How Are Fashion and Appearance Central to the Construction?

How ar room and demeanor primordial to the construction of social identities? Fashion raft be defined as the prevalent style and custom at a certain point in time. Besides being necessary and protecting us, clothing also shapes and defines us in the cultural, social and psychological aspect. It has been a part of culture and individuation since the earliest of times. We live in a being where fake and clothing play a large region in shaping and determining the identity and social film of people. This physical appearance often determines other peoples impressions of us and engenders a measure ment of our self-worth.Nowadays with an increased self-consciousness, establishing the social identity of a person, fashion and appearance support played a crucial role. Wilson (1992 13) has said, clothing in fact, has the unique characteristic of being able to express ideas about wind up and the body while simultaneously it actually adorns the body. While familiarity for both(p renominal) men and women has largely been shaped by the central ideas of fashion and appearance, thither is evidence indicating women let been impacted more by the influences of fashion than men have.Therefore it is realizable to say women, who are strongly influenced by fashion, may be more susceptible to social identities as Craik (1994 176) said, women are fashionable only when men are non. Although Finkelstein (1996 56) has argued that, fashion has been seen as a device for constrictive women to an inferior social order, attesting that these identities have non and are not always positive and empowering. In the concept of the male gaze, the relationship among trip out and sexuality in womens fashion is entirely accommodate towards pleasing and catering to the male sexual desires.Although Craik (1993 156) argues that, despite the rhetoric that women queue to revel men, other evidence suggest that women primarily dress to please other women. Further, in that locatio n is no clear pattern as to whose eyeball women spate other women through. To see the progression of how fashion and appearance has become what it is and what it represents in the world today in creating social identities, the past plays a huge role.After the regimented discipline of World War II where fashion was purely functional, uniform and designed to blend in with the background there was a period where tough economic frugality which included limit of almost e very(prenominal) product, the unavailability of fabrics due to the collapse of the UK textile industry, very few imports beca uptake foreign currency restrictions and a general impoverishment of purchase order as a whole. The fifties saw a gradual lifting of the soaked restrictions and along with the introduction of television and American make programming a new sense of optimism took hold in the UK.Programmes such as missy debutantes (See Fig. 1) gave women a role of their own in society, unlike the surrogate men s jobs in industry that they had to endure during the war. Sex and sexuality however was not samara in the fashions of the time. The Calvinistic influence of the southern states American Bible rap in politics and popular culture determined distinct roles for women, and take down though there were the beginnings of change, the only careers open were those of housewives, teachers and nurses.And then, with the dawn of the sixties, everything changed. America choose a schoolboyish handsome president, JF Kennedy, the birth control pill was launched and a four piece band from Liverpool called the Beatles became gods for a whole new grouping. The teenager. Teenagers were rebellious, questioning, and everything that their parents were not. In America they protested against the Vietnam War while in England they questioned all authority from the topical anaesthetic police constable to the Queen herself.Sexuality, and sex was everything and it was born out in the styles and colours of Car naby Street, the mini skirt, Twiggy and the twist. The boring military uniform was vary into the rainbow colours of the Beatles Sergeant Pepper and the crew cut became a rack up top. By the time the s even soties arrived, division had to appear. Free Love and lysergic acid diethylamide resulted in addiction and sex-for-sale and fashions split the youth into Mods or Rockers. A macho motorbike riding image was adopted by the rockers, wearing clothing such as black leather jackets and listening to the likes of Elvis and element Vincent.While the mods, wearing designer suits protected by Parka jackets and other unmortgaged outfits, adopted riding Vespa or Lambretta scooters. Mods favoured listening to rhythm and blues, Ska unison and The Who. The mods attention to detail and obsession with style was the complete contrast to their archway rivals the rockers love of motor cycles and leather jackets and this often cause skirmish between the two subcultures. These two subcultures fa ded from the public view by the late 1960s and media attention turned to two new appear youth subcultures the hippies and the skinheads.So, sex and sexuality only became a central theme and basis for fashion and appearance from the 60s and 70s and has developed and expanded on a monumental scale until today, and will continue to do so. presumption the strong connection more so between female sexuality and fashion, many people have begun to discuss the ways in which identity and perception from fashion have influenced certain ways women think they should or have to look like. This couldnt be more evident than in the media ads that surround our environment constantly.These thoughts can often be distorted and obscured, not necessarily the truth and veracity of what the average women looks like. Media advertisements for fashion, more often than not, show how women could change or improve their appearance and this is where womens thoughts and perceptions are move from. The easy ans wer could come from the idea that sex dispenses which is the truth and reality of today. For many products being advertised it is possible to find a sexual connection or connotation.This sexual connection it much easier to set up for men than for women, as mens sexual desire have minimal criteria as long as a women looks healthy and young enough, she is desired. By using womens bodies and associate getting the woman with the product, it is easier getting a mans attention. Thus, playing on his instinctive view rather than his intellectual view of the world. Using sex in advertizing to women can be much more difficult, as women are expression for more than mere anatomy. This becomes a cycle where advertising can sell the product because women want this product in a man.Get the product, get the woman. The use of healthy, fit men does attract a womans instinctive attention and realize desire but sexual desire for women is more complex. Women tend to not only focus on mans physical appearance, but are also corned with the long-run and future(a) with a partner. These factors are often learned through culture and society. tom tur tell Fords advertisements for the launch of a male core (See Fig. 3) has been considered to be highly contentious, while at the same time it provides insight into the world of advertising sex and appeal and how it works.Tom Fords advert is large of suggestion and imagination the perfume bottle between the womans breasts could suggest male genital, not simply just a perfume bottle, creating a very erotic and adventurous feeling to the advert. This therefore makes it super appealing to any male who comes across the advert. Male instinct kicks in and immediately it becomes about if I buys this product then will I get lucky in the bedroom? D & G advertisement promoting their 2007 ready-to-wear collection (See Fig. 4) has also received a lot of controversial feedback.The advertisement showed a woman pinned to the ground by the wrist by a shirtless man, with other men in the background looking on. It is possible to say that the female figure is shown in a degrading stylus and offending the dignity of the individual. This can be contrasted by the fact that in her role it can appear that shes actually willing to cave in and surrender to the mans aggressive behaviour willingly. From Biological origination of Human Behaviour males have often linked sex and trespass to a certain degree and therefore in return females have learnt this association as well.And in a way if she didnt roll in the hay it, it didnt matter as long as life was create as a result. So, this advert could represent a learned role of females that is possibly now acceptable, enjoyable to an extent and even desired. Thus, it is clear that sex is a strong appeal to use in advertising even though it can be gender linked appeal. Fashion and appearance have repeatedly shown to have a massive, immediate and sometimes sozzled effect on the public in a wide escape or circumstances.In particular womens appearance seems to play a key role to ones identity and self. Chapkis (1986) has said that, a women is made to feel continually insecure about her physical appearance, and simultaneously so dependent on it. Women, more so than men, are willing to go to dangerous and sometimes painful lengths in order to improve and alter their appearance. Thus feeling like we fit with the desired lifestyle and with what is considered socially normal and acceptable in society today.