Fashion Design Uniforms and Uniformity Or Individuals and Individuality,

What is Fashion? Fashion is everyday. Each morning people choose clothes that say a lot about them and how they feel that day. You may not look at yourself the rest of the day, but we are looking!

Change is the only thing certain! New fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies impact what people wear. In the 1950s, many teenagers dressed like Elvis Presley.

Who Determines Fashion? Musicians and other cultural icons Political figures and royalty 1700s, people poured over fashion magazines to see latest styles People outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. French King Louis XIV, “fashion is a mirror.” Louis tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.

Clothes Distinguish Groups. Clothes reveal people groups Styles show who you are create stereotypes Create barriers between groups

Scenario A Lawyer might look at a purple haired boy with multiple piercing as trendy and ridiculous. The boy is a strict conformist when he is with his friends. The message of rebellion and separation within that group is uniformity.

Fashion tells a story About the person wearing the clothes "Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand," according to Katherine Hamnett, a British fashion designer.

Reasons why we dress the way we do Protection from cold, rain and snow Physical attraction Emotions: we dress "up" when we're happy and sloppy when we're upset. Religious expression: Islamic women wear head coverings; orthodox Jews wear a prayer shawl. Identification and tradition: judges wear robes, people in the military wear uniforms, brides wear long white dresses.

Fashion is a booming business More people are involved in the buying, selling, and production of clothing than any other business in the world. Daily millions of workers around the world design, sew, glue, dye, and transport clothing to stores. Ads on buses, billboards and magazines give us ideas about what to wear, consciously, or subconsciously.

Clothing has been used as a political weapon. In nineteenth century England, laws prohibited people from wearing clothes produced in France. During the communist revolutions, uniforms were used to abolish class and race distinctions.

Fashion is an endless contest. High fashion is the style of a small group of men and women. People of wealth and position, buyers for major department stores, editors and writers for fashion magazines are all part of Haute Couture ("High Fashion" in French). Some of these expensive and often artistic fashions may become fashionable for the rest of us. Most fashion ideas stay on the “Haute Couture” runway.

Worst dress of the year 2007

Yves St Laurent cocktail dress, worn by Margot Fonteyn

Famous dress of the 19 th century

From the 19 th century

From the 20 th century

Dress of the year 1963

Dress of the year 1974

Dress of the year 1980

Dress of the year 1991

Dress of the year 2002

Dress of the year 2004

Dress of the year 2005

Dress of the year 2008

Dress of the year 2009

Dress of the year 2010

Dress of the year 2011

Dress of the year 2012

Dress of the year 2013

Dress of the year 2014 What do you think this would look like?

Site location of fashion information There is a Fashion Museum in Bath that publishes an online version and also houses each “dress of the year”