Fashion

What is Fashion?

Fashion is a language or signifying system. Shirts, shoes, pants, dresses, hairstyles, and other accessories are the vocabulary or codes that make up this language.

“To choose clothes, either in a store or at home, is to define and describe ourselves.” A.

Lurie

Why Do We Wear Clothes?British fashion historian, James Laver, identifies 3 key motives behind why we dress.

#1 Utility Principle: Garments are functional, practical, and necessary to the work or activity we

Utility Principle

Utility Principle

Why Do We Wear Clothes?#2 Hierarchical Principle : What you wear is less about usefulness and more about the kinds of distinctions it allows you to make about yourself and other groups of people.

Hierarchical Principle

Why Do We Wear Clothes?3.Seduction Principle: Clothing allows us to

attract people we are interested in. Hal Fischer Gay Semiotics 1971

School Dress Code

Bow-Tie Activism

Political Style

Zoot Suits

Just For Kicks• Identify and describe the sneaker culture that existed among urban youth during the 1970s & 1980s. What activities defined this culture? Why did people participate?

• What musical groups and athletes helped to transform sneakers from athletic gear into everyday wear?

• What changed as sneaker culture moved from a local expression to national trend?