Definition & Nature of Fashion

• Style
  Style refers to a particular way of expressing ourselves, it can be anything from clothing to gadgets or from cars to lifestyle. When it comes to the fashion world, personal style is the short term referred for style. Style is the expression of an individual through the creative choice of clothes, footwear, hairstyle and accessories...
• Change
  Common people often get bored and fed up with the old usual stuffs they have, and they always have the tendency to try something new. Such urge in people creates an opportunity to make changes in their lifestyle which eventually leads to changes in fashion.
• Acceptance
  A style is considered to be accepted, when many people start purchasing and wearing a new style. This style then becomes the fashion. This denotes that acceptance by a large group of people, is an essential element of a style to become fashion.

• Those who simply follow the latest fashion trends.
• Those who create their own style and it becomes the latest fashion.

Four Components of Fashion

• Silhouette
  Everyone has a unique body shape and your clothes must suit your vital statistics to look good. Silhouette is the overall outline, basic shape and contour of a garment. The most important dress silhouettes are
  • Straight or Tubular
    It provides the body a masculine appearance.
  • Bell Shaped
    It emphasise the curves of the female body.
  • Back-fullness
    It mainly focuses on the back of the outfit.
  Designers are now experimenting their designs with other types of silhouette like Slim, Rectangle, Wedge, A-line and Hourglass.
  
• Details
  Details are the finished characteristics of a garment such as trimmings, type of necklines, buttons, sleeves, length of the garment etc that give the silhouette its shape. Details are essential as they can grab attention towards a particular area in a garment. Silhouettes change gradually from one person to another through changes in detail. When a trend in a detail reaches an extreme, the trend is reversed.
• Texture
  Texture is the look (visual) and feel (tactile) of the material. In other words, texture refers to the surface appearance and feel of a fabric. Fabric must have a nice smooth texture and it should feel soft on the skin. Texture depends on the method used in the construction of the fabric and upon the different components used such as fibre, yarn etc. Texture influences colors as it creates a distinctive look on the wearer. Texture can either absorb or reflect light which affects the color of the fabric. Depending on the roughness and smoothness of the material, it can look bulky or slender. The color fastness and durability also depends on the texture. Rough texture absorbs light where as smooth texture reflects light causing colors to appear dull or bright. Textures are widely imparted in fashion in the form of prints, weaves and other surface embellishments. The texture and weave of a fabric has an impact on the way it drapes which affects the look of the garment when it is worn. The texture of cotton, jute, silk, wool, crepe, satin are different from one another.
  
• Colour
  Color of a costume is the first thing your eyes would notice. There are many different colour schemes that work well which is an important component of fashion. In fashion designing process it is very important how the value (darkness / lightness) and the intensity (dullness / brightness) is used. It is also important how the proportion of different colors are placed in a garment. Colours can create an illusion of distance. Dark colors can make you look taller and thinner, whereas bright colors can make you look bigger. Basically, colors are classified into warm and cool tones and then black and white. Warm colors consist of shades obtained from Red, Yellow & Orange and cool colours includes shades from blue, green and purple. Neutral colors play a vital role as they can be worn with anything. Designers should use effective color schemes to enhance the look of the garment.
  

Nature of Fashion

• Classics
  Dress which hardly becomes obsolete and retains its style for a very long time.
• FAD
  Dresses which do not stay in market for a long time and become obsolete very soon.
• Recurring
  Few styles are reintroduced to a new target group, years after they were initially introduced.