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Overview

We live in a time where people are becoming more individualistic and want to express themselves.

Everyone is unique, but there are certain things that we all have in common. For example, if you were to ask a group of people what they like and dislike, their answers would be similar because everyone has the same basic likes and dislikes. However, when you look at fashion or baby names over time, it’s clear that those trends change from generation to generation. So while our individuality can’t explain why something becomes popular or unpopular among society as a whole (i.e., “generation”), it does help us understand how current tastes differ from past ones (i.e., “generations”).

There are many questions that can be answered by this passage. For example, why people’s sense of taste is often unreliable, why Donald Duck is relevant to fashion trends, and why Mexican-Americans don’t name their sons Joshua anymore.

Big Idea #1: Different from customs, fashion is regularly undergoing change for novelty’s sake.

Fashion is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear that word. But fashion isn’t just about clothing and designer labels. It’s a phenomenon in all aspects of society.

Fashion is something new that’s popular because it’s new. People will buy a new pair of shoes even though their old ones are still in good condition, just because the shoes are fashionable. However, fashion isn’t always about buying things for novelty’s sake; sometimes people will buy something with an objective advantage over its predecessor (e.g., a smartphone with double the battery life). In addition to being novel and aesthetically pleasing, fashion must also be regularly changing – if not, then it becomes customs rather than fashions. For example, wearing traditional Japanese clothing like kimonos isn’t considered a fashion since they haven’t changed much over time despite having aesthetic value.

If Japanese designers were to revive the kimono, they would be creating a fashion. This is because fashions are created when people start changing their styles for novelty and variety.

Fashion changes over time. For example, hair styles and music from the past aren’t as popular today. Even a famous musical piece that inspired an entire generation isn’t played in every concert hall anymore.

Big Idea #2: The development of fashions is determined by external and internal social influences.

Most people believe that their taste is a reflection of their individuality. However, this idea is false because there are certain trends in the world that influence how we like things. For example, fashion changes what we wear and admire collectively as a society. This happens because our choices depend on social influences rather than personal ones.

There are many external influences that impact the development of fashions. These include broad political changes and technological advances, like the invention of sound recording or color TV. Such changes happen regardless of their influence on fashion.

In the past, people used to put on shows of human oddities. They would display quintuplets or savages from Africa in zoos for amusement. However, this isn’t done anymore because it’s considered unethical to treat people like that.

This leads us to the fact that fashion can also be affected by internal social influences. In an example of this, a class wants to differentiate itself and develop its own tastes. After some time, other classes imitate those tastes until the upper class develops new tastes – just for the sake of standing out again.

For example, the upper and middle classes used to use Jr. in names to show their high status. Then, later on in the twentieth century, it was more common for working class people to add Jr. to their children’s names, so now the upper class is less likely to use it as much as they once did.