Debates in the History and Theory of Fashion and the Body

Debates in the History and Theory of Fashion and the Body
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Debates in the History and Theory of Fashion and the Body
Introduction
The apparel industry is surrounded by various assumptions on how the body and the garments relate. The concept of the body-garment relationship in the fashion industry entails existing interactions between objective and subjective measures of fit, including a garment’s design features and characteristics (Entwistle, 2015). The major aim of the fashioned body focuses on the fact that clothes represent fundamental means through which bodies are represented with social and cultural meaning. The argument, in this case, is that fashion articulates identities that easily communicate an individual’s social class, gender, or status. In this argument, there is a fruitful association between individuals and wider society, including technological and economic development. Clothing and fashion possess a wide range of ideological definitions that portrays some sense of visual culture that identifies consumers within specific environments. This discussion focuses on the different debates on the theory of fashion and its relations to the body.
History and theory of fashion and the body
In the Victorian era, the England government prescribed the length of dresses for women and children (Entwistle, 2015). For instance, women above teenage were required to wear skirts which hemlines reached below the ankles. However, as ladies started to rise in ranks occupying executive positions within corporate society, there was a preference in dressing that was a reflection of authority. Further, the Adornment theory represents one of the holistic approaches towards fashion with the scope extending beyond just clothes but accessories and cosmetics (Entwistle, 2016).
The global fashion industry has grown exponentially within the past two decades (Blumer, 2017). Fashion is considered a significant part of social phenomenon par excellence. The various areas of contemporary social life are subject to fashion and attract questions from cultural experiences to several debates at all levels. The increase in interest in the fashion industry provides the best sign of its importance alongside generality. Regarding fashion as a social phenomenon, the topic is worth social scientific inquiry spreading widely to adjacent disciplines such as economics, philosophy, and cultural studies. However, there exists much confusion on explanations surrounding the definition of fashion. The confusion arises owing to two primary meanings of the term; fashion as a change and fashion as a dress.
Despite the existing differences in perception from different quarters, the sociologist’s perspective addresses fashion since the inception of the discipline. For instance, the classical works of Simmel (2020) and Blumer (2017) argued on fact that sociologists should take fashion seriously, providing the attention it deserves. Further, the new generation of sociologists in fashion studies highlights various difficulties encountered while theorizing fashion as an industry. The debate, in this case, focuses on the fact that fashion presents a large conundrum issue with ever-evolving relevant avenues for research. It is important to explore the roots of fashion theory to identify core elements that comprise the sociological understanding as it pertains to the topic. There is also a need for comparing and contrasting the aspects of production and consumption of fashion elements. Fashion, just as innovation, refers to a change that replaces or compliments something that already exists with something new. Notably, change in fashion does not necessarily refer to improvement.
Entwistle (2015) argues that there is a lack of a complete analysis of fashion since the majority focus on consumption. In this case, a complete understanding is possible upon analyzing the relationship between manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. There is a need for further examination of the existing differences between production and consumption. The nature of the volatile market that adorns constant changes in fashion styles helps in the creation of the demand for cheap labor who are subject to risk and exploitation. There are enough inadequacies within theories that express fashion from aesthetic discourse’s eyes without regard for fashion’s gritty reality from the socio-economic perspective (Blumer, 2017).
Historically, only the upper class could afford to purchase fashionable clothes that were locally manufactured at the dawn of history (Entwistle, 2015). However, as time progressed, there has been the production of fashionable clothes out of the development of better production skills, ideas, tastes, and tech...