Fashion, by nature, is a dynamic and transient culture, which keeps changing in time and space. In fact, if we talk about the permanent thing, there is hardly anything on the planet earth, which has such property, everything keeps changing. Since, human mind is also part of this planet; so, it also seeks changes in terms of place of living, food, and of course cloth or fashion. People want to have new styles and new fashions.
But such changes are not essentially and always because of people’s wishes, but rather there are many other causes that influence fashion.
Human nature, of course, is one of the most important reasons for changing fashion, as it always demands new and trendy products. But along with it, the following are some other significant factors that influence fashion:
1. Psychological Factor
2. Social Factor
3. Economic Factor
4. Cultural Factor
5. Political Factor
6. Environmental Factor
7. Physiological Factor
Let’s discuss each one of them separately:
Psychological factor is an important factor that influences a person to follow a trend or may influence the opposite. In other words, everyone following the jeans and shirt, but one person prefers to wear pajama kurta (the ethnic wear). So, it expresses individuality and does not get influenced by society. Likewise, many times, it gives importance to personal choice instead of following the trends.
Social factor is one of the most significant factors that influence fashion frequently and expansively. Its area is pretty wide and includes many factors, such as place of living (urban area or rural area), educational and cultural background, status in society, gender, profession, and, of course, occasions. These factors, sometimes influence separately or sometimes collectively.
Interestingly, fashion is one of the indicators that reflects the financial condition of a person in his society and economic condition of country in the whole world. Fashion reflects the availability of raw materials, level of infrastructure, and technological advancement in a particular country. So, if a country is rich and developed, fashion in that country will be luxurious. On the other hand, fashion in developing or underdeveloped countries, is at a very low level.
Culture is the traditions and practices that a society of a particular region follows in a given period in time. Every society has its own culture; hence, not only fashion influences culture, but rather culture also influences fashion vice-versa. For example, an old man who always wore pajama kurta (the traditional dress) started wearing track suits, jeans, etc.
Directly or indirectly, political factor also plays an important role in influencing fashion. Time to time, government keep changing the law, economic policies, and political policies, all these factors, collectively influence fashion. For example, in the early 1990s, liberalization, globalization, and privatization of the Indian economy encouraged many foreign fashion companies to launch their products in India, which greatly influenced the fashion.
Environmental factor largely includes seasons, like the winter season, which have entirely different clothing styles, influences fashion; the summer season, in this season, people prefer to wear only light cotton shirts and pants, t-shirts, jeans, etc.; and in rainy season, people prefer to have differently designed raincoats and other waterproof cloth.
It includes age, skin color, body structure, height of the person, etc. With growing age, people change their choices. So, fashion is essentially guided by such principles as well.
Dominating events: some of the significant events, like war, big national level cultural events, fashion events/shows, etc. influence fashion.
Influence of celebrities: most of the youngsters in society, get easily influenced by the film stars, sports persons, musicians, and other celebrity kind of people. In fact, the dressing style, walking, speaking, and appearance styles of these celebrities are very important factors that influence especially youngsters and they seek same designs and brands.
Geographical Factors: geography involves many factors, but significant among them are, of course, relief features and the location of the region (either located in a hilly region, or along the bank of a river, desert, etc.). All these factors influence fashion.
Technological Advancement: technology not only helped researchers and scholars to research new things, but also influenced fashion designers. By using technology, fashion designers create designs virtually and then decide whether it is worth to materialize it or not.
Likewise, fashion, which reflects the overall human condition and their status, is an integral aspect of our lives as well as our society. It influences as well as gets influenced. There are certain factors that influence fashion, such as psychological factors, socio-cultural factors, economic factors, environmental factors, etc.
1. Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Concept of Fashion (URL - https://www.subhartidde.com)
2. Mr. Aqif Yunus Kavathekar & Mr. Irfan Shafik Mujawar. Factors Affecting for Clothing Selection (URL - https://textilelearner.net)
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