Fashion and Clothes

Most people like to think they are individualists and simply wear whatever they like. Few people will admit to being slaves to fashion. However, we are not just talking of the expensive clothes of the Paris and Milan fashion houses, which not many people can afford anyway. We are talking of fashions and trends in everyday clothes. We say that we wear jeans and sweaters because they are cheap and practical, but isn’t it true that jeans and sweaters tend to be the same as everyone else wears? Doesn’t that mean that we like to be trendy?
Fashion is always changing. It is never permanent. Long skirts, short skirts, pants for women, make-up for men – these are some of the fashions that come in and out of style. Every fashion goes through three stages. At first it is different; it may be new and exciting, shocking or surprising. Then it becomes popular, and the original idea is imitated. Finally it becomes boring and out of date as a new fashion starts. Being fashionable says something about you. It means that you are up-to-date in other ways.
So, for centuries fashion has been changing. As far as I know in the middle of the 18th century some of the most fashionable rich young men in Britain copied the latest Italian fashions. They wore extravagant clothes, lots of make-up to look pale and high wigs. At the end of the 18th century, women’s dresses began to get wider and their hair began to get longer. The widest dresses measured nearly two meters, making it difficult to move around and sit down. To make themselves prettier, some women had enormous hairstyles. These were often decorated with flowers, feathers and even fruit!
After the First World War, the clothes of the 1920s shocked many people. Fashions for women became more relaxed and freer than before. Their hair became shorter and dresses were not as long and wide as before.
At the beginning of the 20th century, very young boys and girls all wore dresses, and had long, sometimes curly, hair. The big change started in the late 1950s when teenagers adopted blue jeans and T-shirts. A whole range of clothes was made for young people in the 1960s and after. Fashion became colourful and exciting, changed fast and was designed for young people. Later in the 1970s many young people shocked and frightened the older generation. Their jeans were torn, they wore several earrings, put chains on their jackets; they cut their hair in strange ways and often dyed it bright colours. It was a punk fashion, and those people were punks. By the way, in the early 1970s women started to wear trousers to work, and this fact shocked many people.
In many countries today, people wear modern fashions most of the time. They sometimes wear their traditional clothing on special days such as holidays. For example, in Japan, people often wear kimonos, or long silk dresses on New Year’s Day. Today people have different attitude towards fashion and modern clothes. Some people take no notice of the clothes the designers produce. They wear things which express their ideas and feelings about life. If a boy has very short, almost, shaven hair, people expect him to have right wing politics. But boys with very long hair are thought to have left wing politics. A boy who wears a leather jacket covered in bits of metal will probably ride a motorbike. A boy who wears loose T-shirts and broad trousers will probably be a fan of rap or hip-hop music. Sportsmen often wear clothes with a sporty look; to my mind such clothes make people look healthy and energetic.
Of course, in our life we can meet people who are slaves to fashion. People would like to show themselves off in public, they read glossy magazines and try to follow the latest fashion. These people sometimes don’t think about comfort, easiness in use, they pay much attention to the choice of brands.
As for me, I like to wear modern clothes, but the most important thing for me is comfort, so things that I have in my wardrobe should be comfortable to wear. I like to wear T-shirts, shirts, jeans and trousers. In my opinion, it is always important to remember the rules of politeness, that there are different styles of clothes for different types of events. I try to look clean and tidy, and I remember the well-known proverb that “People meet by clothes and set off by mind.”