For this task I gained an understanding of the etymology of the word ‘Fashion’ by reading part of ‘The etymology and the definition of fashion and clothing’ from the book ‘fashion as communication’ After reading this chapter I understood that it was trying to explain the meaning behind the word ‘fashion’ coming from the latin ‘factio’. The introduction of the chapter allowed me to understand and gain a better knowledge of what I was about to learn and how fashion can be seen and taken in different ways. Associating words come into acknowledgement when thinking about this idea which this chapter agrees with, mentioning words like ‘style’ ‘adornment’ allowing the audience and reader to look into ‘fashion’ in a different way allowing different opinion and thoughts to be provoked.

Analysing through the chapter I came across a statement that I found interesting as well as something that made me question my approach towards fashion and how I see it. This section was ‘Fashion and Anti Fashion’ which explained how fashion makes changes and a huge impact on cultural statuses and social environments. This made me think about how people have and had a fixed way of styling themselves and the way they should be expected to be seen and adorned with the proper attire linking in with how they should be perceived. For example the Native Americans were always known for their tribal outfits and the way that paid their respects to culture through their clothing and ways of life. Anti Fashion is a term used when various styles of dress are worn to represent the fashion of the day. These styles may represent people’s attitudes and may come around due to people’s political outlooks which forces fashion to become a secondary priority to everything else in someone’s life. Many designers have taken on ‘Anti fashion’ as its guidelines and expressed it in different ways. During the early 20th Century Gabrielle Chanel produced a collection called a “poor girls” women’s style where rich women were able to look and by clothes that made them appear like the regular women whilst still being able to wear clothes allowing people to still see and understand the quality. Prince Charles has been described as anti fashion in the fact that he reflects different style through tradition.

Looking into anti fashion and the way people approach it made me think more about the way I appreciate my individual style and continued to read on coming across a phrase ‘a garment is not an item of fashion until someone uses it to indicate their actual or ideal place in a social structure’. This comment made me think about the way that people see fashion as a way of showing off a status and allowing everyone that see that person to understand their location in the social structure. I have seen this myself in my life allowing me to have a fist hand understanding of how fashion impacts the way we approach a person and how we see them but also ourselves in the social structure of today.

Bibliography
[1] Bardnard, M (2002) Fashion As Communication, London: Routledge