have seen from my words I am only for the keeping of individuality of each person in the world and playing not so much big importance of fashion in that. *Victoria’s secret – brand that sells underwear clothes for women References Armangue, B., & В AP. (n.d.). USATODAY.com - Do thin models warp girls' body image'. News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-25-thin-models_x.htm Indian Ocean Tsunami. (n.d.). Global Education. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/2258 Influences of Fashion. (n.d.). EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://ezinearticles.com/'Influences-of-Fashion&id=2549523 O'Connor, E., Friel, S., & Kelleher, C. (n.d.). Fashion consciousness as a social influence on lifestyle behaviour in young Irish adults -- O'Connor et al. 12 (2): 135 -- Health Promotion International. Oxford Journals | Medicine | Health Promotion International. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/135 Pittman, A. (n.d.). Why is Fashion so Important to Teens' | eHow.com. eHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://ehow.com/facts_5150416_fashion-important-teens.html on2: History of Fashion. (n.d.). PBS. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/infocus/fashion/whatisfashion.html APA formatting by BibMe.org.