Fashion education has suffered considerable damage due to the pandemic & global lockdown. As a result, e-learning platforms emerged as the solution to provide online courses for fashion styling to fashion aspirants from different parts of the planet. This article will provide a substantial read on fashion dimensions and the difference between fashion & style. The term fashion has three important components: Style, Acceptance, and Time.
● Time:
Time makes fashion cyclical, what is in fashion today may be out the next year. This change keeps the fashion business growing and exciting. Change may never have a consistent pace. It may be sometimes rapid and some other times gradual. The women’s apparel category has always shown the most rapid changes whereas, fashion in home furnishings transforms comparatively slower. Online courses for fashion styling provide industry-certified education to ensure the emergence of efficient fashion designers or stylists.
Assuming fashion was not prone to change; the economies would have ended up generating money only through only replacing the needs of the consumer and thus would have lost a million-dollar business daily. Hence, economies generate huge business through fashion change. Thus, it may not be completely incorrect to state that fashion is a product of induced cyclic change. Sense of timing is an important attribute at various levels of the industry. The speed of change depends on the advancement in communication, the level of technology in mass production, marketing skills, tools used for discretionary income, and other factors of seasonal change.
● Acceptance:
Acceptance is the willingness of the consumer to buy the style and wear it to get visibility. World-famous designer Karl Lagerfeld once commented, “There’s no fashion if nobody buys it” (Quoted in “Fall Fashions: Buying the Line,” Time, April 23, 1984, p.77.). Acceptance does not need to be universal. A style may be accepted in one group while other segments may ignore it. For example, styles that are considered fashionable in a metropolitan city may not be acceptable to people living in the villages. Likewise, a style that may be acceptable and fashionable in one part of the world may be rejected in the other.
Wearing different styles of turban and carrying long mustaches may be acceptable and flaunted in different states of rural India but the same may not be considered appropriate in cities or other parts of the world. Similarly, some tribes may adorn themselves with different styles of clothing and accessories that may be acceptable within the group but may be rejected by those who do not belong to that tribe. Hence acceptance also means that a fashion is considered appropriate for the place and occasion for which it is worn.
● Style:
A style is a characteristic or distinctive feature of a garment that makes it look different from the others. The word style can be addressed not only for apparel but also for the way one speaks, writes, and looks which makes him different from the others. Designers interpret fashion ideas and create an array of styles for their targeted group of customers. These styles when received and sported well by the people become fashionable. A style whether in fashion or not always remains constant.
Differentiation between Style and Fashion
Very frequently the word fashion and style are used interchangeably, especially for garments but the words are not synonymous. Fashion is cyclical and remains in vogue only for a certain time. Thus, fashion seasonally highlights certain styles, if worn gives the feeling of being ‘in’ trend until it is replaced by another. To remain fashionable a consistent change in style is hence required, as indicated by the fashion of that time.
On the other hand, the style is eternal and timeless. Style can also be self-created and not be guided by fashion. Hence, no consistent adaptation to what is ‘in’ may be required to be stylish. There could be a consumer with no style, but he /she can be an ardent fashion follower. Such people can be called fashionable but not stylish. However, on the other way round, it is also possible a person can be stylish without being fashionable. Online courses for fashion styling offer industry-relevant knowledge & training to create future fashion stylists with proficiency.
Summing Up
Fashion being a vital, dynamic force has its influence beyond geographical boundaries. Fashion can be understood in the aspect of its dimensions or its categories. The words fashion and style do not have identical meanings, even if sometimes used interchangeably.
