Importance and

Impacts of Fashion
in the UK
Tracy Chan FL2 2256732
Content

1. Introduction

2. Forms of fashion and Trending in the UK

3. Factors Affecting the Trends, the Message Behind

the Trend and the Induce to Change

4. Importance and Impact of Fashion to the Youth

and the Society

5. Conclusion
1. Introduction
The importance and the impacts of fashion on the society and the
youth have been widely debated in recent years. This paper is
organized as follows: the forms of fashion, the trends in the UK, the
factors affecting the trends, the changes in the society and the
behavior and the importance and impacts of fashion. The purpose of
this paper is to investigate the changes in youth behavior and value
set among society. In Shahs viewpoint (2012), fashion is the culture
manifestation of need to dress. In a board sense, fashion is defined
as a popular style in a culture at a given period of time. (Shah, 2012
and Target Study, 2013) It is one of the crowning achievements of
western civilization or it is incontrovertible evidence of consumers
cultures witless obsession with the trivial and the unreal. (Shah,
2012) In another word, it is the way we present ourselves towards
others. According to Saravanan (2015) and Target Study (2013),
fashion is also known as an effective non-verbal communication
which presents the social stature, value, lifestyle, attitude and the
way you carry yourself. Besides clothing, there is a significant
increase in trend of plastic surgery among the youth nowadays.
Therefore this study will also focus on the factors that lead to these
changes and the impacts of these changes.

2.Forms of fashion and Trending in the UK

Fashion is broadly define as a popular style at the moment,
therefore this means that fashion is not merely the garment such as
clothing, footwear, accessary that put on our body, but also can be
perfume, body piercing, cosmetics, body paint, tattooing, which are
not in forms of garments. In this way, the body can still be adorned.
(Shah, 2012 and Target Study, 2013)
In recent years, the plastic surgery is a popular trend. The desire
of getting a perfect look make this trend grow incredibly fast in
these years. Within the UK, it grew consistently in past ten years
and reached its peak in 2015. Getting a perfect look by under knife
regularly is a narrow beauty idea which therefore leads to a decline
in 2017. The total number of surgery operated fell to 40%, which is
the lowest in the near-decade. (Grierson, 2017 and Waters, 2017)

Clothing trend in past 100 years in the UK (Admin, 2017)

Year Style / Item Imply /
Background
1900 skirt elongated at the back to
1910 form a train
1910 hobble skirt, lampshade skirt
1920
1920 high hips, simplicity new freedom
1930
1930 linear forms: sinuous shapes,
 1940 longer hemlines
1940 the new look: full-skirts, waspy growing industry in
1950 waists, soft shoulders US
1950 full skirt, slender pencil skirt
1960
1960 short-jacketed sheath suits
1970 French couture style youthful silhouette
1970 androgyny, pantsuits
1980
1980 oversized, plain over-the-top, elite status
1990 shoulder pad symbols
Yuppie
Power suit career driven
womens emerging
status in work
place
1990 Supermodel heroin chic
2000 hip-hop music n lifestyle
oversized
gender neutral
gothic fashion (Cyber Goth,
Lolita, rockabilly, Transitional)
British pop brand mod haircuts,
aviator sunglasses, stovepipe
pants

3.Factors Affecting the Trends, the Message

Behind the Trend and the Induce to Change
3.1 Factors affecting the trends
According to Saravanan (2015), society interprets is an important
factor that would affect the trend. Society interprets is how the
society judge or accept the trend. The public need to advocate the
same thing together so that it could become a trend. Contemporary
consumption behavior (buying behavior) is another factor that
would affect the trend. There is a cycle on the buying behavior and
the web technology have important influence on this behavior. As
technology developed, information can be accessed easier than
ever before, advertisement on the net always shows what you want
to see, and the trend can therefore spread very fast. Peer influence
and hero or celebrities worship are also affecting the trend in these
days. Therefore, Internet, social media, celebrities and TV have an
important effect on affecting the trend. (Saravanan, 2015. Target
Study, 2013. Grierson, 2017 and Waters, 2017) Research by Target
Study (2013) and Admin (2017) shown that fashion industries have
important effects on the trend as they inspire the people and
therefore it became a trend. Fashion is also an reflection of the ear,
therefore it is always changing as it is evolving throughout the
history (Target Study, 2013)

3.2 Meanings of the trends

Fashion is the reflection of history, it could express social and
economic pressures of the time. Therefore fashion is not frivolity.
The freedom of the people, the elite status symbols, the rise of
women right, all these can be reflected from the fashion at that
period. Plastic surgery have reached its peak in 2015, however, it
soon decline as they shift the focus back to relatability, which
means the society prefer representative. The beauty idea of having
plastic surgery is very narrow. A wide range of people are not
represented. Therefore representing a wider range of shape which
the majority are represented and feel comfortable with is now more
important.

3.3 Change in the mindset and the behavior

As technology developed, globalization is one of the biggest
change with many effects. It also make fashion become a global
business. Therefore people have a higher concern about fashion
than before. People now have social codes of dressing for different
occasions: casual or formal wear. It is largely influence by social
context. Instead of showing class entirely, people now use it to show
personal identity, such as age, race, gender, sexuality As the
concern about fashion is increasing, there are people inventing their
own style hoping to become the icon. Appearance and fame become
much more important than ever before.
Beside the change in the social value, the change in the youth
behavior is also significant. Instead of going out with their parents to
have a family day, teens prefer to go out with their friends and go to
malls to shopping together. And parents no longer buy clothes to
their children as they prefer to buy themselves according to their
own taste.

4.Importance and Impact of Fashion to the

Youth and the Society
4.1 Importance and impacts to the youth
Fashion is important that we could express a lot of things through
how we show ourselves in front of others. Saravanan (2015)
maintain that it could express ones value, such as belief, attitudes,
title, possessions and so on. It could also be a self-expression that it
could represent our personality, inner feeling, emotion, shelter,
status and our own private taste. (Mall of Style, 2017. Shah, 2012.
Saravanan, 2015 and Target Study, 2013) Being able to voice the
inner feeling or emotion is important that we can loosen up
ourselves. Street style is a common example among the youth that
they can express themselves as well as feeling comfortable with it.
Target Study (2013) claim that it is important to have our style and
as it makes one attractive, and therefore can boost self-confidence.
Self-confidence is important to youth as it helps to reduce stresses
when you feel comfortable. (Cinnabelly, Toledo, OH 2015. Mall of
Style 2017. Target Study, 2013 and Grierson, 2017) In Mall of Styles
article (2015), fashion helps to define themselves, embrace talent
such as being a models or photographers and can maximize the
potential while creating unconventional. And therefore youth can
grow and have self-actualization. Target Study (2013) further
support this point that youth can have their independent thinking
through choosing their own style and these skills can give way to job
in fashion industry, youth can therefore have more occupation
choice. Fashion also helps to boost creativity as fashion is a kind of
art and can get inspired from everything, therefore can create
endless options. (Mall of Style, 2017) Cinnabellly, Toledo, OH (2015)
stated that people will be delighted when they create something,
Mall of Style (2017) echoed that people will feel great when they
dream and bring ideas to life. In another word, fashion is also a type
of entertainment. It could be a mood lifer to help you come out of
low feeling. (Mall of Style, 2017 and Target Study, 2013)
Fashion can also help to command authority as it could create
admiration and respect. Sometimes, they use it to draw
appreciations by communicating values. It could also affect peoples
impression or attitude, such as make others think that you are
professional by dressing smart. It is also important to create a
haunting first impression. As first impression can affect others
attitudes on one. As fashion is an effective non-verbal
communication, therefore it can use to find like minds or interest,
win friends or even become popular among groups. It could also
overcome distance between individual and society as well as fix
problems between individuals such as bullying or connect with peers
as it is commonly believed that having great fashion sense means
having high general ability.
On the other hand, fashion is also said to be harmful as it corrupt
young mind. Adolescents with immature mind always emulate
celebrities or models as they want to become popular among their
group and therefore they will blindly follow these public figures even
though it is beyond modesty and simplicity. This also leads to
adolescent identity creation which made them have more fashion
concern than any other age group. And therefore have excessive
attention on fashion, which distracted them from study. When
students are too obsessed, they might even waste too much time
and money on it. In school, they might rank themselves according
the clothes they wear. This might lead to groupism, or even bullies
in school. This could give stress to students which might contribute
to psychological problem for these students. It also might affect
students health problem, such as misuse of dieting or chemical
product which might have allergic reactions.

4.2 Importance and impacts to the society

Fashion satisfied two demand of mankind, freshness and
consent. And it helps to prepare mind for social change. Fashion is
the reflection of the society, history, culture and religion. Fashion
develops with the society development. Women dree suit is an
example showing the women play role in workplace. It also entail
the freedom of the people that they can express their own self. It
shows a democratic civilization. The dressing sense also shows that
there are rules and regulations in a civilized society. It is a social
decorum. As fashion can use to communicate, therefore people can
share different culture through fashion. Also, although the society
has developed, there are some important traditional values that are
valuable. Fashion enable modernize but also keep traditional value.
Besides, it also show the geographic situation of the culture, such as
the terrain and climatic condition. Regarding to religion field, fashion
statement which mean use it for a purpose like Muslim women use
head scarves can act as a daily reminder that stronger the
believers faith. As fashion concern is rising, therefore, the industry
in fashion field also increased. It could create thousands of jobs
which could enhance the countrys economy. Versatility and
diversity of life as a result of globalization enhance human life.
However, fashion can inspire people to make harmful lifestyle
choice such as anorexia, violence, health suffer, steal. It also
promote a culture of based on appearance to judge others and
might excluding someone by labelling them different.

5.Conclusion
In conclusion, fashion is evolving throughout the time and it bring
lots of benefits to the individual and the society. However, if youth
pay excessive concern on fashion, it could bring several shortage.
Moreover, when fashion is overrated, it could encourage a
corrupting mindset. Therefore it is important to keep a balance.