Fashion Effects Society..No it really does

Jasmine Offor

PWriting

October 08/08

Topic: How Does Fashion Affect our Society

1.What regions around the world is fashion a way of life?
2. How do fashion advertisements subliminally draw a crowd to the fashion product?
3. How does fashion affect our society as a whole?

In order to answer my questions, I will have to find credible statistics or take surveys and

 questionnaires on my own. My questions really deal with the psychographics of a person 

rather than just facts. Granted I will also need to find data stating specific facts on cultures 

around the world and how their trends differ from that of the United States.

The sources of credible information that I will be using to answer my questions came from 

BBC, The Washington Post, and JSTOR scholarly journal. Each piece of information that I 

looked up gave me a different insight to my topic. The JSTOR scholarly journal gave me an 

insight that fashion is just not what we see today, but it has more meaning than any one would 

have ever known. It applied in such areas as “paintings, sculptures, music, drama, architecture, 

dancing, and household decorations” (Blumer 275). Our society is much more than just 

wearing clothes, it's used in all the listed above as an adornment or a type of entertainment. An 

article that I found on BBC mentioned the reign of the “skinheads’ and how that trend in the 

British culture affected their society. Many people disliked their way of life, but to the 

“skinheads” they were reinventing what was thought to be cool. Their shaved heads, Doc 

Marten boots, and bleached jeans made them stand out from the crowd and that mini society is 

still talked about today. Whether or not people like them, I think we can all agree on 

supporting the fact that a group of young kids decided to differentiate themselves from the 

norm and make fashion a way of life for them. Even today, there seems to still be a nostalgic 

feeling of the “skinheads” with they way the kids in the UK dress. The final source I found was 

from The Washington Post. It was an article on product placement on TV and to whom the 

products are targeting. Fashion advertisements main targeting group are usually everyone that 

has access to a store where they can purchase the advertised item. Subliminally fashion 

commercials are shown during various times and between various channels. They seem to not 

have a precise target unless you watch a very niche program. Their advertisements reach 

millions of viewers every single day making it harder and harder for those who want to be 

different from the crowd possible. As hard as those so-called “individuals” try to remove 

themselves from the pack, they never can. With the millions of images coming from hip new 

trends coming to them wherever they look, it is impossible.

I didn’t necessarily feel a sense of guilt when I entered the information. I really found it funny 

that Wikipedia, a website that many people think is very credible allows random people to 

insert what ever they want. I didn’t really create my own Wikipedia but when I entered 

information I felt kind of excited that I contributed to a very famous site even thought the 

information that I put up was completely false.

On a final note, these articles helped me gather information that I never would have gone 

out and looked for otherwise. The articles engulfed me in all the new information that is found 

everyday to better understand conformity and acceptance in every single society. Every single 

person wants to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, either by following the new trend or 

not following it, fashion still wins. The society is just a pawn in its big game of chess.