fashion influence essay

The Impact of Fashion on Society - What? Why? When? Where?

What is the impact of fashion on society? Does society influence fashion or does fashion influence society?

Does society impact fashion or does fashion impact society? For centuries, our clothes have represented our values, our way of thinking, our lifestyle, and the perception that we have of others and about ourselves.

This is why there’s not a single answer to this question. Sometimes, society changes because a major revelation happened in fashion. But sometimes it’s the other way around. Today, we’ll talk about some key ways in which fashion trends emerge and move, and how this affects society.

The way fashion comes and goes has been a field to study for several decades now. After all, fashion is a billion-dollar industry and it´s worth knowing where fashion trends come from in order to be aware of the future trends. 

Trickle-down 

In economics, the trickle-down theory states that benefits for corporations and the wealthy population, trickle-down to everyone else. In fashion, the principle is the same. Instead of economic benefits, what trickles down is the trend. Many fashion garments and accessories become trendy because they are associated with wealth, power, or aristocracy. The idea of living a glamorous life and being part of an exclusive elite society has been around for a very long time, so fashion can be aspirational for many people who want to live this life but are mainly from the working class.

An example of trickle-down in fashion is the fur coat. Fur coats used to be made only of exotic animals, with cruelty and a painful and long taking process behind the making of this coat. There were different price ranges depending on the rareness of the animal. Beavers, foxes, and Hudson seals were the most expensive, and the cheaper ones included raccoons, chinchillas, wombats, and moles. At the beginning of the 20th century, this was so popular, that the fashion business created pieces that were affordable for people who couldn’t buy a full-length fur coat. Some of these brands created scarves, detachable pieces that you could overlap in the sleeves or around the neck, and fur stoles.

The pressure that media and advertisements had on women to buy fur coats was such, that the whole synthetic fur industry was developed and accelerated to fulfill the wish of the working class to wear a fur coat. Synthetic furs were often referred to as Syberian fur cloths. Fur coats used to be associated with wealth and elegance, they trickled down, and now synthetic fur coats are more popular than real fur coats, mainly because animal cruelty stop being accepted, but also because it was replicated so much at different price points that it is no longer a symbol of wealth.

In today’s massively quick fashion industry, knock-offs are a clear example of trickled-down fashion. High fashion brands develop statement pieces that celebrities, influencers and public figures wear. These items become desirable by consumers who admire these public figures, or the fashion in general. As the price of the original items tends to be high and not affordable to many people, fast fashion brands replicate the original designs with cheap materials and a simple construction process. If there’s an embroidered leather jacket that is very popular, fast fashion brands may replicate the design, but instead of having it embroidered, it would be printed in synthetic leather (plastic), or even polyester. 

Under the first versions of the trickle-down theory, it was believed that the working class was not able to develop fashion trends on their own and they would only follow the styles that were popularized by the rich. It describes a linear effect in fashion that starts with emerging styles in the upper class that is replicated by the working class and ultimately become obsolete until the next style is created by the upper class to repeat the same trickled-down movement. As fashion changed and more studies about where fashion comes from, we realized that not all fashion trends move in a trickle-down manner from top to bottom. 

The trickle up theory describes a fashion movement where trends start in the working class and they are later replicated by the wealthy upper class. It is also referred to as the Status Float phenomenon, and was first described by Paul Blumberg in 1970.

A great example of trickle-up fashion is the t-shirt. The t-shirt was originally an undergarment mainly for the U.S. Navy. They used to wear them below their jumpsuits and they used to take off the upper part of the jumpsuit when working under very hot weathers. The white t-shirt served the very specific purpose of covering the body in the lightest way possible. 

Fashion evolved, weathers became more extreme, and consumers started to like the idea of wearing light clothes, particularly in streetwear.

So high fashion brands introduced white t-shirts in their catalog. Many of them are created with interesting materials that make this garment soft and light. You can find many blends of cotton and polyester, rayon, organic cotton, spandex, and many more.

A very common misconception is to think that a white t-shirt from a fast fashion brand is the same as one from a high fashion brand. Although the essence of the garment, and maybe even the design is the same, there are a few differences between these garments including the material of the fabric, the material of the thread, the quality of the stitches, the method used to dye or bleach the t-shirt, and last but definitely not least, the fit.

There are many examples besides fashion like jazz, and blue that trickled up and became relevant in the upper class as well.

There are many fashion designers that collaborate with indigenous communities to create work inspired by their craftsmanship and creativity. 

Trickle across 

What happens when it’s not very clear if a trend started in the upper class or in the working class?

With the high speed of fashion trends coming from different sources such as social media, it is very hard to keep track of the original source of an emerging trend. And it is very common that many of these don’t start specifically in the top or in the bottom, but somewhere in between.

French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent was the first designer to go out to the streets to look at what people were wearing and get inspiration.

This was a significant moment in fashion history, because before that, fashion designers didn’t really connect with their potential customers. They designed based on their previous experiences and assumptions about the client. Fashion trends trickled down or trickled up but it was unlikely they trickled across. 

A very common example of trickled across fashion trends is fashion collaborations. Fashion brands work with artists of different disciplines to create work that represents two aesthetics united. 

For the Pride Collection 2022, Target collaborated with LGBTQ+ talent to create designs that represent and celebrate this community. The designs represent their background and include many symbols of LGBTQ+ history. Pride collections didn’t start specifically with the upper class or with the working class, and in recent years, they have grown to be available in different price points, locations, shapes, and sizes. 

Many festival trends like neon colors, and jewelry glued to the face are other examples of trickle across trends. These are trends that fashion influencers started or made popular and then their followers, and mass consumers in general started to follow. 

So what’s the impact of fashion on society?

Fashion can affect society positively or negatively. For many, it is a celebration of who they are and a spectacular way of expressing themselves. For others, it is a punishment.

Fashion is a visual illustration of people's mindsets around them. Many times you can tell how conservative a town is by looking at the deepness of their necklines, the simplicity of their clothes, and the lack of diversity when it comes to styles, colors, and silhouettes.

Fashion is not the reason why society changes, but it definitely helps to encourage change in a visible way. 

In previous centuries, it was more common to see trickled-down trends, because the upper class was aspirational and mysterious. In today’s world, the upper class still has those characteristics, but it no longer establishes all the fashion rules. Social media has made everyone’s style visible to the whole world, so regardless of social class, everyone has now the tools to be their authentic self through fashion. Follow your own path, tell your own stories through your clothes, and let yourself have fun in the meantime. 

More stories:

Political Fashion is a space to speak deeply about the different ways in which these fascinating fields interact regularly.

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100 Fashion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Fashion has always been a fascinating and ever-evolving industry that captures the attention of millions of people worldwide. Whether you're a fashion enthusiast, a student studying fashion design, or simply someone looking for inspiration, writing an essay about fashion can be both fun and educational. To help you get started, here are 100 fashion essay topic ideas and examples that you can explore:

• The evolution of fashion trends over the decades
• The impact of social media on fashion
• The role of sustainability in the fashion industry
• The influence of celebrity fashion on mainstream trends
• The history of high fashion and couture
• The rise of streetwear culture
• The psychology behind fashion choices
• The cultural significance of traditional dress
• The relationship between fashion and identity
• The role of fashion in shaping gender norms
• The impact of fast fashion on the environment
• The history of fashion magazines
• The role of fashion in art and design
• The influence of technology on fashion design
• The future of wearable technology in fashion
• The impact of globalization on fashion production
• The ethics of fur and leather in fashion
• The importance of diversity and inclusivity in fashion
• The role of fashion in political activism
• The history of fashion icons and trendsetters
• The impact of economic recession on fashion trends
• The evolution of fashion photography
• The relationship between fashion and music
• The influence of subcultures on mainstream fashion
• The history of fashion weeks around the world
• The impact of body positivity movements on fashion
• The role of fashion in film and television
• The influence of street style on high fashion
• The history of fashion advertising
• The significance of uniforms in fashion
• The impact of social media influencers on fashion trends
• The role of fashion in consumer culture
• The evolution of swimwear trends
• The relationship between fashion and architecture
• The influence of vintage fashion on modern trends
• The history of fashion in sports
• The impact of climate change on fashion production
• The role of fashion in challenging beauty standards
• The significance of fashion collaborations between designers
• The evolution of fashion accessories
• The influence of art movements on fashion design
• The history of fashion in sub-Saharan Africa
• The impact of colonialism on fashion in Asia
• The role of fashion in self-expression
• The significance of fashion in religious rituals
• The influence of nature on fashion trends
• The history of denim and jeans in fashion
• The impact of body modification on fashion
• The role of fashion in creating social change
• The evolution of footwear trends
• The influence of military uniforms on fashion
• The history of fashion in the LGBTQ+ community
• The impact of the fashion industry on body image
• The role of fashion in mental health awareness
• The significance of fashion in protest movements
• The influence of technology on sustainable fashion
• The history of fashion in Indigenous communities
• The impact of social media filters on beauty standards
• The role of fashion in cultural appropriation
• The evolution of lingerie trends
• The influence of dance on fashion design
• The history of fashion in the Middle East
• The impact of fashion on self-esteem
• The role of fashion in creating social hierarchies
• The significance of fashion in rites of passage
• The influence of literature on fashion trends
• The history of fashion in the punk subculture
• The impact of fashion on mental health
• The role of fashion in gender fluidity
• The evolution of handbag trends
• The influence of street art on fashion design
• The history of fashion in the digital age
• The impact of fashion on body dysmorphia
• The role of fashion in creating cultural stereotypes
• The significance of fashion in the disability community
• The influence of drag culture on fashion
• The history of fashion in the hip-hop community
• The impact of fashion on self-identity
• The role of fashion in social mobility
• The evolution of jewelry trends
• The influence of the Renaissance on fashion design
• The role of fashion in gender

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Why Fashion Matters

Professor frances corner on the importance of fashion.

By Google Arts & Culture

Words by Frances Corner

Lambani Embroiderers in Sandur, Karnataka (2006) JD Centre of Art

Fashion matters. To the economy, to society and to each of us personally. Faster than anything else, what we wear tells the story of who we are – or who we want to be. But fashion is too often seen as a frivolous, vain and ephemeral industry. Many people fail to appreciate just how important and wide-reaching it really is. Globally, the industry is valued at $3 trillion. It's the second biggest worldwide economic activity for intensity of trade – employing over 57 million workers in developing countries, 80 per cent of whom are women.

Who said fashion doesn’t matter? Like most other global industries, fashion has its dark side. Exploitation of garment workers, lack of diversity, and environmental damage remain issues that the industry must do more to address and resolve. But this vast creative industry has the potential to initiate significant change. Despite its faults, one of the things fashion can do is spread an idea around very powerfully, coherently, and with the all-important 'cool' factor. One example of this is Professor Helen Storey MBE and chemistry Professor Tony Ryan's project Catalytic Clothing, which explored how textiles can be used as a catalytic surface to purify air. They designed and created the catalytic dress 'Herself', which is impregnated with a photocatalyst that uses light to break down air-borne pollution into harmless chemicals. 'Herself' toured the world raising the profile of the Catalytic Clothing project and introducing city dwellers worldwide to the notion that clothing and textiles can play a vital role in improving the urban environment, as well as the health of those who live in it.

MA Fashion Futures, 2016 (2016) by LCF London College of Fashion

This project is an illustration of how fashion is collaborating with science, engineering and technology to create a new future: one where it has a positive influence on the environment, society and our health. Clothes are vital to our most basic needs of warmth and protection, but we are beginning to see fashion's role in our health and wellbeing extend beyond this. We have already seen a bra developed with the ability to detect tumors before breast exams and mammograms, and smart socks that use temperature sensors to track diabetic health.

As electronic textiles are developed with the ability to collect and transmit data, and store and conduct energy, we can develop clothes that will help us manage the significant changes in our demographics. A baby born in the UK today is likely to live until they are 103, so we need to balance this with real quality of life. The integration of technology into the fabric of our lives will help us if clothes are easier to put on, if they can monitor our body temperature, help administer drugs or connect us more easily to our friends and family.

Cabinet Stories Silk Court Cabinet Stories Silk Court London College of Fashion

By taking the creativity and techniques of fashion and applying them to health or social issues, we are beginning to see fashion as less frivolous and more as a serious tool we can all use to make our lives better. Although the technological developments are undoubtedly exciting, there is also a human side to clothes, which is becoming increasingly relevant in a virtual age. Clothes contain memories and reflect our personality. As we all have and wear clothes, they can act as a vehicle to talk about our lives. London College of Fashion Curator Alison Moloney tapped into this potential of clothes in her exhibition ‘Cabinet Stories’, which toured a female prison, a mental health unit and a care home for the elderly. Here individuals were asked to select items of clothing that were particularly meaningful to them, and these stories and photos of the clothes became part of the exhibition.

PussyHat (2017) The Strong National Museum of Play

It's not only the wearing of clothes that can build relationships, but also the making. A great example of this is artist Whitney McVeigh’s project '1000 Coats', which will see 100 women from different backgrounds each sewing 10 coats. As part of the project there are workshops teaching women to sew, providing them with new skills whilst also encouraging them to work together as part of a community and form new partnerships. Fashion has the ability to change and shape lives through its personal connection to us all. We all have to wear clothes and every piece of clothing we buy represents a personal choice – it is this intrinsically human relationship between us and our fashion that makes it political. Whether you are wearing a knitted pink pussy hat on a march, wearing an item of dress that expresses your beliefs, or using your business to improve working conditions, fashion can play a significant role in articulating your beliefs.

What we choose to wear reflects how we view the world and how we want the world to view us. The Stone Age man with the latest shell beads , the post-war woman in Dior's New Look , the latest fashion blog recording street style as it happens – they are all tied to our very human need to express individuality. Fashion has been and always will be a constant part of our existence. Many people see fashion as ephemeral and frivolous but I see it as a creative, enterprising, multifaceted industry that is vital to our economic and personal well-being. Fashion really does matter.

BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring class 2016 (2016) by LCF London College of Fashion

Explore more on the impact of fashion: - The True Cost of Fast Fashion - The United Kingdom of Fashion - Sustainable Fashion Initiatives in India

Professor Frances Corner

Professor Frances Corner OBE is Head of London College of Fashion and Pro Vice-Chancellor of University of the Arts London. Frances has over 20 years’ experience within the higher education sector at a national and international level. She champions the use of fashion as an agent for innovation and change, particularly in the areas of sustainability, health and well-being. She has been named in the Business of Fashion 500 – a professional index of key people shaping the global fashion industry for two years running, and is the author of ‘Why Fashion Matters’ (Thames and Hudson).

How We Ride: A History of Play on Two Wheels

The strong national museum of play, textiles by women, jd centre of art, fashion makes style: lcf womenswear, london college of fashion, pinball in america, fashion makes style: lcf menswear, jerry lawson: the black engineer and entrepreneur who changed video games, cosmetic science: powering the beauty industry, is that a jumeau a history of the finest french fashion dolls of the 19th century, lcf archives: shoes 1820 - 1930, the heart of the matter: a history of valentine cards, fashion makes style: cordwainers at london college of fashion.

Essay on Fashion for Students and Children

500+ words essay on fashion.

Fashion refers to anything that becomes a rage among the masses. Fashion is a popular aesthetic expression. Most Noteworthy, it is something that is in vogue. Fashion appears in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, hairstyles, lifestyle, and body proportions. Furthermore, Fashion is an industry-supported expression. In the contemporary world, people take fashion very seriously. Fashion is something that has permeated every aspect of human culture.

History of Fashion

The origin of Fashion is from the year 1826. Probably everyone believes Charles Frederick to be the first fashion designer of the world. He also established the first Fashion house in Paris. Consequently, he began the tradition of Fashion houses. Furthermore, he gave advice to customers on what clothing would suit them. He was prominent form 1826 to 1895.

During this period, many design houses hired artists. Furthermore, the job of these artists was to develop innovative designs for garments. The clients would examine many different patterns. Then they would pick the one they like. Consequently, a tradition began of presenting patterns to customers and then stitching them.

At the beginning of the 20th century, new developments in Fashion took place. These developments certainly began in Paris first. Then they spread in other parts of the world. Consequently, new designs first came into existence in France. From Paris, they went to other parts of the world. Hence, Paris became the Fashion capital of the world. Also, Fashion in this era was ‘haute couture’. This Fashion design was exclusively for individuals.

In the mid-20th century, a change took place. Now Fashion garments underwent mass production. There was a significant increase in the rate of production of Fashion garments. As a result, more and more people became involved with Fashion garments. By the end of the 20th century, a sense of Fashion awareness was very strong. Now people began to choose clothes based on their own style preference. Hence, people began to create their own trends instead of relying on existing trends.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Fashion Trend

Political influences certainly play a major role in influencing Fashion. Many politicians become fashion symbols. Notable examples are First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana. Also, political revolutions make a huge impact on the Fashion trend. For example, in 1960’s America, liberal clothing styles became popular among the younger generation. This was due to the Liberal revolution.

Another significant factor which influences Fashion trend is technology. There certainly has been a rapid growth of technology in the Fashion industry. For example, wearable technology has become a popular Fashion trend. Furthermore, 3D printing technology and the internet have also made an impact on Fashion.

Social influences are probably the strongest influences on the Fashion trend. Many music stars strongly influence Fashion choice. For example, wearing hoodies became famous due to rap musicians. Furthermore, movie and television actors create a big impact on Fashion. Many youngsters love to emulate the Fashion sense of their favourite celebrity.

To sum it up, Fashion certainly has become a part and parcel of human life. It certainly is a force that is here to stay. Most noteworthy, Fashion has immersed every place on Earth.

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Essays About Fashion: Top 5 Examples and 9 Prompts

If you are writing essays about fashion, check out our guide of helpful examples and exciting writing prompts to get started.

Fashion is individuals’ way of expressing their personalities. They do this through clothes and accessories that display their tastes and preferences. There are different fashion styles and trends, and anyone can choose anything they want to follow. Additionally, fashion has various benefits, such as boosting self-confidence, lightening moods, and developing creativity. Our fashion choices also help us send messages and present our beliefs. Thus, fashion can also be political .

Below are five essay examples and nine writing prompts to help you create an eye-catching essay about fashion:

5 Top Essay Examples

1. why fashion is important by george k., 2. fashion: an important part of life by ankita yadav, 3. fashion as communication by eunice summers, 4. fashion 2022 by edudwar, 5. the effect of fashion on teenagers in school by anonymous on newyorkessays.com, 1. fashion trends and women, 2. fashion evolution, 3. fashion and starting a business, 4. effects of fashion on society, 5. the best fashion styles for men, 6. fashion trends in different countries , 7. careers in the fashion industry, 8. cultural fashion vs. modern fashion, 9. the best and worst of fashion trends.

“The clothes we wear has become more than merely a way to cover our nakedness; instead it has also become one of the primary ways in which people express themselves.”

George K explains that fashion separates individuals from the rest. A person can introduce himself to others for who and what he is through style choices. Further, the author expounds on how fashion is a very competitive industry that depends on one’s search for identity. The author also points out that every person is unique and thus needs a distinct style to fit them. However, because of constant peer pressure and criticism, an individual’s fashion picks can’t be entirely their own. Ultimately, George K reminds the reader that it’s not just the clothes but how individuals wear and feel in them.

“…if we can do something then it is choosing the right stuff like entertainment, adventure, fashion, etc. All these things can make us happy and are also an important part of life. Fashion always attracts and it is available for all,”

Yadav considers how fashion originated from people’s traditions and cultures and became what it is today through individuals adopting each style and making it their own. In the following sections of the essay, she defines fashion and lists its importance, including how it developed new employment options and how styles speak for the wearer. 

In her conclusion, she encourages everyone to choose their styles and not to mind their age. Fashion helps everyone live life to the fullest.

“Fashion is an industry based on creating a need where there is none and nowadays, due to the current recession, I can understand that fashion may not be people’s biggest concern. But we cannot qualify it as ‘trivial’ since we are surrounded by it; each new generation of customers is highly exposed to commercial influences.”

Summers gives her opinion about the book “Fashion as Communication” by Malcolm Barnard . She identifies points in the work and shares her thoughts on them. The first point being those working in the fashion industry aren’t smart. As a Fashion Marketing student, Summers vehemently disagrees with this statement and recounts her experiences to counter it. She continues to analyze Barnard’s other arguments and agrees with some of them. Summers ends her essay by highlighting that fashion is too essential in modern culture and economic organization for it to be considered “trivial.”

“…the youth cares more about what they wear and how they look which could affect their status in their peer group and meddle with their mental health. Following trends and doing what everyone is doing like a sheep is never a good idea. Fashion is there to reflect your personal style, not copying what other people think is trendy.”

User Edudwar reminds people that fashion is not simply following what’s currently trendy. Fashion is there to give people the chance to show off their individualism and personalities and not present a fake version of themselves to be accepted by society. Additionally, he mentions that youth nowadays are more sensitive to what people think of them, so some will always do everything to follow trends, even if they’re not presentable or appropriate.

“Youths of the present times have indulged themselves in so much fashion that they do not receive sufficient time for other work… The time spent on studies is being used in watching TV programmes, reading fashion articles, or even finding the recent trendy outfits on the Internet.”

The essay discusses the real effects of fashion on today’s youth. The author focuses on kids zeroing in on finding the latest style instead of caring for their studies that directly affect their future. The essay also delves into how youths of yesterday had ambitions and goals in life compared to today’s youths, who prefer to have fun rather than study hard.

See our best essay writing tips to help you write an attractive, attention-grabbing essay.

9 Writing Prompts For Essays About Fashion

To assist you with your essay, we’ve compiled nine exciting writing prompts you can use:

Some women follow fashion trends religiously. They are also more conscious of their physical appearance. Some even go to the extreme and do plastic surgeries to look better in clothes. In your essay, discuss what you think these trends do to women’s perception of their worth and beauty. Add which trends you believe are unhealthy and why there’s more societal pressure for women to be fashionable.

Each era had its styles that directly resulted from that time’s circumstances. Make a timeline of how fashion evolved and the factors that influenced them. At the end of your essay, pick what you think is the best fashion era and explain why.

For this prompt, include the relevant things a future fashion clothing boutique owner should bear in mind. For instance, they should always be on top of the fashion trends and know how to balance demand and costs. Then, find a boutique owner and interview them about their experience to make your essay more fun to read.

Tackle what makes people choose the clothes they wear daily. Some prefer their fashion to display their personalities while others merely follow what they think is popular. To make your essay more interesting, you can do a simple experiment: Go out in public on two occasions: while wearing your fashion picks and donning the latest fashionable clothes. Then, add your findings and how people reacted to you.

Fashion for men is different from women. Although most brands dedicate their line to women, men also deserve to know what makes them look fashionable; this essay lists styles that are excellent for men depending on the setting and event. 

What could be considered fashionable in one country can be seen as disrespectful in another. For this prompt, compile fashion trends many do but are unacceptable in other places. Reasons why may include religion or tradition. Use research data and cite reliable sourcing for a compelling piece.

In this essay, identify the career opportunities available in the fashion industry, including the steps to get there. Next, list the different job roles within fashion, and describe the responsibilities for each. Then, add tips on succeeding in that job and standing out from the rest. For an intriguing essay, conduct interviews with professionals within the industry and include this in your piece.

Our ancestors’ culture greatly influenced today’s fashion. Meanwhile, modern styles are those that the current generation uses. Write an essay about cultural and contemporary fashion’s differences, similarities, advantages, and disadvantages. 

Fashion trends come and go. However, not all popular fashion is pleasing to the eyes. For this essay, compile a list of what is, in your opinion, the best and worst fashion trends. Then, describe why you have formed these opinions and describe the details of each outfit.

Are you looking for your next essay subject? Check out our list of the best writing topics for students .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

• Open access
• Published: 22 November 2014

Dress, body and self: research in the social psychology of dress

• Kim Johnson 1 ,
• Sharron J Lennon 2 &
• Nancy Rudd 3  

Fashion and Textiles volume  1 , Article number:  20 ( 2014 ) Cite this article

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The purpose of this research was to provide a critical review of key research areas within the social psychology of dress. The review addresses published research in two broad areas: (1) dress as a stimulus and its influence on (a) attributions by others, attributions about self, and on one's behavior and (2) relationships between dress, the body, and the self. We identify theoretical approaches used in conducting research in these areas, provide an abbreviated background of research in these areas highlighting key findings, and identify future research directions and possibilities. The subject matter presented features developing topics within the social psychology of dress and is useful for undergraduate students who want an overview of the content area. It is also useful for graduate students (1) who want to learn about the major scholars in these key areas of inquiry who have moved the field forward, or (2) who are looking for ideas for their own thesis or dissertation research. Finally, information in this paper is useful for professors who research or teach the social psychology of dress.

Introduction

A few social scientists in the 19 th Century studied dress as related to culture, individuals, and social groups, but it was not until the middle of the 20 th Century that home economists began to pursue a scholarly interest in social science aspects of dress (Roach-Higgins 1993 ). Dress is defined as “an assemblage of modifications of the body and/or supplements to the body” (Roach-Higgins & Eicher 1992 , p. 1). Body modifications include cosmetic use, suntanning, piercing, tattooing, dieting, exercising, and cosmetic surgery among others. Body supplements include, but are not limited to, accessories, clothing, hearing aids, and glasses. By the 1950s social science theories from economics, psychology, social psychology, and sociology were being used to study dress and human behavior (Rudd 1991 , p. 24).

A range of topics might be included under the phrase social psychology of dress but we use it to refer to research that attempts to answer questions concerned with how an individual’s dress-related beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, feelings, and behaviors are shaped by others and one’s self. The social psychology of dress is concerned with how an individual’s dress affects the behavior of self as well as the behavior of others toward the self (Johnson & Lennon 2014 ).

Among several topics that could be included in a critical review of research addressing the social psychology of dress, we focused our work on a review of published research in two broad areas: (1) dress as a stimulus and its influence on (a) attributions by others, attributions about self, and on one’s own behavior and (2) relationships between dress, the body, and the self. Our goal was to identify theoretical approaches used in conducting research in these areas, provide an abbreviated background of research in these areas highlighting key findings, and to identify future research directions and possibilities. The content presented features developing topics within the social psychology of dress and is useful for undergraduate students who want an overview of the content area. It is also useful for graduate students (1) who want to learn about the major scholars in these key areas of inquiry who have moved the field forward, or (2) who are looking for ideas for their own thesis or dissertation research. Finally, information in this paper is useful for professors who research or teach the social psychology of dress.

Body supplements as stimulus variables

In studying the social psychology of dress, researchers have often focused on dress as a stimulus variable; for example, the effects of dress on impression formation, attributions, and social perception (see Lennon & Davis 1989 ) or the effects of dress on behaviors (see Johnson et al. 2008 ). The context within which dress is perceived (Damhorst 1984-85 ) as well as characteristics of perceivers of clothed individuals (Burns & Lennon 1993 ) also has a profound effect on what is perceived about others. In the remainder of this section we focus on three research streams that center on dress (i.e., body supplements) as stimuli.

Provocative dress as stimuli

In the 1980s researchers were interested in women’s provocative (revealing, sexy) dress and the extent to which men and women attributed the same meaning to it. For example, both Edmonds and Cahoon ( 1986 ) and Cahoon and Edmonds ( 1987 ) found ratings of women who wore provocative dress were more negative than ratings of women who wore non-provocative dress. No specific theory was identified by these authors as guiding their research. Overall, when wearing provocative dress a model was rated more sexually appealing, more attractive, less faithful in marriage, more likely to engage in sexual teasing, more likely to use sex for personal gain, more likely to be sexually experienced, and more likely to be raped than when wearing conservative dress. Cahoon and Edmonds found that men and women made similar judgments, although men’s were more extreme than women’s. Abbey et al. ( 1987 ) studied whether women’s sexual intent and interest as conveyed by revealing dress was misinterpreted by men. The authors developed two dress conditions: revealing (slit skirt, low cut blouse, high heeled shoes) and non-revealing (skirt without a slit, blouse buttoned to neck, boots). Participants rated the stimulus person on a series of adjective traits. As compared to when wearing the non-revealing clothing, when wearing the revealing clothing the stimulus person was rated significantly more flirtatious, sexy, seductive, promiscuous, sophisticated, assertive, and less sincere and considerate. This research was not guided by theory.

Taking this research another step forward, in the 1990s dress researchers began to investigate how women’s provocative (revealing, sexy) dress was implicated in attributions of responsibility for their own sexual assaults (Lewis & Johnson 1989 ; Workman & Freeburg 1999 ; Workman & Orr 1996 ) and sexual harassment (Johnson & Workman 1992 , 1994 ; Workman & Johnson 1991 ). These researchers tended to use attribution theories (McLeod, 2010 ) to guide their research. Their results showed that provocative, skimpy, see-through, or short items of dress, as well as use of heavy makeup (body modification), were cues used to assign responsibility to women for their sexual assaults and experiences of sexual harassment. For example, Johnson and Workman ( 1992 ) studied likelihood of sexual harassment as a function of women’s provocative dress. A model was photographed wearing a dark suit jacket, above-the-knee skirt, a low-cut blouse, dark hose, and high heels (provocative condition) or wearing a dark suit jacket, below-the-knee skirt, high-cut blouse, neutral hose, and moderate heels (non-provocative condition). As compared to when wearing non-provocative dress, when wearing provocative dress the model was rated as significantly more likely to provoke sexual harassment and to be sexually harassed.

Recently, researchers have resurrected the topic of provocative (revealing, sexy) dress. However, their interest is in determining the extent to which women and girls are depicted in provocative dress in the media (in magazines, in online retail stores) and the potential consequences of those depictions, such as objectification. These researchers have often used objectification theory to guide their research. According to objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997 ) women living in sexually saturated cultures are looked at, evaluated, and potentially objectified and treated as objects valued for their use by others. Objectification theory focuses on sexual objectification as a function of objectifying gaze, which is experienced in actual social encounters, media depictions of social encounters, and media depictions that focus on bodies and body parts. The theory explains that objectifying gaze evokes an objectified state of consciousness which influences self-perceptions. This objectified state of consciousness has consequences such as habitual body and appearance monitoring and requires cognitive effort that can result in difficulty with task performance (Szymanski et al. 2011 ). In such an environment, women may perceive their bodies from a third-person perspective, treating themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated.

Self-objectification occurs when people perceive and describe their bodies as a function of appearance instead of accomplishments (Harrison & Fredrickson 2003 ). Experimental research shows that self-objectification in women can be induced by revealing clothing manipulations such as asking women to try on and evaluate the fit of a swimsuit as compared to a bulky sweater (Fredrickson et al. 1998 ).

To examine changes in sexualizing (provocative) characteristics with which girls are portrayed in the media, researchers have content analyzed girls’ clothing in two magazines (Graff et al. 2013 ). Clothing was coded as having sexualizing characteristics (e.g., tightness, bare midriffs, high-heeled shoes) and childlike characteristics (e.g., frills, childlike print, pigtail hair styles). The researchers found an increase in sexualized aspects of dress in depictions of girls from 1971 through 2011. To determine the extent of sexualization in girls’ clothing, researchers have content analyzed girls’ clothing available on 15 retailer websites (Goodin et al. 2011 ). Every girl’s clothing item on each of the retailer websites was coded for sexualizing aspects; 4% was coded as definitely sexualizing. Ambiguously sexualizing clothing (25%) had both sexualizing and childlike characteristics. Abercrombie Kids’ clothing had a higher percentage of sexualizing characteristics than all the other stores (44% versus 4%). These two studies document that girls are increasingly depicted in sexualizing clothing in U.S. media and that they are offered sexualized clothing by major retailers via their websites.

Since girls are increasingly sexualized, to determine if sexualized dress affects how girls are perceived by others Graff et al. ( 2012 ) designed an experiment wherein they manipulated the sexualizing aspects of the clothing of a 5 th grade girl. There were three clothing conditions: childlike (a grey t-shirt, jeans, and black Mary Jane shoes), ambiguously sexualized (leopard print dress of moderate length), highly sexualized (short dress, leopard print cardigan, purse). In the definitely sexualized condition, undergraduate students rated the girl as less moral, self-respecting, capable, determined, competent, and intelligent than when she was depicted in either the childlike or the ambiguously sexualized conditions. Thus, wearing sexualized clothing can affect how girls are perceived by others, so it is possible that sexualized clothing could lead to self-objectification in girls just as in the case of women (Tiggemann & Andrew 2012 ).

Objectification theory has been useful in identifying probable processes underlying the association between women’s provocative dress and negative inferences. In a study using adult stimuli, Gurung and Chrouser ( 2007 ) presented photos of female Olympic athletes in uniform and in provocative (defined as minimal) dress. College women rated the photos and when provocatively dressed, as compared to the uniform condition, the women were rated as more attractive, more feminine, more sexually experienced, more desirable, but also less capable, less strong, less determined, less intelligent, and as having less self-respect. These results are similar to what had previously been found by researchers in the 1980s (Abbey et al. 1987 ; Cahoon & Edmonds 1987 ; Edmonds & Cahoon 1986 ). This outcome is considered objectifying because the overall impression is negative and sexist. Thus, this line of research does more than demonstrate that provocative dress evokes inferences, it suggests the process by which that occurs: provocative dress leads to objectification of the woman so dressed and it is the objectification that leads to the inferences.

In a more direct assessment of the relationship between provocative dress and objectification of others, Holland and Haslam ( 2013 ) manipulated the dress (provocative or plain clothing) of two models (thin or overweight) who were rated equally attractive in facial attractiveness. Since objectification involves inspecting the body, the authors measured participants’ attention to the models’ bodies. Objectification also involves denying human qualities to the objectified person. Two such qualities are perceived agency (e.g., ability to think and form intentions) and moral agency (e.g., capacity to engage in moral or immoral actions). Several findings are relevant to the research on provocative dress. As compared to models wearing plain clothing, models wearing provocative clothing were attributed less perceived agency (e.g., ability to reason, ability to choose) and less moral agency [e.g., “how intentional do you believe the woman’s behavior is?” (p. 463)]. Results showed that more objectified gaze was directed toward the bodies of the models when they were dressed in provocative clothing as compared to when dressed in plain clothing. This outcome is considered objectifying because the models’ bodies were inspected more when wearing provocative dress, and because in that condition they were perceived as having less of the qualities normally attributed to humans.

In an experimental study guided by objectification theory, Tiggemann and Andrew ( 2012 ) studied the effects of clothing on self-perceptions of state self-objectification, state body shame, state body dissatisfaction, and negative mood. However, unlike studies (e.g., Fredrickson et al. 1998 ) in which participants were asked to try on and evaluate either a bathing suit or a sweater, Tiggemann and Andrew instructed their participants to “imagine what you would be seeing, feeling, and thinking” (p. 648) in scenarios. There were four scenarios: thinking about wearing a bathing suit in public, thinking about wearing a bathing suit in a dressing room, thinking about wearing a sweater in public, and thinking about wearing a sweater in a dressing room. The researchers found main effects for clothing such that as compared to thinking about wearing a sweater, thinking about wearing a bathing suit resulted in higher state self-objectification, higher state body shame, higher state body dissatisfaction, and greater negative mood. The fact that the manipulation only involved thinking about wearing clothing, rather than actually wearing such clothing, demonstrates the power of revealing (provocative, sexy) dress in that we only have to think about wearing it to have it affect our self-perceptions.

Taking extant research into account we encourage researchers to continue to investigate the topic of provocative (sexy, revealing) dress for both men and women to replicate the results for women and to determine if revealing dress for men might evoke the kinds of inferences evoked by women wearing revealing dress. Furthermore, research that delineates the role of objectification in the process by which this association between dress and inferences occurs would be useful. Although it would not be ethical to use the experimental strategy used by previous researchers (Fredrickson et al. 1998 ) with children, it is possible that researchers could devise correlational studies to investigate the extent to which wearing and/or viewing sexualized clothing might lead to self- and other-objectification in girls.

Research on red dress

Researchers who study the social psychology of dress have seldom focused on dress color. However, in the 1980s and 1990s a few researchers investigated color in the context of retail color analysis systems that focused on personal coloring (Abramov 1985 ; Francis & Evans 1987 ; Hilliker & Rogers 1988 ; Radeloff 1991 ). For example, Francis and Evans found that stimulus persons were actually perceived positively when not wearing their recommended personal colors. Hilliker and Rogers surveyed managers of apparel stores about the use of color analysis systems and found some impact on the marketplace, but disagreement among the managers on the value of the systems. Abramov critiqued color analysis for being unclear, ambiguous, and for the inability to substantiate claims. Most of these studies were not guided by a psychological theory of color.

Since the 1990s, researchers have developed a theory of color psychology (Elliot & Maier 2007 ) called color-in-context theory. Like other variables that affect social perception, the theory explains that color also conveys meaning which varies as a function of the context in which the color is perceived. Accordingly, the meanings of colors are learned over time through repeated pairings with a particular experience or message (e.g., red stop light and danger) or with biological tendencies to respond to color in certain contexts. For example, female non-human primates display red on parts of their bodies when nearing ovulation; hence red is associated with lust, fertility, and sexuality (Guéguen and Jacob 2013 ). As a function of these associations between colors and experiences, messages, or biological tendencies, people either display approach responses or avoidance responses but are largely unaware of how color affects them. In this section we review studies that examine the effects of red in relational contexts such as interpersonal attraction. However, there is evidence that red is detrimental in achievement (i.e., academic or hiring) contexts (e.g., Maier et al. 2013 ) and that red signals dominance and affects outcomes in competitive sporting contests (e.g., Feltman and Elliot 2011 ; Hagemann et al. 2008 ).

Recently researchers have used color-in-context theory to study the effects of red dress (shirts, dresses) on impressions related to sexual intent, attractiveness, dominance, and competence. Some of these studies were guided by color-in-context theory. Guéguen ( 2012 ) studied men’s perceptions of women’s sexual intent and attractiveness as a function of shirt color. Male participants viewed a photo of a woman wearing a t-shirt that varied in color. When wearing a red t-shirt as compared to the other colors, the woman was judged to be more attractive and to have greater sexual intent. Pazda et al. ( 2014a , [ b ]) conducted an experiment designed to determine why men perceive women who wear red to be more attractive than those who wear other colors. They argued that red is associated with sexual receptivity due to cultural pairings of red and female sexuality (e.g., red light district, sexy red lingerie). Men participated in an online experiment in which they were exposed to a woman wearing either a red, black, or white dress. When wearing the red dress the woman was rated as more sexually receptive than when wearing either the white or the black dresses. The woman was also rated on attractiveness and by performing a mediation analysis the researchers determined that when wearing the red dress, the ratings of her attractiveness as a function of red were no longer significant; in other words, the reason she was rated as more attractive when wearing the red dress was due to the fact that she was also perceived as more sexually receptive.

Pazda et al. ( 2014a , [ b ]), interested in women’s perceptions of other women as a function of their clothing color, conducted a series of experiments. They reasoned that like men, women would also make the connection between a woman’s red dress and her sexual receptivity and perceive her to be a sexual competitor. In their first experiment they found that women rated the stimulus woman as more sexually receptive when wearing a red dress as compared to when she was wearing a white dress. In a second experiment the woman wearing a red dress was not only rated more sexually receptive, she was also derogated more since ratings of her sexual fidelity were lower when wearing a red dress as compared to a white dress. Finally, in a third experiment the stimulus woman was again rated more sexually receptive; this time when she wore a red shirt as compared to when she wore a green shirt. The authors assessed the likelihood that their respondents would introduce the stimulus person to their boyfriends and the likelihood that they would let their boyfriends spend time with the stimulus person. Participants in the red shirt condition were more likely to keep their boyfriends from interacting with the stimulus person than participants in the green shirt condition. Thus, both men and women indicated women wearing red are sexually receptive.

Also interested in color, Roberts et al. ( 2010 ) were interested in determining whether clothing color affects the wearer of the clothing (e.g., do women act provocatively when wearing red clothing?) or does clothing color affect the perceiver of the person wearing the colored clothing. To answer this question, they devised a complicated series of experiments. In the first study, male and female models (ten of each) were photographed wearing each of six different colors of t-shirts. Undergraduates of the opposite sex rated the photographed models on attractiveness. Both male and female models were rated most attractive when wearing red and black t-shirts. In study two the same photos were used, but the t-shirts were masked by a gray rectangle. Compared to when they wore white t-shirts, male models were judged to be more attractive by both men and women when they wore the red t-shirts, even though the red color was not visible. In the third study the t-shirt colors in the photos were digitally altered, so that images could be compared in which red or white t-shirts were worn with those in which red had been altered to white and white had been altered to red. Male models wearing red were rated more attractive than male models wearing white that had been altered to appear red. Also male models wearing red shirts digitally altered to appear white were rated more attractive than male models actually photographed in white. These effects did not occur for female models. The authors reasoned that if clothing color only affected perceivers, then the results should be the same when a model is photographed in red as well as when the model is photographed in white which is subsequently altered to appear red. Since this did not happen, the authors concluded that clothing color affects both the wearer and the perceiver.

In addition, the effects of red dress on impressions also extend to behaviors. Kayser et al. ( 2010 ) conducted a series of experiments. For experiment one, a female stimulus person was photographed in either a red t-shirt or a green one. Male participants were shown a photo of the woman and given a list of questions from which to choose five to ask her. Because women wearing red are perceived to be more sexually receptive and to have greater sexual intent than when wearing other colors, the researchers expected the men who saw the woman in the red dress to select intimate questions to ask and this is what they found. In a second experiment, the female stimulus person wore either a red or a blue t-shirt. After seeing her picture the male participants were told that they would be interacting with her, where she would be sitting, and that they could place their chairs wherever they wished to sit. The men expecting to interact with the red-shirted woman placed their chairs significantly closer to her chair than when they expected to interact with a blue-shirted woman.

In a field experiment (Guéguen 2012 ), five female confederates wore t-shirts of red or other colors and stood by the side of a road to hitchhike. The t-shirt color did not affect women drivers, but significantly more men stopped to pick up the female confederates when they wore the red t-shirts as compared to all the other colors. In a similar study researchers (Guéguen & Jacob 2013 ) altered the color of a woman’s clothing on an online meeting site so that the woman was shown wearing red or several other colors. The women received significantly more contacts when her clothing had been altered to be red than any of the other t-shirt colors.

Researchers should continue conducting research about the color of dress items using color-in-context theory. One context important to consider in this research stream is the cultural context within which the research is conducted. To begin, other colors in addition to red should be studied for their meanings within and across cultural contexts. Since red is associated with sexual receptivity, red clothing should be investigated in the context of the research on provocative dress. For example, would women wearing red revealing dress be judged more provocative than women wearing the same clothing in different colors? Also researchers interested in girls’ and women’s depictions in the media, could investigate the effects of red dress on perceptions of sexual intent and objectification.

Effects of dress on the behavior of the wearer

Several researchers studying the social psychology of dress have reviewed the research literature (Davis 1984 ; Lennon and Davis 1989 ) and some have analyzed that research (see Damhorst 1990 ; Hutton 1984 ; Johnson et al. 2008 for reviews). In these reviews, Damhorst and Hutton focused on the effect of dress on person perception or impression formation. Johnson et al., however, focused their analysis on behaviors evoked by dress. An emerging line of research focuses on the effects of dress on the behavior of the wearer (Adam and Galinsky 2012 ; Frank and Galinsky 1988 ; Fredrickson et al. 1998 ; Gino et al. 2010 ; Hebl et al. 2004 ; Kouchaki et al. 2014 ; Martins et al. 2007 ).

Fredrickson et al. ( 1998 ), Hebl et al. ( 2004 ), and Martins et al. ( 2007 ) all used objectification theory to guide experiments about women’s and men’s body image experience. They were interested in the extent to which wearing revealing dress could trigger self-objectification. The theory predicts that self-objectification manifests in performance detriments on a task subsequent to a self-objectifying experience. Frederickson et al. had participants complete a shopping task. They entered a dressing room, tried on either a one piece swimsuit or a bulky sweater, and evaluated the fit in a mirror as they would if buying the garment. Then they completed a math performance test. The women who wore a swimsuit performed more poorly on the math test than women wearing a sweater; no such effects were found for men. A few years later Hebl et al. ( 2004 ) used the same procedure to study ethnic differences in self-objectification. Participants were Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, and Asian American undergraduate men and women. Participants completed the same shopping task and math test. Participants who tried on the swimsuits performed worse on the math test than participants who tried on the sweater and these results held for both men and women of all ethnicities.

Martins et al. ( 2007 ) used the same shopping task as Frederickson et al. ( 1998 ) and Hebl et al. ( 2004 ), but employed a different behavioral measure. Their participants were gay and heterosexual men and the garment they tried on was either Speedo men’s briefs or a turtleneck sweater. After the shopping task the men were given the opportunity to sample and evaluate a snack and the amount eaten was measured. Wearing the Speedo affected eating for the gay men, but not the heterosexual men, such that gay men in the Speedo condition ate significantly less of the snack than gay men in the sweater condition. Taken together these studies demonstrate that a nominal clothing manipulation can have effects on the behavior of the wearer.

In one of the first studies to demonstrate the effects of clothing on the wearer, Frank and Gilovich ( 1988 ) noted that the color black is associated with evil and death in many cultures. They studied the extent to which players wearing black uniforms were judged more evil and aggressive than players wearing uniforms of other colors. They analyzed penalties awarded for aggressive behavior in football and ice hockey players. Players who wore black uniforms received more penalties for their aggressive behavior than those who wore other uniform colors. Since the penalty results could be due to biased refereeing, the authors videotaped a staged football game in which the defensive team wore either black or white uniforms. The same events were depicted in each version of the videotape. Participants watched short videos and rated the plays as more aggressive when the team members wore black as compared to white uniforms. In another part of the study, participants were assigned to wear either black or white uniform shirts. While wearing the shirts they were asked the type of games they would like to play; the black-shirted participants selected more aggressive games than the white-shirted participants. The authors interpreted the results of all the studies to mean that players wearing black are aggressive. Yet, when the level of aggressiveness was held constant in the staged football game, referees still perceived black-uniformed players to be more aggressive than white-uniformed players. The authors concluded that the color of the black uniform affects the wearer and the perceiver. This study’s results are similar to those of the researchers studying red dress who found that the color red is associated with a cultural meaning that affects both the wearer and the perceiver of the red dress (Roberts et al. 2010 ).

In a similar way, Adam and Galinsky ( 2012 ) determined that when clothing has symbolic meaning for the wearer, it also affects the wearer’s behavior. The researchers found that a white lab coat was associated with traits related to attentiveness. Then they conducted an experiment in which one group wore a white lab coat described as a painter’s coat and another group wore the same lab coat which was described as a medical doctor’s lab coat. A third group saw, but did not wear, a lab coat described as a medical doctor’s lab coat. Participants then performed an experimental task that required selective attention. The group that wore the coat described as a medical doctor’s lab coat outperformed both of the other two groups.

Gino et al. ( 2010 ) studied the effects of wearing designer sunglasses that were described either as counterfeit or authentic Chloe sunglasses on one’s own behaviors and perceptions of others. Although counterfeits convey status to others, they also mean that the wearers are pretending to be something they are not (i.e., wealthy enough to purchase authentic sunglasses). Participants who thought they were wearing fake sunglasses cheated significantly more on two experimental tasks than those who thought they were wearing authentic sunglasses. In a second experiment, the researchers showed that participants who believed they were wearing counterfeit sunglasses perceived others’ behaviors as more dishonest, less truthful, and more likely to be unethical than those wearing authentic sunglasses. In a third experiment the researchers showed that the effect for wearing counterfeit sunglasses on one’s own behavior was due to the meaning of inauthenticity attributed to the counterfeit sunglasses. Consistent with Adam and Galinsky ( 2012 ) and Frank and Gilovich (1988), in Gino et al. the effect of dress on one’s own behavior was due to the meaning of the dress cue in a context relevant to the meaning of that dress cue. While none of these three studies articulated a specific theory to guide their research, Adams and Galinsky outlined an enclothed cognition framework, which explained that dress affects wearers due to the symbolic meaning of the dress and the physical experience of wearing that dress item.

To summarize the research on the effects of dress on the behavior of the wearer, each of these studies reported research focused on a dress cue associated with cultural meaning. Some of the researchers had to first determine that meaning. The manipulations were designed so that the meaning of the dress cues was salient for the context of the manipulation. For example, in the objectification studies the revealingness of dress was varied in the context of a dressing room mirror where the revealing nature of the cue would be relevant. So to extend the enclothed cognition framework, we suggest that for dress to affect the wearer, the context of the experimental task needs to be such that the meaning of the dress item is salient.

Future researchers may continue to pursue the effects of dress on the wearer. The extended enclothed cognition framework could be applied to school uniforms. A possible research question could be that if school uniforms are associated with powerlessness among schoolchildren, would wearing school uniforms affect the level of effort children expend to solve homework problems or write papers?

It is interesting that previous researchers who examined the effect of school uniforms on various tasks did not ask children what associations uniforms had for them (e.g., Behling 1994 , 1995 ; Behling and Williams 1991 ). This question is clearly an avenue for renewed research in this area. Another situation to which the extended enclothed cognition framework might be investigated is in the context of professional sports. Since wearing a sweatshirt or cap with a professional team’s logo is associated with being a fan of that team, would people wearing those items evaluate that team’s performance higher than people wearing another team’s logos? Would they provide more excuses for their team than fans not wearing the team’s logos? We encourage researchers to continue to investigate the effects of dress on one’s own behaviors utilizing a range of dress cues (e.g., cosmetics, tattoos, and piercings).

Dress and the self

An ongoing area of research within the social psychology of dress is relationships between dress and the self. Although some researchers use the terms identity and self interchangeably, it is our position that they are not the same concepts but are related. We begin our discussion of the self with research on the body.

The physical body and the self

Whereas the first section of our review focused on body supplements (i.e., the clothed body), this section focuses on body modifications or how the body is altered. Within this discussion, the two research directions that we include are (1) body modifications that carry some risk, as opposed to routine modifications that typically do not, and (2) the influence of body talk and social comparison as variables influencing body image.

Body modifications that carry some risk

Societal standards of attractiveness in the Western world often focus on a thin appearance for women and a mesomorphic but muscular appearance for men (Karazia et al. 2013 ). Internalization of societal standards presented through various media outlets is widely recognized as a primary predictor of body dissatisfaction and risky appearance management behaviors including eating pathology among women (Cafri et al. 2005a , [ b ]), muscle enhancement and disordered eating behaviors in men (Tylka 2011 ), tattooing among young adults (Mun et al. 2012 ), and tanning among adolescents (Prior et al. 2014 ; Yoo & Kim, 2014 ). While there are several other risky appearance management behaviors in the early stages of investigation (e.g., extreme body makeovers, cosmetic procedures on male and female private parts, multiple cosmetic procedures), we isolate just a few behaviors to illustrate the impact of changing standards of attractiveness on widespread appearance management practices in the presentation of self.

Experimental research has demonstrated that exposure to social and cultural norms for appearance (via idealized images) leads to greater dissatisfaction with the body in general for both men and women (Blond 2008 ; Grabe et al. 2008 ); yet a meta-analysis of eight research studies conducted in real life settings suggested that these appearance norms were more rigid, narrowly defined, and prevalent for women than for men (Buote et al. 2011 ). These researchers also noted that women reported frequent exposure to social norms of appearance (i.e., considered bombardment by many women), the norms themselves were unrealistic, yet the nature of the messages was that these norms are perfectly attainable with enough time, money, and effort. Men, on the other hand, indicated that they were exposed to flexible social norms of appearance, and therefore report feeling less pressure to attain a particular standard in presenting their appearance to others (Buote et al. 2011 ).

Eating disorders

A recent stream of research related to individuals with eating disorders is concerned with the practice of body checking (i.e., weighing, measuring or otherwise assessing body parts through pinching, sucking in the abdomen, tapping it for flatness). Such checking behaviors may morph into body avoidance (i.e., avoiding looking in mirrors or windows at one’s reflection, avoiding gym locker rooms or situations involving showing the body to others) (White & Warren 2011 ), the manifestation of eating disorders (Haase et al. 2011 ), obsession with one’s weight or body shape, and a critical evaluation of either aspect (Smeets et al. 2011 ). The propensity to engage in body checking appears to be tied to ethnicity as White and Warren found, in their comparison of Caucasian women and women of color (Asian American, African American, and Latin American). They found significant differences in body checking and avoidance behaviors in Caucasian women and Asian American women over African American and Latin American women. Across all the women, White and Warren found positive and significant correlations between body checking and (1) avoidance behaviors and higher body mass index, (2) internalization of a thin ideal appearance, (3) eating disturbances, and (4) other clinical impairments such as debilitating negative thoughts.

Another characteristic of individuals with eating disorders is that they habitually weigh themselves. Self-weighing behaviors and their connection to body modification has been the focus of several researchers. Research teams have documented that self-weighing led to weight loss maintenance (Butryn et al. 2007 ) and prevention of weight gain (Levitsky et al. 2006 ). Other researchers found that self-weighing contributed to risky weight control behaviors such as fasting (Neumark-Sztainer et al. 2006 ) and even to weight gain (Needham et al. 2010 ). Lately, gender differences have also been investigated relative to self-weighing. Klos et al. ( 2012 ) found self-weighing was related to a strong investment in appearance, preoccupation with body shape, and higher weight among women. However, among men self-weighing was related to body satisfaction, investment in health and fitness, and positive evaluation of health.

One interesting departure from weight as a generalized aspect of body concern among women is the examination of wedding-related weight change. Considering the enormous cost of weddings, estimated to average $20,000 in the United States (Wong 2005 ), and the number of wedding magazines, websites, and self-help books on weddings (Villepigue et al. 2005 ), it is not surprising that many brides-to-be want to lose weight for their special occasion. Researchers have shown that an average amount of intended weight loss prior to a wedding is 20 pounds in both the U.S. and Australia with between 12% and 33% of brides-to-be reporting that they had been advised by someone else to lose weight (Prichard & Tiggemann 2009 ). About 50% of brides hoped to achieve weight loss, yet most brides did not actually experience a change in weight (Prichard & Tiggemann, 2014 ); however, when questioned about six months after their weddings, brides indicated that they had gained about four pounds. Those who were told to lose weight by significant others such as friends, family members, or fiancé gained significantly more than those who were not told to do so, suggesting that wedding-related weight change can have repercussions for post wedding body satisfaction and eating behaviors. Regaining weight is typical, given that many people who lose weight regain it with a year or so of losing it.

Drive for muscularity

Researchers have found that body modifications practiced by men are related more to developing muscularity than to striving for a thin body (Cafri et al. 2005a , [ b ]) with particular emphasis placed on developing the upper body areas of chest and biceps (Thompson & Cafri 2007 ). The means to achieve this body modification may include risky behaviors such as excessive exercise and weight training, extreme dieting and dehydration to emphasize musculature, and use of appearance or performance enhancing substances (Hildebrandt et al. 2010 ).

One possible explanation for men’s drive for muscularity may be objectification. While objectification theory was originally proposed to address women’s objectification, it has been extended to men (Hebl et al. 2004 ; Martins et al. 2007 ). These researchers determined that like women, men are objectified in Western and westernized culture and can be induced to self-objectify via revealing clothing manipulations.

Researchers have also examined how men are affected by media imagery that features buff, well-muscled, thin, attractive male bodies as the aesthetic norm. Kolbe and Albanese ( 1996 ) undertook a content analysis of men’s lifestyle magazines and found that most of the advertised male bodies were not “ordinary,” but were strong and hard bodies, or as the authors concluded, objectified and depersonalized. Pope et al. ( 2000 ) found that advertisements for many types of products from cars to underwear utilized male models with body-builder physiques (i.e., exaggerated “6 pack” abdominal muscles, huge chests and shoulders, yet lean); they suggested that men had become focused on muscularity as a cultural symbol of masculinity because they perceived that women were usurping some of their social standing in the workforce. Hellmich ( 2000 ) concurred and suggested that men were overwhelmed with images of half-naked, muscular men and that they too were targets of objectification. Other researchers (e.g., Elliott & Elliott 2005 ; Patterson & England 2000 ) confirmed these findings – that most images in men’s magazines featured mesomorphic, strong, muscular, and hyper-masculine bodies.

How do men respond to such advertising images? Elliott and Elliott ( 2005 ) conducted focus interviews with 40 male college students, ages 18-31, and showed them six different advertisements in lifestyles magazines. They found six distinct types of response, two negative, two neutral, and two positive. Negative responses were (1) homophobic (those who saw the ads as stereotypically homosexual, bordering on pornography), perhaps threatening their own perceived masculinity or (2) gender stereotyping (those who saw the ads as depicting body consciousness or vanity, traits that they considered to be feminine). Neutral responses were (3) legitimizing exploitation as a marketing tool (those who recognized that naked chests or exaggerated body parts were shown and sometimes with no heads, making them less than human, but recognizing that sex sells products), and (4) disassociating oneself from the muscular body ideals shown in the ads (recognizing that the images represented unattainable body types or shapes). Positive responses were (5) admiration of real or attainable “average” male bodies and (6) appreciating some naked advertising images as art, rather than as sexual objects. The researchers concluded that men do see their gender objectified in advertising, resulting in different responses or perceived threats to self.

There is evidence that experiencing these objectified images of the male body is also partially responsible for muscle dysmorphia, a condition in which men become obsessed with achieving muscularity (Leit et al. 2002 ). Understanding contributors to the development of muscle dysmorphia is important as the condition can lead to risky appearance management behaviors such as extreme body-building, eating disorders, and use of anabolic steroids to gain bulk (Bradley et al. 2014 ; Maida & Armstrong 2005 ). In an experiment, Maida and Armstrong exposed 82 undergraduate men to 30 slides of advertisements and then asked them to complete a body image perception test. Men’s body satisfaction was affected by exposure to the images, such that they wanted to be notably more muscular than they were.

Contemporary researchers have found that drive for muscularity is heightened among men when there is a perceived threat to their masculinity such as performance on some task (Steinfeldt et al. 2011 ) or perceiving that they hold some less masculine traits (Blashill, 2011). Conversely, researchers have also suggested that body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity can be reduced by developing a mindfulness approach to the body characterized by attention to present-moment experiences such as how one might feel during a certain activity like yoga or riding a bicycle (Lavender et al. 2012 ). While the investigation of mindfulness to mitigate negative body image and negative appearance behaviors is relatively new, it is a promising area of investigation.

Tattooing is not necessarily a risky behavior in and of itself, as most tattoo parlors take health precautions with the use of sterile instruments and clean environments. However, research has focused on other risk-taking behaviors that tattooed individuals may engage in, including drinking, smoking, shoplifting, and drug use (Deschesnes et al. 2006 ) as well as and early and risky sexual activity (Koch, Roberts, Armstrong, & Owen, 2007). Tattoos have also been studied as a bodily expression of uniqueness (Mun et al. 2012 ; Tiggemann & Hopkins 2011 ) but not necessarily reflecting a stronger investment in appearance (Tiggemann & Hopkins 2011 ).

Tanning behaviors are strongly associated with skin cancer, just as smoking is associated with lung cancer. In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization has classified ultraviolet radiation from the sun and tanning devices that emit ultraviolet light as group 1 carcinogens, placing ultraviolet radiation in the same category as tobacco use (World Health Organization, 2012 ). Yet, tanning behaviors are prevalent among many young adults and adolescents causing them to be at increased risk of skin cancer, particularly with indoor tanning devices (Boniol et al. 2012 ; Lostritto et al. 2012 ). Studies of motives for tanning among these populations suggest that greater tanning behavior, for both genders, is correlated with high investment in appearance, media influences, and the influence of friends and significant others (Prior et al. 2014 ). Frequent tanning behaviors in adolescent boys have been related to extreme weight control, substance use, and victimization (Blashill 2013 ). Among young adults, Yoo and Kim ( 2014 ) identified three attitudes toward tanning that were related to tanning behaviors. The attitude that tanning was a pleasurable activity influenced indoor and outdoor tanning behaviors. The attitude that a tan enhances physical attractiveness influenced use of tanning beds and sunless tanning products. The attitude that tanning is a healthy behavior influenced outdoor tanning. They advised that tanning behaviors could be studied further particularly in relation to other risky behaviors.

Body talk and the self

A relatively recent line of investigation concerns the impact of talk about the body on perceptions of self. One would think that communication among friends would typically strengthen feelings of self-esteem and psychological well-being (Knickmeyer et al. 2002 ). Yet, certain types of communication, such as complaining about one’s body or appearance, may negatively impact feelings about the self (Tucker et al. 2007 ), particularly in the case of “fat talk” or disparaging comments about body size, weight, and fear of becoming fat (Ousley et al. 2008 ; Warren et al. 2012 ). Such fat talk has become normative behavior among women and, according to one study, occurs in over 90% of women (Salk & Engeln-Maddox 2011 ) and, according to another study, occurs in women of all ages and body sizes (Martz et al. 2009 ) because women feel pressure to be self-critical about their bodies. More women than men reported exposure to fat talk in their circle of friends and acquaintances and greater pressure to engage in it (Salk & Engeln-Maddox). Thus, fat talk extends body dissatisfaction into interpersonal relationships (Arroyo & Harwood 2012 ).

Sladek et al. ( 2014 ) reported a series of studies that elaborated on the investigation of body talk among men, concluding that men’s body talk has two distinct aspects, one related to weight and the other to muscularity. After developing a scale that showed strong test-retest reliability among college men, they found that body talk about muscularity was associated with dissatisfaction with the upper body, strong drive for muscularity, symptoms of muscle dysmorphia, and investment in appearance. Body talk about weight was associated with upper body dissatisfaction, symptoms of muscle dysmorphia, and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. They suggest future research in body talk conversations among men and boys of all ages, from different cultural backgrounds, and in different contexts.

Negative body talk among men appears to be less straightforward than that among women (Engeln et al. 2013 ). These researchers reported that men’s body talk included both positive elements and negative elements, while that of women tended to focus on the negative, perhaps reflecting an accepting body culture among men in which they can praise one another as well as commiserate with other men on issues regarding muscularity and weight. Yet, both muscle talk and fat talk were found to decrease state appearance self-esteem and to increase state body dissatisfaction among men.

While the fat talk literature clearly establishes the normative occurrence of this type of communication, as well as establishes the negative impact on the self, the literature has not delved into theoretical explanations for its existence. Arroyo ( 2014 ) has posited a relationship between fat talk and three body image theories (self-discrepancy, social comparison, and objectification), and suggested that degree of body dissatisfaction could serve as a mediating mechanism. Self-discrepancy theory suggests that the discrepancy between one’s actual self and one’s ideal self on any variable, such as weight or attractiveness, motivates people to try to achieve that ideal (Jacobi & Cash 1994 ). Social comparison theory (Festinger 1954 ) explains that we compare ourselves to others on some variable of comparison. When we compare ourselves to others who we believe to be better than ourselves (upward comparison) on this variable (say, for example, thinner or more attractive), we may feel worse about ourselves and engage in both non-risky and risky behaviors such as extreme weight control to try to meet those expectations (Ridolfi et al. 2011 ; Rudd & Lennon 1994 ). Objectification theory, as mentioned earlier in this paper, states that bodies are treated as objects to be evaluated and perceived by others (Szymanski et al. 2011 ); self-objectification occurs when individuals look upon themselves as objects to be evaluated by others.

Arroyo ( 2014 ) surveyed 201 college women to see what effect weight discrepancy, upward comparison, and objectified body consciousness had on fat talk; a mediating variable of body dissatisfaction was investigated. She found that how satisfied or dissatisfied the women did indeed impact how they felt about each variable. Each of the three predictor variables was positively associated with body dissatisfaction and higher body dissatisfaction predicted fat talk. She concluded that fat talk is more insidious than other social behaviors; it is a type of communication that perpetuates negative perceptions among women as well as the attitude that women should be dissatisfied with their bodies. Future research suggestions included examining the impact of downward social comparisons (in which the individual assumes they fare better than peers on the variables of comparison, such as weight), and examining all three phenomena of self-discrepancy, social comparison, and objectification together to determine their cumulative impact on self-disparaging talk.

Negative body talk or fat talk is related to perceptions about the self and to appearance-management behaviors in presenting the self to others. In a sample of 203 young adult women, negative body talk was related to body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem, and was associated with stronger investment in appearance, distorted thoughts about the body, disordered eating behavior, and depression (Rudiger & Winstead 2013 ). Positive body talk was related to fewer cognitive distortions of the body, high body satisfaction, high self-esteem, and friendship quality. Another form of body talk, co-rumination or the mutual sharing between friends of negative thoughts and feelings, is thought to intensify the impact of body talk. In this same study, co-rumination was related to frequent cognitive distortions of the body as well as disordered eating behaviors, but to high perceived friendship quality. Thus, negative body talk achieved no positive outcomes, yet co-rumination achieved negative outcomes for the self, but positive outcomes for quality of friendship. Thus, future research could tease apart the specific components of the social phenomenon of co-rumination in relation to self-perceptions and appearance management behaviors.

Dress and self as distinct from others

Shifting attention from relationships between the body and self, we move to a discussion of relationships between dress and that aspect of the self that is concerned with answering questions about who we are as distinct and unique individuals (e.g., what type of person am I?). Earlier we shared research about how wearing certain article of dress might impact one’s own physical behaviors. We shift now to sharing research addressing the role dress might play in thinking about oneself as a unique and distinct individual (i.e., self-perceptions). Researchers addressing this topic have utilized Bem’s ( 1972 ) self-perception theory. Bem proposed that similar to the processes we use in forming inferences about others, we can form inferences about ourselves. Bem argues that people’s understanding of their own traits was, in some circumstances, an assessment of their own behaviors. This process was proposed to be particularly relevant to individuals who were responsive to self-produced cues (i.e., cues that arise from an individual’s own behavior or characteristics).

In the 1980s, Kellerman and Laird ( 1982 ) utilized self-perception theory to see whether wearing a specific item of dress (e.g., eye glasses) would influence peoples’ ratings of their own skills and abilities. They conducted an experiment with undergraduate students having them rate themselves on an array of traits when wearing and when not wearing glasses and to complete a hidden figures test. Although there were no significant differences in their performance on the test, the participants’ ratings of their competence and intelligence was higher when wearing glasses than when not. In related research, Solomon and Schopler ( 1982 ) found that both men and women indicated that the appropriateness of their clothing affected their mood.

Studying dress specifically within a workplace context, in the 1990s Kwon ( 1994 ) did not have her participants actually wear different clothing styles but asked them to project how they might think about themselves if they were to wear appropriate versus inappropriate clothing to work. Participants indicated they would feel more competent and responsible if they wore appropriate rather than inappropriate clothing. Similarly, Rafaeli et al. ( 1997 ) a found that employees indicated a link between self-perception and clothing associating psychological discomfort with wearing inappropriate dress for work and increased social self-confidence with appropriate attire. Nearly ten years later, Adomaitis and Johnson ( 2005 ) in a study of flight attendants found that the attendants linked wearing casual uniforms for work (e.g., t-shirt, shorts) with negative self-perceptions (e.g., nonauthoritative, embarrassment, unconfident, unprofessional). Likewise, Peluchette and Karl ( 2007 ) investigating the impact of formal versus casual attire in the workplace found that their participants viewed themselves as most authoritative, trustworthy, productive and competent when wearing formal business attire but as friendliest when wearing casual or business casual attire. Continuing this line of research with individuals employed in the public sector, Karl et al. ( 2013 ) reported participants indicated they felt more competent and authoritative when in formal business or business casual attire and least creative and friendly when wearing casual dress.

As workplace dress has become casual, it would be useful for researchers to uncover any distinctions in casualness that make individuals feel more or less competent, respected, or authoritative. Another aspect of clothing that could be investigated is fit as it might impact self-perceptions or use of makeup.

Guy and Banim ( 2000 ) were interested in how clothing was used as means of self-presentation in everyday life. They implemented three strategies to meet their research objective of investigating women’s relationships to their clothing: a personal account, a clothing diary, and a wardrobe interview. The personal account was a written or tape recorded response to the question “what clothing means to me.” The clothing diary was a daily log kept for two weeks. The wardrobe interview was centered on participants’ current collection of clothing. Participants were undergraduates and professional women representing several age cohorts. The researchers identified three distinct perspectives of self relative to the women’s clothing. The first was labeled “the woman I want to be”. This category of responses revealed that the women used clothing to formulate positive self-projections. Favorite items of clothing in particular were identified as useful in bridging the gap between “self as you would like it to be” and the image actually achieved with the clothing. The second category of responses was labeled “the woman I fear I could be”. This category of responses reflected experiences where clothing had failed to achieve a desired look or resulted in a negative self-presentation. Concern here was choosing to wear clothing with unintentional effects such as highlighting parts of the body that were unflattering or concern about losing the ability to know how to dress to convey a positive image. The last category, “the woman I am most of the time” contained comments indicating the women had a “relationship with clothes was ongoing and dynamic and that a major source of enjoyment for them was to use clothes to realize different aspects of themselves” (p. 321).

Interested in how the self shaped clothing consumption and use, Ogle et al. ( 2013 ) utilized Guy and Banim’s ( 2000 ) views of self to explore how consumption of maternity dress might shape the self during a liminal life stage (i.e., pregnancy). Interviews with women expecting their first child revealed concerns that available maternity dress limited their ability to express their true selves. Some expressed concern that the maternity clothing that was available to them in the marketplace symbolized someone that they did not want to associate with (i.e., the woman I fear I could be). Several women noted they borrowed or purchased used clothing from a variety of sources for this time in their life. This decision resulted in dissatisfaction because the items were not reflective of their selves and if worn resulted in their projecting a self that they also did not want to be. In addition, the women shared that they used dress to confirm their selves as pregnant and as NOT overweight. While some of the participants did experience a disrupted sense of self during pregnancy, others shared that they were able to locate items of dress that symbolized a self-consistent with “the woman I am most of the time”.

Continuing in this line of research, researchers may want to explore these three aspects of self with others who struggle with self-presentation via dress as a result of a lack of fashionable and trendy clothing in the marketplace. Plus-sized women frequently report that they are ignored by the fashion industry and existing offerings fail to meet their need to be fashionable. A recent article in the Huffington Post (“Plus-sized clothing”, 2013 ) noted that retailers do not typically carry plus sizes perhaps due to the misconception that plus-sized women are not trendy shoppers or the idea that these sizes will not sell well. Thus, it may well be that the relationship between dress and self for plus-sized women is frustrating as they are prevented from being able to make clothing choices indicative of their selves “as they would like them to be”.

Priming and self-perception

While several researchers have confirmed that clothing worn impacts thoughts about the self, Hannover and Kühnen ( 2002 ) were interested in uncovering processes that would explain why clothing could have this effect. They began with examining what role priming might have in explaining how clothing impacts self-perceptions. Using findings from social cognition, they argued that clothing styles might prime specific mental categories about one’s self such that those categories that are most easily accessed in a given situation would be more likely to be applied to oneself than categories of information that are difficult to access. Thus, if clothing can be used to prime specific self-knowledge it should impact self-descriptions such that, a person wearing “casual” clothing (e.g., jeans, sweatshirt) should be more apt to describe him or herself using casual terms (e.g., laid-back, uses slang). The researchers had each participant stand in front of a mirror and indicate whether or not specific traits were descriptive of him or herself when wearing either casual or formal clothing (e.g., business attire). The researchers found that when a participant wore casual clothing he or she rated the casual traits as more valid self-descriptions than the formal traits. The reverse was also true. They concluded that the clothing worn primed specific categories of self-knowledge. However, the researchers did not ask participants to what extent they intentionally considered their own clothing when determining whether or not a trait should be applied to them. Yet, as previously noted, Adam and Galinsky ( 2012 ) demonstrated that clothing impacted a specific behavior (attention) only in circumstances where the clothing was worn and the clothing’s meaning was clear. Thus, researchers could test if clothing serves as an unrecognized priming source and if its impact on impression formation is less intentional than typically assumed.

Dress and self in interaction with others

Another area of research within dress and the self involves experience with others and the establishment of meaning. Questions that these researchers are interested in answering include what is the meaning of an item of dress or a way of appearing? Early researchers working in this area have utilized symbolic interactionism as a framework for their research (Blumer 1969 ; Mead 1934 ; Stone 1962 ). The foundational question of symbolic interaction is: “What common set of symbols and understandings has emerged to give meaning to people’s interactions?” (Patton 2002 , p. 112).

There are three basic premises central to symbolic interactionism (Blumer 1969 ). The first premise is that our behavior toward things (e.g., physical objects, other people) is shaped by the meaning that those things have for us. Applied to dress and appearance, this premise means that our behavior relative to another person is influenced by that person’s dress (Kaiser 1997 ) and the meaning that we assign to that dress. The second premise of symbolic interaction is that the meaning of things is derived from social interaction with others (Blumer). This premise indicates that meanings are not inherent in objects, must be shared between individuals, and that meanings are learned. The third premise is that meanings are modified by a continuous interpretative process in which the actor interacts with himself (Blumer). As applied to clothing, this premise suggests that the wearer of an outfit or item of clothing is active in determining the meaning of an item along with the viewer of that item.

Symbolic interactionism posits that the self is a social construction established, maintained, and altered through interpersonal communication with others. While initial work focused on investigating verbal communication as key to the construction of the self, Stone extended communication to include appearance and maintained that “appearance is at least as important in establishment and maintenance of the self” as verbal communication (1962, p. 87).

Stone ( 1962 ) discussed a process of establishing the self in interaction with others. This process included selecting items of dress to communicate a desired aspect of self (i.e., identity) as well as to convey that desired aspect to others. One stage in this process is an individual’s review of his/her own appearance. This evaluation and response to one’s own appearance is called program. One might experience a program by looking in the mirror to assess whether the intended identity expressed through dress is the one that is actually achieved. After this evaluation of one’s appearance, the next stage involves others reacting to an individual’s appearance. This is called a review. Stone contends that when “programs and reviews coincide, the self of the one who appears is validated or established” (p. 92). However, when programs and reviews do not coincide, the announced identity is challenged and “conduct may be expected to move in the direction of some redefinition of the challenged self” (p. 92).

Researchers using this approach in their investigations of dress have used Stone’s ( 1962 ) ideas and applied the concept of review to the experiences of sorority women. Hunt and Miller ( 1997 ) interviewed sorority members about their experiences with using dress to communicate their membership and how members, via their reviews, shaped their sorority appearances. Members reported using several techniques in the review of the appearance of other members as well as in response to their own appearance (i.e., programs). Thus, the researcher’s results supported Stone’s ideas concerning establishment of an identity (as an aspect of self) as a process of program and review.

In an investigation of the meaning of dress, in this instance the meaning of a specific body modification—a tattoo, Mun et al. ( 2012 ) interviewed women of various ages who had tattoos to assess meanings, changes in self-perceptions as a result of the tattoo, and any changes in the women’s behavior as an outcome of being tattooed. To guide their inquiry, the researchers used Goffman’s ( 1959 ) discussion of the concept of self-presentation from his seminal work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . According to Goffman, on a regular basis people make inferences about the motivations that underlie other people’s behaviors. To make these inferences they use everyday details. Because most people make these inferences, Goffman believed that individuals could purposely control the content of those inferences by controlling their behavior. Included in this behavior was an individual’s dress. These researchers found support for Goffman’s reasoning. Participants shared that their tattoo(s) had meaning and were expressive of their selves, their personal values and interests, important life events (e.g., marriage), and religious/sacred beliefs. The meaning of a tattoo was also dynamic for several participants rather than static. Participants’ self-perceptions were impacted as a result of being tattooed with several participants sharing increases to their confidence and to their perceived empowerment. Individuals who shared a change in behavior primarily noted that they controlled the visibility of their tattoos to others as a method to control how others might respond to them having a tattoo especially within the workplace.

Since an array of body modifications (e.g., piercings, gauging, scarification) are being adopted cross-culturally, investigations of people’s experiences with any of these modifications is fertile area for future researchers interested in the meaning(s) of dress and how dress impacts the self through interaction with others. Researchers may want to investigate men’s experiences with piercing/gauging as well as women’s experiences with body building and other developing forms of body modification. Extreme forms of body piercings (e.g., piercings that simulate corset lacings) and underlying motivations for these body modifications would add to our understanding of relationships between dress and self. The meanings of facial hair to men or body hair removal (partial, total) for both men and women are additional aspects of dress that could be investigated.

Dress and self as influence on consumption

In the aforementioned research by Ogle et al. ( 2013 ), the researchers found that a primary reason their participants were disappointed by the maternity clothing offered through the marketplace was due to a lack of fit between their selves and the clothing styles made available. Thus, it is clear that ideas about the self impact clothing selection and purchase. Sirgy ( 1982 ) proposed self-image product-image congruity theory to describe the process of how people applied ideas concerning the self to their purchasing. The basic assumption of the theory is that through marketing and branding, products gain associated images. The premise of the theory is that products people are motivated to purchase are products with images that are congruent with or symbolic of how they see themselves (i.e., actual self-image) or with how they would like to be (i.e., ideal self-image). They also will avoid those products that symbolize images that are inconsistent with either of these self-images.

Rhee and Johnson ( 2012 ) found support for the self-image product-image congruity relationship with male and female adolescents. These researchers investigated the adolescents’ purchase and use of clothing brands. Participants indicated their favorite apparel brand was most similar to their actual self (i.e., this brand reflects who I am), followed by their social self (i.e., this brand reflects who I want others to think I am), and their desired self (i.e., this brand reflects who I want to be).

Earlier, Banister and Hogg ( 2004 ) conducted research investigating the idea that consumers will actively reject or avoid products with negative symbolic meanings. The researchers conducted group interviews with adult consumers. Their participants acknowledged that clothing items could symbolize more than one meaning depending on who was interpreting the meaning. They also acknowledged that the consumers they interviewed appeared to be more concerned with avoiding consumption of products with negative symbolic images than with consuming products with the goal of achieving a positive image. One participant noted that while attempts to achieve a positive image via clothing consumption may be sub-conscious, the desire to avoid a negative image when shopping was conscious.

Closing remarks

It is clear from our review that interest in the topic of the social psychology of dress is on-going and provides a fruitful area of research that addresses both basic and applied research questions. Although we provided an overview of several key research areas within the topic of the social psychology of dress we were unable to include all of the interesting topics being investigated. There are other important areas of research including relationships between dress and specific social and cultural identities, answering questions about how dress functions within social groups, how we learn to attach meanings to dress, and changing attitudes concerning dress among others. Regardless, we hope that this review inspires both colleagues and students to continue to investigate and document the important influence dress exerts in everyday life.

a These researchers used role theory to frame their investigation.

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Johnson, K., Lennon, S.J. & Rudd, N. Dress, body and self: research in the social psychology of dress. Fashion and Textiles 1 , 20 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40691-014-0020-7

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The Impact of Fashion on Youth Culture

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The Influence Of Fashion On Teenagers

Laura Tolentino

Updated on: May 27, 2023

Over time, fashion has been associated with teenagers, but that might not be entirely true. Fashion defines all of us and it has the power to make a difference between people. Fashion does not mean wearing what you see on TV or in Magazines, fashion means adapting. The influence of fashion on teenagers was always huge.

Fashion’s “victims”?

It is intriguing what kind of influence has fashion over teenagers and how easily they copy anything. Besides clothing and looks, fashion can also mean a type of behavior or a lifestyle that people adopt. Not a long time ago, the “ EMO ” style was very popular among teenagers and we can all agree that it wasn’t a beneficial thing.

A simple decision, insignificant at first sight, can radically change their attitude, and the way they think, feel, and act. Clothing defines all of us in a positive or negative way. It depends on us.

The Good Influences

Teenagers are highly influential and fashion can have both bad and good effects on them. A good one would be that they are more confident and social among others because the way you look can make you feel that way. Clothes themselves do not have superpowers. However, they are characterized by symbols with a strong impact. For example, when teenage girls wear high heels or when men wear suits, they feel independent and have better self-esteem. Fashion can also help teenagers find a group that has the same taste as they do. This will guide them to identify themselves and form as a person.

The Victims

On the other hand, some teenagers want to get attention and they realized they can do that through clothes. When younger girls wear highly sexual clothing, they tend to act in a certain way, which leads to being treated inappropriately. But this is just the effect of society pressuring teenagers to have a status and be unique. Sadly, some of them end up being insecure about themselves when it comes to being original and creative because they were thought to copy and do anything that is in trend at a certain moment.

Fashion changes the way that teens act, dress, and think and it changes their lives. Teens tend to look up for models and unfortunately, not all of them know how to choose those models. Most of the teen’s models today show too much skin and they think this is the way it is supposed to be.

It is true that clothes exceeded their primary role of protecting the body and transformed into an extension of our personalities. This is why most teenagers spend most of their time and money on appearances and some of them don’t know the limits. They need to learn that fashion is a good thing that helps the human being to improve, but it can also have a bad influence if they don’t know when and where to stop. In other words, nothing exaggerated is healthy and teenagers need to learn to make the difference between vulgar and beautiful because if they continue on one patch, they will transform into persons in no time.

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Fashion Advertising and Its Influences on People Essay

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Introduction

Advertising in fashion affects people’s perception, fashion advertising influences people’s intentions of buying, advertising in fashion leads to impulse buying, advertising in fashion exploits consumers (socially, mentally, and economically), works cited.

Currently, the fashion industry plays an important role in many peoples’ lives. Most people in the developed world have heard of brands such as Chanel, Dior, and Dolce & Gabbana, among others. People spend a lot of time and effort in order to perfect their appearance. One of the most important factors that influence the increased level of attention given to appearance is the unparalleled development of media and digital technologies.

Due to these technologies, people are in a position to compare their outfits with others. Apparently, people compete with each other in life, and thus they end up buying things because their friends have done it. Another factor that influences the development of interest in fashion is advertising.

Combined with digital technologies and media, advertising is among the topmost factors that influence the choices that people make and subsequent behaviors. A study on the fashion advertising processes and their influences on people will help to understand some of the impacts created by increased advertising.

Advertising is a complicated phenomenon as it employs a number of aspects in a bid to reach the target market. It takes into account the peculiarities of different people, and this aspect is very important for every advertising company. In a bid to convince consumers to buy goods or services, an advertisement should influence their consciences in order to buy into the idea of that product or service.

Therefore, the importance of psychology and its influence on advertising could help to understand the main aspects of its functioning. Another factor in advertising is gender. Conventionally, it is believed that women devote more attention to their appearance and fashion as compared to men. However, nowadays, this belief is changing. In contemporary times, men have started to be conscious and concerned with their appearance. This aspect could have a great influence on advertising due to the different ways of influencing men and women to buy such products.

Some brands or names have great significance in the world of fashion such that associating products with these names or brands influences how they are received in the market. Therefore, authority is an important aspect in the world of fashion. Some of the well-known brands such as Chanel or Dior do not need special advertising companies as these organizations are known widely, and they have other ways of promoting their popularity.

As advertising involves different factors, viz. the people’s psyche, genders, and popular names, it affects the consumers’ lives in disparate ways. The methods used by the advertisers have to influence people towards the brands being advertised. This paper discusses how advertising affects people’s lives negatively. In addition, the paper identifies four major ways in which advertising affects the consumers’ lives by drawing arguments from various authors to support the thesis.

By using celebrity endorsement, fashion advertisers develop a harmonious image between the product and the customers in a bid to occasion certain advantages, which include increased attention towards a particular fashion brand, introduction of brand, and its repositioning (Carroll 150).

These celebrity endorsements, together with social media, are increasingly taking the leading role in influencing the consumers’ perceptions towards particular fashion products (Lahiri and Siddika 66-73). Marketers in the industry employ these advertising formats to influence people’s perception by imparting fashion behavior among them.

By using rational appeals (e.g., product’s quality, economy, value, or performance) as well as emotional and positive appeals, advertisers change the consumers’ beliefs about the advertised brand (Keshari and Jain 38). Since the consumers are different in the way they respond to rational and emotional advertising appeals, rational appeals elicit a favorable response from customers.

Due to the perceptions and beliefs imparted on consumers, other consequences arise, which include people working for many hours without saving, and thus they end up borrowing to finance their lifestyles. All these aspects arise from the fashion behavior created by advertising (Alexander par. 11).

Advertising appears dangerous due to social, cultural, and economic factors. Alexander notes other consequences of advertising as economic burdens, prevalent social inequity driven by extrinsic motivations, as well as high incidences of mental illness due to unresolved extrinsic motivations and personal debts (par. 12-14).

Monbiot sees advertising as either being ineffectual or raising enormous ethical questions every day (par. 4). According to Monbiot, some of the most pronounced consequences of advertising include poor working habits, individual debt, problems in family life, and the inability to save (par. 6). These aspects occur because advertisers use messages that are designed to trigger emotional responses instead of rational receptions from consumers.

The contemporary fashion industry is driven by wealth as opposed to loyalty to consumers (Dallas par. 14). Due to rapidly changing trends, consumers buy new products regularly regardless of their prices. Apparently, consumers are influenced by the fashion market to disregard perceptive shopping (Dallas par. 6). On the positive side, this aspect shows that fashion-driven customers have a positive perception of the brands in question.

When top celebrities endorse a certain fashion, it increases attention towards that brand, thus polishing its image and repositioning it in the marketplace (Carroll 150). There is a feeling among consumers that any brand endorsed by a certain celebrity is the best, and thus their attitudes, values, beliefs, needs, and expectations shift towards that particular brand.

More consumers would intend to buy such a brand because it is associated with a celebrity personality. Fashion retail promotions create attitudes that are oriented to fashion, debts, and the tendency to spend on clothing among consumers (Lahiri and Siddika 65).

When marketing tools like TV shows, fashion advertisements, marketing displays inside stores, and fashion events in large shopping malls are used, they influence the customers’ purchase intention for fashion and designer apparel. This aspect brings another perspective of advertising related to the view that consumers can be influenced to shift their shopping behavior through relationship building and seasonal offers.

Therefore, the consumers’ preferences form on the basis of likes, feelings, and emotions brought by the advertisement. They may also be triggered by being exposed to the advertisements, but not the brand attribute information itself (Keshari and Jain 37). Marketers use advertising appeals that are designed to attract, develop, and mobilize the consumers’ feelings in favor of a particular brand or service (Keshari and Jain 38).

Advertising involves the use of appealing messages to attract consumers’ feelings towards a particular brand or service (Keshari & Jain 38). Therefore, it generates the need for the fashion brand because the advertising messages persuade the customers to invest in fashion by making purchase decisions. In this case, the purchase is driven by the advertisement and not need.

Advertising influences the people’s mindsets through pervasiveness and repetition, coupled with how consumers blindly or passively process and absorb the imagery and messages contained in the advertisements without objection. The messages used in advertising trigger responses that are emotional rather than rational (Monbiot par. 5).

This aspect makes advertising a way of enhancing the customers’ choices by offering very little choice about seeing and hearing, but no response (Monbiot par. 4). In the fashion context, this aspect shows how consumers are duped into buying fashion products from a broader pool of choices.

Due to the shifting market trends, customers buy fashion products without looking at the price worthiness. They are influenced by the fashion market to go for a full closet instead of slower shopping (Dallas par. 6). This aspect shows how the fast fashion industry contributes to repeat purchase decisions among consumers.

The format of executing hedonic advertising by highlighting the pleasures of having certain products helps customers to see the imagery of the consumption experience (Moore and Lee 107). The process of visualizing creates strong anticipation of emotions to be experienced by the customer after buying the fashion product. If the anticipated emotions are activated, the consumers are torn between impulse and restraint. They may concede to the purchase of the fashion product. Advertisements with hedonic dimensions of a product stimulate the effect instead of the cognitive processing system (Moore and Lee 108).

Advertising engagement opens up the room for identifying means of persuading consumers (Phillips and McQuarrie 370). This aspect shows that the major objective of advertising is to persuade consumers to purchase products or services irrespective of their needs.

This aspect explains why advertising practitioners would use attractive celebrities to succeed in changing the beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes of consumers toward particular fashion products with the view of generating purchase intentions. In such cases, the image (celebrity endorsement) is used to shift the beliefs and perceptions of consumers regardless of their needs.

The involvement of customers in a fashion product depends on how they perceive it and how their peers respond to the resulting personality and change proneness (Lahiri and Siddika 65). This statement underscores the importance of friends and peers in perpetrating fashion behavior among consumers. It shows that advertising alone is not to blame for the upsurge of consumers who make decisions about their clothing styles based on public opinion.

In advertising, appealing messages are used to attract the consumers’ feelings towards a particular brand or service (Keshari & Jain 38). This assertion implies that advertising in fashion generates the need for the fashion brand, and the advertising messages persuade the customers to invest in fashion by making purchase decisions.

In this case, the purchase is driven by the advertisement and not need. In addition, due to advertising, some consumers are triggered to be in pursuit of status, financial prosperity, cultural goals, and self-interests (Alexander par. 11). As a result, such consumers spend such a lot of money on fashion due to the illusion of advertising.

Advertisers use evolving knowledge in science to enhance intuitive judgments that are made without conscious effort on the side of the customers where they purchase the goods (Monbiot par. 6). They use messages that only trigger emotional responses rather than rational ones. In the fashion context, this statement demonstrates how advertising is effective in igniting the emotional responses of consumers in order to elevate impulsive buying behavior.

Fashion advertising has shifted the consumers’ behavior towards a desire for instant gratification. The vicious cycle is maintained in the fashion industry by training consumers to buy more products without even considering the price or quality. As a result, consumers spend more just to keep up with the artificial expectations of the fashion industry.

The modern fashion market is motivated by wealth, as opposed to being loyal to consumers (Dallas par. 14). This statement shows the centrality of money in the contemporary fashion scene. The industry is driven by the power of buying, as opposed to the need for the products.

Advertisers exploit consumers by using narrative transportation, which moves consumers into a story world by involving them in a tale (Phillips and McQuarrie 368). This assertion holds because advertisers engage in persuasive ads differently in ways that benefit the brands that created this imagery (Phillips and McQuarrie 380).

This aspect shows that advertising practitioners have mastered how to employ grotesque imagery and to use narratives to transport the same to consumers with the view of creating market opportunities for fashion brands. This move benefits the brand owners and not the customers. In the process, the customers are exploited mentally and financially.

Celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising, which creates a harmonizing image between the products and the customers. It results in certain advantages, which include increased attention towards a particular fashion brand, image polishing, brand introduction, and brand repositioning (Carroll 150).

Various forms of advertising (e.g., celebrity endorsement) continue to be employed as fundamentally important tools in brand image creation that functions by transferring cultural meanings and their implications from celebrities through the product to consumers (Carroll 155). This aspect exploits the cultural values of consumers.

Consumers are attracted to attractive people. This assertion explains why advertisers increasingly rely on attractive models to shift the people’s attitudes, values and needs toward particular fashion brands. When a celebrity image is used to shift the beliefs and perceptions of customers, their culture is exploited.

Powerful advertising tools like television fashion shows, fashion ads, in-store displaying, and fashion marketing events in large shopping centers affect the transnational cosmopolitanism amongst consumers (Lahiri and Siddika 65). The distinctiveness of fashion features (e.g., designer brand, endorsements, and reviews) benefits the emotions of consumers to influence their purchase intention for fashion and designer apparel.

These elements influence fashion behavior among consumers. Celebrity endorsements are increasingly taking the leading role in influencing consumers’ perceptions regarding particular fashion products (Lahiri and Siddika 66-73). In this case, the consumers are forced to be like celebrities, hence being exploited culturally by being made to forget themselves.

Consumers form preferences based on elements such as what they like and their emotions, coupled with how they feel. These elements are induced by being familiar with a given advertisement, which is triggered by being exposed to the advertisements, instead of product attribute information (Keshari and Jain 37).

Therefore, consumers cannot decide for themselves. Advertisers use specific advertising appeals to please and influence the consumers’ feelings towards a particular product or service (Keshari and Jain 38). Therefore, advertising in fashion generates a desire for a fashion product. The advertising appeals convince the customers to buy fashion products by making purchase decisions under the influence of the appeals. This scenario is a form of mental exploitation.

Advertising was a good thing during the early days as it was employed for the intended purposes. However, this aspect has changed, and it is now becoming dangerous due to social, cultural, and economic consequences (Alexander par. 6). These consequences include economic burdens, prevalent social inequity driven by extrinsic motivations, as well as high incidences of mental illness due to unresolved extrinsic motivations, and personal debts (Alexander par. 12-14).

Humans are “naturally co-operative and competitive as they have self-interests driven by the desire to fulfill the purpose relative to their peers” (Alexander par. 10). This assertion summarizes many factors that make fashion hold consumers at ransom. Consumers have been entrapped in the snare of advertising, and something has to be done to free them from the vicious cycle of impulsive spending.

The fast-fashion phenomenon comes at a cost as business people use materials of low quality, and thus they sell items that cannot last for long (Dallas par. 6). Consequently, fashion-driven customers spend much, but they get less quality. The fashion companies take advantage of rapidly changing trends by selling items of very low quality, which cannot last, hence economically exploiting their consumers (Dallas par. 13).

The hedonic advertising execution format highlighting the pleasures of consumption plays a vital role in improving the ability of the consumer to see images developed by their experience of consumption. This visualization process leads to strong anticipation of the emotions to be experienced by the consumers upon buying the fashion product.

In the event that the anticipated emotions are activated, the consumers experience a conflict between impulse and restraint, and thus they may end up generating excuses to justify conceding to the purchase of the fashion product. Some consumers spend all their earnings on fashion products, and thus they are exploited.

Advertising is the way companies communicate to persuade or convince consumers to purchase their products. Advertisements are relayed in various ways. They include television and radio commercials, media, billboards, and product placements. Advertisements are placed strategically in a bid to reach the largest and the most relevant audience.

This paper has shown that advertisements have to raise the psyche of the audience in a bid to influence people towards a certain brand. In fashion advertising, advertisements are tailored to attract both genders because what attracts men may not attract women. This paper has shown that fashion advertising affects consumers in four broad ways. First, advertisement changes the consumers’ perception, thus making them perceive some brands as superior to others.

Consequently, the brands that are not advertised may be perceived as inferior even though this perception may be erroneous. Second, advertising influences consumers’ intentions of buying. This aspect leads to another effect, viz. the impulse buying. Advertising agents exploit consumers through advertisements.

Through ads, advertisers tempt consumers to buy what they do not need. In addition, advertisers fill images in their minds, which colonize the consumers to behave as if imitating the images. Moreover, advertisers dupe consumers into buying substandard goods at very high prices. Due to the superiority of the brands created by the ads, the consumers find themselves buying impulsively.

Alexander, Jon. “ Advertising itself is not evil, but it has Certainly Got out of Control .” The Guardian . 2011. Web.

Carroll, Angela. “Brand Communities in Fashion Categories using Celebrity Endorsement.” Journal of Brand Management 17.2 (2009): 146-158. Print.

Dallas, Kelsey. “Shopping, Fast and Slow: How the Fashion Industry Drives Consumer Behavior.” Deseret News . 2014.

Keshari, Pragya, and Sangeeta Jain. “Consumer Response to Advertising Appeals: A Gender Based Study.” Journal of Marketing and Communication 9.3 (2014): 37-43. Print.

Lahiri, Isita, and Humaira Siddika. “Fashion Behavior: Detangling Promotional Factors.” Globsyn Management Journal 8.2 (2014): 64-76. Print.

Monbiot, George. “ Advertising is a Poison that Demeans even Love – and we are hooked on it .” 2011. Web.

Moore, David, and Seung Lee. “How advertising influences consumption impulses.” Journal of Advertising 41.3 (2012): 107-126. Print.

Phillips, Barbara, and Edward McQuarrie. “Narrative and Persuasion in Fashion Advertising.” Journal of Consumer Research 37.3 (2010): 368-392. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2020, April 16). Fashion Advertising and Its Influences on People. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-advertising-and-its-influences-on-people/

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IvyPanda . 2020. "Fashion Advertising and Its Influences on People." April 16, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-advertising-and-its-influences-on-people/.

1. IvyPanda . "Fashion Advertising and Its Influences on People." April 16, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-advertising-and-its-influences-on-people/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Fashion Advertising and Its Influences on People." April 16, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-advertising-and-its-influences-on-people/.

East Meets West in Chinese Fashion Culture

Maggie Cheung wearing a cheongsam with floral motifs mirroring her surroundings, in Wong Kar-Wai's 2000 movie "In the Mood for Love". (Credit: IMDB)

Historically speaking, since the end of the 19th century China has gradually integrated occidental aesthetics in many areas and aspects and slowly internationalized its clothing patterns. This essay aims to present fashion history through its recent development in China, by giving importance to the place of its cultural and aesthetic evolution. It will summarize the Chinese fashion history into four representative turning points as follows:

Firstly, it will describe the beginnings of the “Hongxiang Fashion Corporation”, which at the beginning of the 20th century became the first Chinese clothing company to identify itself with “Fashion”, including the word shizhuang (时装) in its name, and boldly demonstrating to the Chinese people what the Western concept of “fashion” looked like. It began to introduce some occidental clothing patterns and commercial concepts, producing both purely Western clothing as well as Chinese clothing with Western influence.

Secondly, it will deal in detail with the qipao (also known as cheongsam in Cantonese), a remarkable example of East-West fusion in the history of Chinese clothing. The qipao has been popularized in the West since 2000 through Wong Kar-wai’s film, In the Mood for Love , but has a significantly longer history. It is aesthetically identified by many people as a representative clothing of Chinese traditional style, communicating national identity on international occasions.

Hu Die (胡蝶) wearing a white muslin dress designed by the Hongxiang company, c.1930s. Also known by the English nickname Butterfly Wu, Hu Die was one of the most popular Chinese actresses during the 1920s and 1930s.

Thirdly, this paper gives luxury a particularly vivid “definition”, in sight of the younger generation in China who were born since the 1980s. This generation insists more strongly on choosing luxury products of their own preference and buying clothes according to their personal taste. In general, they prefer the fashion of a bourgeois lifestyle, try to catch up with the latest Western trends, love to kill time in cafés and bars, and have become used to traveling around the world since their adolescence. Meanwhile, it is in this same period that luxury Western brands seduced the Chinese through their refined craftsmanship and concept of luxury, enabling a means for people to feel rich and appear upper class—in replacement of Chinese traditional taste, which was unfortunately forgotten for some decades.

Fourthly, the essay will chart the emergence of a Pan-Chinese style of fashion over the past five years, which has revived Chinese traditional culture as its aesthetic basis, and adapted these traditions to the taste of this younger generation. The most popular trend in Pan-Chinese style is the so-called guochao (国潮), which can be paraphrased as “China Cool”.

For Ying Xiang, this essay has been serialized into two parts. The first part, published below, groups chapters one and two to travel through the origins and history of the aesthetic fusion of East and West in Chinese clothing. The second part, chapters three and four, will concentrate on new trends and approaches to East-West fusion in the present.

1. TSUI Christine, China Fashion—Conversations with Designers , Oxford, New York: Berg, 2010, p.10. 2. LUO Gongqi, “The tailors in Pudong”, Xinmin Evening News, 26, February 2010.

The first Chinese person who mastered the technique of Western tailoring and made a first batch of women’s wear in the Western style in China was named Zhao Chunlan (赵春兰). His documents have been preserved in the Shanghai Municipal Archive Center, and he is considered as the “Father of Chinese Fashion.” Born into a tailor’s family at the beginning of the 19th century in Shanghai, Zhao joined a boys’ choir in a church in that metropolitan city. In 1848, on the choir’s tour of America 1 (another document refers to England 2 ) with a priest, Zhao began to learn the foreign tailor’s skills, and more precisely how to make Western clothes for female clients. When he returned to China, he shared his cutting and sewing knowledge with his Chinese students.

At this same time, the development of fashion and influence of Western lifestyles had already just begun to change the daily appearance of Chinese youngsters, because of the fancy clothing of the Hollywood stars and images from the European fashion magazines. This greatly stimulated the evolution of native Chinese tailors. First were the Benbang (本帮, a synonym for Shanghai style—the word “ben” means local), before some of the Benbang tailors, using many more Western ways of tailoring, developed into Hongbang (红帮, the word “hong” signified red, the color of some Western people’s hair, as distinguished from the black hair of Chinese; Hongbang thus attested to these tailors’ strong preference for the Western style). Through gradually adapting the essentials of Western tailoring techniques to traditional Chinese tailoring, the Hongbang tailors started to pay more attention to the silhouette of women’s wear, which was much more different than men’s wear. In fact, traditional Chinese tailoring is almost flat with no modeling volume, particularly from the Song Dynasty until the end of the Qing Dynasty, with no difference in silhouette between men’s wear and women’s wear as far as tailoring techniques were concerned.

Front cover of The Ladies’ Journal (芸窗讀畫), February 1915 (painting by Xu Yongqing (徐詠青))—one of the new journals created shortly before and after the 1911 Republican revolution to satisfy and profit from public demand for reading matter on modern subjects.

An advertisement promoting the products of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco , 1931.

3. XU Hualong, The Historical Culture of Clothes in Shanghai (上海服装文化史 (Shanghai fuzhuang wenhuashi)), Shanghai: Oriental Publishing Center, 2010, p.248.

Among the Chinese Hongbang tailors were two brothers named Jin Hongxiang (金鸿翔) and Jin Yixiang (金仪翔), from the fourth generation of Zhao Chunlan’s family tree. Founded in 1917 in Shanghai, Hongxiang Fashion Corporation (鸿翔时装公司), was the first company that clearly evoked the name and meaning of “fashion” in China 3 . An intellectual friend of the founders’ devised the company’s name, combining the two Chinese characters shi and zhuang , respectively meaning fashion and clothes, to connote fashionable dress. Shizhuang would subsequently become a default expression for fashion and fashionable dress in the future. The Hongxiang Fashion Corporation had significant influence and impact in China, and perfectly illustrates the nature of a Chinese fashion company in that particular period—before 1949, when with the founding of the People’s Republic of China, private companies were required to close.

4. XI Zhen, The Boss in Shanghai (上海老板 (Shanghai laoban)), Shanghai: Wenhui Publishing House, 2010, p.298.

The two brothers were extremely good at promoting and selling their products to the stars, actors and celebrities of the time, who indeed looked great in their dresses. For big events, like a film festival or a celebrity’s birthday party, the designers would give their dresses free as gifts to the celebrities, in order to demonstrate their clothing. For example, a white muslin dress, a gift of the Hongxiang company, was worn by the famous film actress Hu Die (胡蝶) when she was honored as the first Queen of Chinese Cinema in 1933. Two years later, a dress was embroidered with a hundred butterflies and presented to her as a gift at her marriage, the designer inspired by the pronunciation of her name being a homophonic of butterfly (蝴蝶, Hu Die). The reputation of the Hongxiang company as a clothing brand was also built through its self-organized fashion shows of updated collections. The 1934 collection was greatly benefited by the great celebrity Hu Die, and the beautiful butterfly dress that was made for her in particular.

At the international level, it was also the Hongxiang company that designed and made a red cape of traditional Chinese style in 1947 for the marriage of Queen Elizabeth. This magnificent cape of pure silk was embroidered with a refined giant phoenix in gold and silver thread, a symbolic representation of a queen in Chinese traditional culture. 4 A black lacquer box was used to contain this cape and sent to London through the British counselor in Shanghai. In return, the Hongxiang company received a letter of acknowledgement with the signature of Queen Elizabeth, and the seal of Buckingham Palace. A copy of Queen Elizabeth’s marriage cape and her autographed letter are exhibited in a glass case in the Shanghai Municipal Archive Center today.

5. The traditional moral custom for Chinese women in the Confucian principle. The Three Obediences refer to: obeying her father before her marriage, her husband when married, and her sons in widowhood; The Four Virtues refer to: traditional morality, adequate speech, dignified appearance and hard work. Together these demonstrate the spiritual restraints of submission and conjugal virtue that were imposed on women in feudal society in ancient China.

In general, the dresses made by the Hongxiang company were considered luxurious clothing, because of their much higher prices compared to other brands. With models parading around their shops in the current season’s clothes, and fashion shows held in stores on a regular basis, the company displayed itself much like the well-known “Maisons de Coutures” in Paris, such as Worth and Chanel. The Western aesthetic went on to gradually be expressed in the appearance of Chinese dress throughout the twentieth century. Western cutting skills and three-dimensional tailoring techniques gave dresses a more feminine silhouette—highlighting the chest, waist and hips, and creating a curvier profile. In contrast, the appearance and aesthetic principles of a traditional Chinese sense of beauty were considered more reserved, discreet and subtle. The flat cutting and sewing skills of traditional Chinese tailors were able, and intended, to conceal the whole body well, especially the lines and curves of the Chinese woman, while the Chinese sense of beauty remained subject to the moral codes of the Old Empire, which told women that whatever they had to do must be done according to the "Three Obediences and Four Virtues" (三从四德) 5 . Moreover, as it was considered preferable that a beautiful lady followed the rules and rarely showed herself in public, the long garment that she would wear was accordingly designed to totally cover her body and hamper her walking. This same concept and shape were shared by the original qipao . Women were restricted not only through foot-binding, but also from the long-standing ritual bondage of the Empire, which was reflected in the body’s concealment and restraint by clothing.

6. DIKOTTER Frank, Things Modern: Material Culture and Everyday Life in China, London: Hurst & Company, 2007, p.73. 7. Ibid, p.107.

Obviously, the qipao represents to western gaze a national image of Chinese femininity, a piece of clothing that offers a natural bridge between the seductive romanticism and refined delicacy of "Old Shanghai" and the softness and silkiness of the style of Jiangnan (the southern region by the Yangtze River), despite this totally ignoring the fact that the qipao was actually "born" in the capital of the Old Empire: Beijing.

In fact, the qipao reflects the progress of feminine aesthetics in China throughout the twentieth century, recognizing changes in Chinese women’s national and gender identities. The original form of the qipao was quite loosely shaped and flatly cut, significantly different, if not opposite, to the way Western tailoring’s three-dimensional cutting skills seek to highlight the curves of a women’s body. In the early 20th century, a revolution in transportation followed new discoveries in Europe, beginning with the steamer in the 1860s and culminating in the advent of aviation in the 1930s. 6 In China, the general movement of goods and people gradually shifted from water to wheel. New distribution points were built for foreign goods, more resources were opened up, and a denser network was shaped that extended to places far beyond China. 7 These foreign goods brought convenience and beauty into daily life, as well as bearing the intangible aesthetics of the West. All the hustle and bustle of the urban landscape resulting from this revolution in transportation, combined with the import of foreign cultures, aroused people's awareness of the female beauty hidden under the loose full-length robe.

In this illustration by Yuan Xiutang, a girl poses in a lengthy qipao with Shanghai’s urban horizon in the background, during qipao’s golden era, c.1930s. (Collection of the Shanghai History Museum)

In 1912, official formal dress codes established the "embroidered blouse and pleated skirt" as the "female ceremonial costume." At the same time, women’s dresses had already started to abandon their lengthiness and a heaviness of decorative elements in favor of a shortening, narrowing and visual simplification of costume. During the revolutionary period, at the beginning of the Republic of China, costumes became increasingly tight, and women’s clothes alternated between having a "collar in the shape of silver bullion", (losing all balance and/or symmetry), and a "sleeve in the form of a trumpet", (exhibiting the wrist and a large part of the forearm). One of the significant appeals and influences of Western clothing was its ability to simplify movement: collars lost height before disappearing, changing shape from round to square, then from square to pointed. If this period of political instability between the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China deprived the Chinese people of ways to improve their overall living conditions, they could at least do something for their bodies and clothes. The relative failure of the Chinese in some sectors of activity led them to move their creativity to the field of clothing. During the twentieth century Chinese women began to accept Western culture, and pursue equality with men. But this ideal lagged behind a reality marked by significant gender inequality, a situation that maintained a sense of shame and anger among women. The first step was finally taken in the 1920s however, when cultural magazines and newspaper supplements became interested in fashion and openly created sections on costumes from around the world. The article "Evolution of Women’s Wear," published in 1921 in Shanghai’s famous Women’s Magazine (妇女杂志), critiques the fact that traditional Chinese female costume was cut too straight and covered up female beauty, advocating instead for clothing that highlighted the curves of the woman, as with the modern qipao.

8. The Chinese name of two-piece form for women is 上衣下裳 (shangyi xiachang). 9. YUAN Ze, HU Yue , Centennial Clothes (百年衣裳 (Bainian Yishang)), Beijing: JDX Joint Publishing Company, 2010, p.123

The most current explanation of women’s choice to wear the qipao at the time of the Republic of China (1912-1949) places the adoption of the dress in relation to an awareness and pursuit of women's rights. Since men wore a one-piece gown in the traditional clothing convention, women pursuing equality and progress also chose to wear a gown instead of a two-piece form (a traditional jacket/shirt and skirt) 8 , as if the gown was a symbol of equal significance and rights to men. Some even believe that the earliest qipao for women in the Republic of China was a men's gown, or a modified feminized form of the men's gown. 9

In the late 1920s, the qipao began to change its shape significantly under Western influence—becoming tighter and fitting closer to the body, with the trumpet-shaped sleeves made shorter and narrower. From a purely academic point of view, the modern qipao found its roots in the qipao of the 1920s. In April 1929, the Nanking government implemented a new dress code that confirmed the qipao as acceptable female ceremonial dress, for an occasion paying a last, posthumous, tribute to Sun Yat-sen, who founded the Chinese Republic in 1912. The qipao was thus formalized as national costume.

It was during the 1930s that the trend of qipao reached its peak. The structure of the qipao was constantly evolving with time, its ornaments and decorative items tended towards simplification, and its length and width changed every year. Major modifications included the length of the dress’ hemline, the height of its neckline, the number of buttons on the shoulder and the length and place of its side split.

To understand the evolution of qipao, it would be appropriate to summarize the main innovations of the qipao over ten years. In 1928, the length was moderate, and the cuff of its sleeves large. In 1929, the length of the dress raised from the ankle to beneath the knees, and the sleeves were shortened. In 1930, the length of the dress was adjusted to knee height, the waist tightened, and the lap cinched like a tulip skirt. In 1931, the short qipao was a trend, tight all over and adjusted to the body, strongly exposing a woman's curves. From 1932, the dress tended to become longer again in the hemline, dropping to the ankle or lower calf. At that time, high-heeled shoes were essential for wearers of the qipao to best reveal the decorated border of the dress and to reinforce its feminine charm.

From 1933, the qipao developed its high side slits, which had previously been low or non-existent. In 1934, the wearer’s feminine curves could now be fully expressed: the high collar which had before reached up to the ears was finally shortened, and even collarless qipaos began to emerge. In 1935, the qipao dropped the length of its lower hem again, extending to the ground to meet the needs of socialites.

However, the qipao of this mid-1930s period, also called the "broom qipao," quickly saw its imposing length abandoned, transforming itself into a shorter and more practical version. Meanwhile, the Sino-Japanese war began, and the qipao changed to a length more suitable and practical for activities. In 1936, the qipao became more tailored to the body, the side split extended to above the knee, the sleeves stopped at the shoulder and the collar narrowed but remained straight. From 1937, sleeve length was shortened to about two inches below the shoulder, nearing a sleeveless shape. In 1938, the sleeves totally disappeared, and the length became shorter too, compared to the previous year.

The strong influence of Western culture in the first half of the twentieth century came to an abrupt halt for approximately 30 years following the 1966 outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution saw the Chinese establish a very formal and utilitarian national dress code within its image of social clothing; the military costume, working costume, the Mao suit, with little variation in color between gray, green or blue. People dressed as a soldier, a farmer or a worker, as these were the most respectable professions at that time. Thus, personal appearances were closely attached to these three occupations. Occupational uniforms became everyone’s favorite clothes and were highly commended everywhere.

The aesthetics of everyday life were transformed when traditional Chinese classical culture—marked by the influence of Taoism and Confucianism—became obsolete during the Cultural Revolution. In the revolutionary period everything about classical culture had to be fought against. The Chinese people began to ignore their "traditional" and authentic concepts of beauty, and even made them disappear. On top of this, a kaleidoscope of foreign appearances eventually began to peek through the door once more. Since the economic reform of 1978 the Chinese again accepted foreign and modern things—first with curiosity, then by absorbing this European culture directly and unreservedly, consolidating their abandonment of their own culture during the Cultural Revolution. However, the image of the qipao as a symbol of the national beauty of Chinese women, and a combination of Chinese and Western culture, remained across history and in people’s hearts.

* This essay is an updated translation of a text entitled “Entre Occident et Orient: La nouvelle culture de la mode en Chine” in Esthétiques du quotidien en Chine , Paris: IFM/Regard, 2016, p.111-125. The essay’s second installment will be published in Ying Xiang’s next volume.

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Are The Kardashians Losing Their Influence?

With Kylie Jenner’s eponymous beauty brand reportedly in financial trouble and Kim Kardashian’s make-up brand launching to less fanfare than ever before – are the architects of modern influence losing their 'klout'?

Jenner’s post introducing the clothing label to her 399 million followers, which has been liked more than 2 million times, was captioned simply, ‘meet khy.’ This is the same entrepreneur whose infamous Lip Kits sold out just 10 minutes after they launched in 2015. The same entrepreneur who, in the days leading up to the Lip Kit launch, flooded her Instagram with posts intended to generate buzz. There was a post reminding her followers that there were 24 hours to go until her Lip Kits launched; there was a multitude of posts of gratitude upon the news that they'd sold out so rapidly. This was an influencer in her infancy. Fast forward a year, and Jenner revealed that in November 2016, Kylie Cosmetics generated roughly $19 million (£15 million) in sales in just 24 hours.

The winds appear to be changing, however, on the famous family. Where any of the family goes, criticism is sure soon to follow, so it didn’t take long for the critics to swarm the star's social channels upon revealing the launch of Khy. Detractors argued that the most chameleonic of the KarJenners – who was named as Forbes' youngest 'self-made billionaire' in 2019 – couldn’t possibly contribute anything to the fashion industry that didn't already exist. ‘The last thing we needed is another brand by you,’ one user wrote on social media. Another questioned whether it was an ‘try hard’ effort from Jenner to ‘be relevant.’

On TikTok, users also flocked in their droves to question the brand’s authenticity and quality. ‘I am so entirely confused,’ one user said in a video. Despite Khy’s mission statement upon launch being that the aim of the brand was to offer 'investment pieces at an affordable price point,' the user questioned why the brand’s second collaboration with Entire Studios, was loungewear that looked almost identical to Skims and Good American, two brands that were respectively founded by Jenner's sisters, Kim and Khloe. ‘Why do they all cannibalise each other’s brands?,’ she asked in a video. Another user called Khy's collection 'crap products' that ‘doesn’t look like anything Kylie would wear.'

But it’s not just TikTok users. Upon Khy’s first collection's launch, which was in collaboration with the design duo Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl of Namilia, a Berlin-based brand, creative director and designer Betsy Johnson accused the billionaire of ripping off her ideas. Johnson claimed that she had emailed Jenner’s team concepts, language and line sheets from her own label, Products , six months ago and claimed that they then used these ideas without due credit. Jenner did not respond to Johnson's allegations.

‘We emailed Kylie and all her team @products.ltd concept and language and a line sheet 6 MONTHS AGO,’ she wrote on her Instagram Stories . ‘INTERESTING CONCEPT KYLIE:… INTERESTING. Thanks for the co-sign… F**k your support.’

It didn't stop there. Rumours began circulating about Jenner and her businesses once again in May 2024 when a TikTok user by the name of @nicky.reardon began floating the idea that Jenner's namesake beauty brand, the same one that sold out of lip kits within its first 24 hours, may be headed towards bankruptcy.

In a video entitled, 'The Disastrous Demise Of Kylie Cosmetics', he pointed towards Jenner's recent rapid launch of side hustles, including a line of canned vodka cocktails, and a New York Post story that claims the youngest Jenner is struggling to sell her Beverly Hills mansion and has reduced the asking price considerably. Reardon also notes a correlation between Jenner's admission of lip filler and plastic surgery and a decline in Kylie Cosmetics sales. According to Statista , in 2017, the brand's revenue was $68.7 million (£59 million). Fast forward five years, and last year Kylie Cosmetics made less than half that amount.

A similar flop occurred in January 2024 when Kim Kardashian announced the re-launch of her KKW Beauty make-up line, which in its new iteration is now part of her overarching beauty offering, SKKN By Kim . SKKN BY KIM Makeup (try saying that in a hurry), comprises similar iterations of the matte lipsticks, lip liners and eyeshadow palettes that made her first make-up brand a household name for fans of the star. Her goal, Kardashian said in a statement, was to ‘create universally-flattering cosmetic essentials.’ On the same day that Kim’s new make-up launch was announced, Jenner also unveiled a new foundation launch under her own beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics. Is anybody else having a case of déjà vu?

The internet has surmised that the problem with the pair's most recent attempts to build upon the two sister’s existing brand umbrellas is that, culturally, we have reached peak Kardashian. ‘We’re bored,’ Emily Chapps, Digital Lead at MØRNING , tells ELLE UK . ‘There are only so many times that you can invent the wheel. Sure, Skims is a success since the product is amazing and there was a market gap for good supportive underwear, but on aesthetic alone, Khy and a re-do of KKW make-up, which they’ve done before, will only appeal to their fandom and not the masses.’

.css-1aear8u:before{margin:0 auto 0.9375rem;width:34px;height:25px;content:'';display:block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1aear8u:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/elle/static/images/quote.fddce92.svg);} .css-1bvxk2j{font-family:SaolDisplay,SaolDisplay-fallback,SaolDisplay-roboto,SaolDisplay-local,Georgia,Times,serif;font-size:1.625rem;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.125rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.125rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-1bvxk2j b,.css-1bvxk2j strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-1bvxk2j em,.css-1bvxk2j i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-1bvxk2j i,.css-1bvxk2j em{font-style:italic;} Where is the demand for more Kardashian lipliners? Or Kardashian loungewear? Or Kardashian T-shirts?

It was mysteriously reported after Khy’s first launch that the brand made $1 million in sales in its first hour of launch, while fans of Kardashian’s were quick to note that four hours after SKKN’s launch in 2022, none of its products had sold out. In an age where fans are increasingly demanding transparency from stars, the Kardashian’s cloying attempt at creating and building brands that seemingly tell the truth through campaigns that appear to celebrate diversity and individuality is cringe-worthy. Where is the demand for more Kardashian lipliners? Or Kardashian loungewear? Or Kardashian T-shirts? Their attempts at pivoting their brands are, in fact, attempts at gripping on tighter to the relevance they once had a firm grasp on. The question at the heart of the issue might not be SKKN or SKKN BY KIM Makeup, and it might not be Khy, but it is most certainly why.

‘In reality they are just now warming up for the sequel,’ adds Shadeh Kavousian, Creative Strategy Lead at MØRNING. ‘You know her name, it’s Northie.’

ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE .

Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. 

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The Importance of Fashion Designers

• Categories: Fashion

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Words: 520 |

Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 520 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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Social and cultural impact, economic impact, personal identity and empowerment.

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Padres Notes: A Stunning Promotion, Injury Updates, And a Historic Victory

J.p. hoornstra | 7 hours ago.

• San Diego Padres

At 36-25, the Kansas City Royals are one of the best — and most surprising — teams in the American League this year. Call it a measuring-stick series against a seldom-seen interleague opponent, but the Padres measured up. Sunday's walk-off loss was the Padres' only defeat in the three-game series, and they return home to California 32-30, in sole possession of second place in the National League West.

The weekend was not without its setbacks, however — Sunday's walkoff aside. Catch up on all the headlines you might have missed:

Padres Fast-Tracking Teenage Pitcher from Mexico

In a bold move, the Padres have promoted Humberto Cruz, a highly touted teenage pitching prospect from Mexico, to their Arizona Complex League for the summer. This decision underscores the Padres' commitment to building a strong pitching lineup for the future.

Luis Arraez Exits Game Due to Injury

Padres infielder Luis Arraez was removed from Sunday's game against the Kansas City Royals due to an apparent injury. This exit occurred during the sixth inning, sparking speculations about the severity of his injury.

Historic Comeback Win Over Royals

The Padres made franchise history in their 11-8 win on Saturday by recording 11 hits in a single inning. It was one of many highlights in a historic come-from-behind victory.

J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content for Halos Today and Inside the Padres, and is the author of 'The 50 Greatest Dodger Games Of All Time.' He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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The Enduring Influence of Buddhism in China

This essay is about the influence and significance of Buddhism in China, highlighting its historical roots, cultural integration, and contemporary relevance. Introduced during the Han Dynasty, Buddhism adapted to coexist with Confucian and Daoist traditions, gaining prominence by the Tang Dynasty. Its philosophical teachings on enlightenment, karma, and rebirth resonated with many Chinese, especially during times of turmoil. The essay discusses the proliferation of Buddhist temples and the development of distinct Chinese Buddhist schools like Chan (Zen) and Pure Land. Despite historical suppression, Buddhism has seen a revival in recent decades, impacting Chinese values, ethics, and practices. The essay underscores Buddhism’s enduring role in shaping Chinese spirituality and culture.

How it works

China, a country with a rich tapestry of cultural and spiritual history, is home to numerous religions that have shaped its society for millennia. Among these, Buddhism stands out as the most popular and influential religion, with deep roots and a significant impact on the Chinese way of life. Buddhism’s introduction to China, its evolution, and its enduring presence highlight its importance in Chinese culture and spirituality.

Buddhism first entered China during the Han Dynasty, around the first century CE, brought by traders and missionaries traveling along the Silk Road.

Initially, it faced resistance from the existing Confucian and Daoist traditions. However, Buddhism’s adaptability and its ability to assimilate aspects of these native philosophies helped it gain acceptance. By the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), Buddhism had firmly established itself as a major spiritual force, influencing art, literature, and philosophy.

One of the key reasons for Buddhism’s popularity in China is its philosophical depth and the promise of enlightenment and salvation. Unlike the more rigid structures of Confucianism, which focused on societal order and filial piety, Buddhism offered a path to personal spiritual liberation. This aspect of Buddhism resonated deeply with many Chinese, particularly during periods of social upheaval and political instability. The Buddhist teachings on karma, rebirth, and the pursuit of nirvana provided solace and a sense of purpose to countless individuals.

The integration of Buddhism into Chinese culture can be seen in the proliferation of temples, monasteries, and statues throughout the country. Iconic sites such as the Shaolin Monastery, renowned for its martial arts, and the Longmen Grottoes, with their intricate carvings of Buddha figures, stand as testaments to the religion’s profound impact. These sites not only serve as places of worship but also attract millions of tourists, contributing to the preservation and appreciation of Buddhist heritage.

Furthermore, Chinese Buddhism developed distinct schools and traditions that reflect the unique cultural context of China. The Chan (Zen) school, for instance, emphasizes meditation and the direct experience of enlightenment, a practice that has influenced various aspects of Chinese culture, including poetry, painting, and even modern mindfulness practices. The Pure Land school, with its focus on devotion to the Amitabha Buddha and the aspiration for rebirth in the Pure Land, has also garnered widespread following, particularly among lay practitioners.

In contemporary China, Buddhism continues to play a vital role in the spiritual lives of many people. Despite periods of suppression, particularly during the Cultural Revolution, there has been a revival of interest in Buddhist practices and teachings in recent decades. This resurgence is evident in the increasing number of people visiting temples, participating in meditation retreats, and engaging in Buddhist study groups. Additionally, the spread of Buddhism beyond China’s borders, facilitated by Chinese diaspora communities, has contributed to its global presence.

Buddhism’s influence extends beyond religious practices to various facets of Chinese society. Its ethical teachings have shaped Chinese values, emphasizing compassion, mindfulness, and the importance of moral conduct. These principles resonate in traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, and even modern business practices. The Buddhist concept of interdependence, which underscores the interconnectedness of all beings, has also found relevance in contemporary discussions on environmental conservation and social responsibility.

Moreover, the adaptability of Buddhism has enabled it to coexist harmoniously with other religious traditions in China. It is common to find individuals who identify with multiple belief systems, incorporating Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist practices into their daily lives. This syncretism highlights the inclusive and flexible nature of Chinese spirituality, where diverse paths can converge in the pursuit of harmony and balance.

In conclusion, Buddhism’s status as the most popular religion in China is a testament to its enduring appeal and profound impact on Chinese culture and society. From its ancient roots to its modern resurgence, Buddhism has woven itself into the fabric of Chinese life, offering spiritual guidance, cultural enrichment, and ethical foundations. As China continues to evolve, Buddhism remains a vital and cherished component of its rich spiritual heritage, bridging the past and the present in a continuous journey of enlightenment and growth.

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The Enduring Influence of Buddhism in China. (2024, Jun 01). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/the-enduring-influence-of-buddhism-in-china/

"The Enduring Influence of Buddhism in China." PapersOwl.com , 1 Jun 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/the-enduring-influence-of-buddhism-in-china/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). The Enduring Influence of Buddhism in China . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-enduring-influence-of-buddhism-in-china/ [Accessed: 3 Jun. 2024]

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"The Enduring Influence of Buddhism in China," PapersOwl.com , 01-Jun-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-enduring-influence-of-buddhism-in-china/. [Accessed: 3-Jun-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). The Enduring Influence of Buddhism in China . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-enduring-influence-of-buddhism-in-china/ [Accessed: 3-Jun-2024]

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