Fashion-Popular Culture

Clothing and appearance is something that is becoming more and more important to generation of kids. Fashion and looks has always been important dating back to the Middle Ages and on throughout history. It is without a doubt that much more emphasis and importance was placed on clothing to everyday people with the invention of television, especially Hollywood glam. There are many aspects of life that affect clothing and fashion. Things such as economic and political situations play a major role in how clothing is portrayed in the media, (in the 20th and 21st centuries).

Clothing and appearance has become very important in the last sixty years. Clothing can relate to many different expressions to our lives. How we dress is also a symbol of the times and power status. Many CEO and Wall Street business people dress extremely professional. During times of war and economic hardships clothing styles may change to fit not being able to have all the materials or be short of materials. As stated in our reading, the Reagan administration made the saying ‘dress to impress’ placing heavy emphasis on career and appearance. After the turmoil of the sixties and seventies, the eighties became a decade of a wide mixture of conservativism of Reagan and punk rock. The clothing varied one person may be in a leather jacket while another in a business suit.

With the feminist movement of the previous two decades, the eighties were a time for women to start to have an equal playing field with men in the business world. I do, however find this to be quite the coincidence has the Reagan era and the eighties and even now supports women in the same field as men yet place heavy emphasis on how they should dress. Whenever I hear the words ‘dress to impress’ I assume it means that the woman should dress up while the man already always is dressed up. Of course, women are assumed to wear more provocative clothing in the workforce, whereas men always wear the same suits while women wear heels, skirts and dresses. This also leads to the question of when women go to get hired is it based on their clothing and looks rather than skill.



Women’s fashion has also played up in the media. Take for example the famous celebrities of Hollywood and politics overtime. Many of the wives of the Presidents have been fashionable for their time period. More notably women such as Jackie Kennedy, Nancy Reagan and most recently Michelle Obama are in spotlight and almost pressured by the media to make sure they are dressed a certain way, whereas the Presidents themselves are hardly analyzed for their clothing choices.





Clothing also plays important role in the social world of schools and students. Once students enter middle and high school appearance becomes a really big deal. Kids judge either based on appearances and whether or not the other kids around them have the ‘popular’ clothes. I grew up in the suburbs and my high school was very stereotypical in how the kids dressed, the preppy kids who wore Hollister, the punk kids who wore skinny jeans and black and so on and so forth. I have noticed though as I have been doing some volunteer work in a Minneapolis public high school and I noticed that the students there, even the ‘popular’ ones do not dress as ‘preppy’ as they did in my school but more alternative. By this I also think that the area in which the school is located also plays a role in what types of clothing the kids are wearing.

I think an assignment for students related to clothing could be a really fun task for them to do, at the very least interesting. What I would want my students to do is to pick any time period that they found interesting, anything ranging from medieval times to present times. I would want my students to show how the fashion of that time period related to the political, economical or social situation. It could either be here in America or any other country or culture in the world. I think that fashion says a lot about a culture and it would be interesting to learn about the different fashions from around the world. The students would have to discuss the fashions for all ages and how that related to what was going on in the world. One example would be why did people of the 1950s dress so ‘leave-it-to-beaver’ perfect. Why would the women be seen vacuuming in pearls and pencil skirts? How is this significance to the social and political situation in America?

Here are some brief discussion questions to respond to:

A.) What affect does clothing have on students' social life?

B.) How important do you think clothes are in today's society? What does this say about our society?

C.)  Briefly write up a description as the CEO of your clothing line of what you would want your own clothing line to look like? Who would you target? Who would you get to model your clothes? Would they be expensive or cheap? What implications are you adding to your target and to society?