Within this chapter taken from Fashion as Communication by Malcolm Barnard it discusses the meaning of the word fashion and what it takes for a garment to be considered ‘fashion’. It starts off with the Etymology of the meaning of the word to help gain a better understanding of the subject and then graduates towards ‘social hieroglyphics’ and about how we judge people on what they wear and how we choose to be perceived.

Barnard states that ‘Fashion and clothing, that is, may be the most significant ways in which social relations between people are constructed, experienced and understood’ (Barnard 1996) which taking into account many different factors is partly true as people are well known to judge someone’s personality on what they wear as we ourselves mostly reflect how we would like to be perceived through our clothes/appearance. James Laver makes a similar point which backs this up as he believes ‘the purpose of clothes for women has been to make them more sexually attractive and the purpose of men’s clothes has been to enhance their social status’ (Laver 1969). Laver discusses how throughout time we as humans have predominantly chosen our partners by the clothes they wear as it reflects their wealth, class, and persona which have all been important deciding factors throughout history.

It also goes on to discuss how fashion can only exist in the world if there are two things ‘The first of these tendencies is the need for union and the second is the need for isolation’ (Simmel 1971) this suggest that in order for fashion to exist we have to want to socialise and be a part of a group but don’t want to all be the same as we like to express our individuality through our choice of clothing and accessories. ‘We want to look like our friends but not to be clones’ (Wilson 1992a;34).

Some may agree with Barnard that ‘while all clothing is an adornment, not all clothing is fashion’ (Barnard 1996) whilst some may argue that ‘Not all fashion is an item of dress; as noted, some fashion involves changing the colour or shape of the body’ (Barnard 1996). For me I feel that fashion is everything changeable about a person as it reflects who you are as a being or who you wish to be perceived as due to your choices of how you wear, style or change something about your appearance.

To conclude, I believe in many ways that the views Barnard puts across within his book have merit and I agree that we as a society dress and carry ourselves in a way of putting across who we are as a person or who we would like to be perceived as and that fashion is more than just the garments we chose to wear but the many changeable aspects about ourselves to make us unique and individual.

Bibliography:

Laver, J. (1969) Modesty in Dress, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Simmel, G. (1971) Individuality and Social Forms: University of Chicago Press.

Barnard, M. (1996) Fashion as Communication: Routledge, London.