How Religion, Pop Culture, and Media impacts Fashion

How Religion, Pop Culture and Media Impacts Fashion
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How Religion, Pop Culture, and Media Impacts Fashion
Fashion can be anything from how one chooses to dress to how they communicate and generally go about their lives. Fashion embraces hairstyles, beauty, accessories, body art and clothing. It can be described as a form of speech since what people wear and when and how they wear it gives other people a chance to know their social situation or preference at that particular moment. For many years, societies and individuals alike have used clothe and other body accessories and art to communicate, albeit non-verbally, about their gender, social status, role set, occupation, wealth, culture, sexual availability, locality and their ranks. Fashion is therefore used as a language to express the identity of an individual and the society at large. Fashion can be used to pass a message about an individual in a rapid manner to an observer. Accordingly, the paper will discuss how fashion has an impact on pop culture, the media and religion as well how the media, religion and pop culture impacts fashion.
The impact of religion on fashion and vice versa
Religion can be loosely defined as the set of beliefs shared by a group of people that primarily concerns the nature and purpose of the universe which usually contains a code of morality that governs how that group of people conduct themselves. Religion can be used to influence fashion as illustrated through body art such as cross tattoos that were popular a few years back. Fashion designers also use religion as a source of inspiration as seen on the runway designs of Dolce and Gabbana for Fall 2013 ready to wear collection (Hume, 2013). Religion also determines what people wear such as the habits of nuns and the abayas and kaftans for Muslim women.
Religious groups and organizations use dressing as a form of identifying themselves. Dressing, in this perspective, is used to address how the followers of these religions groom themselves, their body adornments and the clothes they wear dressing among religious organizations can serve as a means of non-verbal communication for attributes such as gender and the position a person holds in that particular religion. (Hume, 2013).
Clothing in religion can either be classified as sacred or secular. In most situations, sacred clothing is usually the clothes that have meaningful value to their beliefs and customs and relate to power and gender. A good example is the dressing of the Catholic priests, bishops, and the nuns. The difference in their modes of dressing helps one to identify them by their gender and the religious position they hold. Some religions also have regulations about the way they wear their hair as it is regarded as a sexual symbol. This is the reason why some monks, nuns, and priests may cut their hair as a sign that they are giving up worldly pleasures (Barker, 2001).
Sacred dressings such as beards, hats, aprons, bonnets and head coverings for the Amish and the Mennonites and the burqa and hijabs for Muslim women are usually used to easily identify and distinguish these groups from other groups around them. Other religions may have undergarments that they consider sacred and are used to affirm the commitment that they have to their religion.
Dressing can also be used to sustain the traditions and customs of a religious organization and in the process provide a foundation for identity, visually, for the members. Religion and fashion seem to collide as fashion is dynamic while religious dressing can remain relatively unchanged for decades or even centuries. This slow change or none at all can be attributed to the fact that religions, in most cases, tend to resist fashion. While fashion is used to express an individual’s style, dressing amongst religious groups and organizations is fundamentally used to enforce the identity of the group as a whole rather than an individual. (Barker, 2001).
The common theme that cuts across almost all the religions is modesty. Most religious dressing involves covering the head and most parts of the body apart from the hands and face. Religions like Judaism requires its followers to be appropriately dressed as they believe that the very read on for human existence is to give glory to God. This modest way of dressing in most religious organizations applies, in a big way, to women only. In general, however, dressing remains a symbol of identity and commitment of the followers of these religious organizations.
As much as fashion and religion may appear as controversial topics that cannot simply mix, they actually influence each other in reality. Many fashion designers and fashion icons continually draw inspiration from religious symbols. For instance, it is now common to find many items of clothing bearing the cross, a very sentimental symbol of faith to all Christians. This trend was seen on Madonna during the height of her career as she used to wear neckpieces and earrings with the cross. This symbol has crossed into street style with a lot of street style lovers adorning jewelry with the cross or having clothes imprinted with the cross and other religious symbols.
In fashion runways, it is not uncommon to see designers dressing their models in religious-inspired pieces like the burqas and veils common with the Muslim women. Recently, Lady Gaga, considered a fashion icon, wore a burqa-inspired piece and even wrote a song based on this item of clothing. The Virgin Mary has also been a source of inspiration for many fashion-lovers. Beyoncé’s attire when making her pregnancy announcement was thought to be largely inspired by the Virgin Mary.
Fashion will continue to draw inspiration from a varied number of sources and religion is no exception. However, this created a lot of controversies especially among most followers of the religious groups where fashion designers choose to get their inspiration from. They may fail as if their culture and their symbols of identity have been misappropriated. This is especially true for most traditional followers of religion. This is not to say that the fashion world will cease to borrow from the religious world anytime soon.
The dressing amongst religious groups is also changing although at a very slow pace. Muslim women are increasingly wearing bright-colored veils in contrast to the usual all-black attire. The Hindus are also slowly embracing the so-called Western style of dressing for casual days of for professional settings. Some Catholic groups of nuns are also not wearing the veil. It is evident that fashion and religion have a huge impact on each other although the latter will perhaps be more resistant to adapting to change.
How the media impacts fashion
The relationship between media and the fashion industry goes back a long way. The fashion industry is directly influenced by the media as it aids in developing the interest of the public in the latest fashion trends. This is through such means as television advertisements, print media publications of fashion articles, shoots, and the latest fashion pieces, endorsements by celebrities as well as through the movies and television shows. There are even top magazines such as Vogue and Instyle that are exclusively dedicated to all things fashion (Clay, 2008). Television shows have also been created that talk about fashion such as the Fashion Police. In a way, the media acts as a measure of fashion whether through scrutinizing what celebrities and other public figures are wearing or simply by being a tool of advertisement for the current fashion trends.
The first role the media ever played in fashion was through fashion plates, a way used by dressmakers and the merchants around the seventeenth century to promote their craft and showcase the latest fashion trends in their time. This was also around the time that Mercure Galant, a French fashion publication, was started. Photography came into place in the 1920s, a fashion dissemination media that still stands its ground up to now. Fashion photography resulted in the publication of fashion magazines such as Vogue. In the 1970s and 1980s, fashion television began and became a vital way of persuading viewers to explore fashion trends (Clay, 2008).
Designers and their collections enjoy the coverage on televisions in all parts of the world. In addition, film stars, celebrities, public figures, editors of fashion publications and music stars have become the leaders of opinion in the world of fashion. Recently, social media has taken over the world of fashion through tweeting and blogging on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram and fashion websites (Clay, 2008). The introduction of social media changed the manner in which people communicated and interacted. It also changed how digital marketing operates and consequently how industries choose to market their products.
As a result, the fashion industry also shifted its advertisement and operating procedures to match with these changing times. Fashion brands have evolved especially when considering the platforms they choose to use as well as the brand ambassadors they pick to represent them. It is evident that social media platforms are picking celebrities and brand influencers who have massive social media presence and followers such as Selena Gomez who is the most followed person on Instagram (Clay, 2008).
Designers and fashion houses are going in for brand influencers such as beauty and fashion bloggers and vloggers to represent and market their brands as opposed to the past when they used celebrities. Teri Cosenzi and Chiara Ferragni are but a few examples of fashion vloggers and YouTubers who are being chosen by major fashion brands to advertise for them due to their millions of followers on these social media platforms. An added advantage of choosing social media influencers over celebrities is due to their close relationship with their fans and their authenticity. They are more relatable to the general public and interact, in most cases; very closely with their followers hence have a higher persuasive power over them.
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