Literature Review Areas Of Influence Of Fashion On Culture (Research Paper Sample)

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The influence of Cultures within Fashion
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Areas of Influence of fashion on Culture
For many centuries, workers in the fashion and design businesses have been able to recognize and to monitor the cultural trends based on the changes in fashion movements. For the purpose of comprehending the connection between culture and fashion, the society operates in a similar direction as that of the fashion industry, with creativity and innovation (Goidel and Shields, 1994). With the information transfer and exchange, fashion has evolved very rapidly, transforming the global community into an interactive forum. According to McAllister and Studlar (1991), people from all cultures have been able to anticipate and to predict the future expectations, which compel and challenge the fashion designers and traders to be creative and competent in the decision making processes about their work (Kawamura, 2005). In this observation, fashion as an industry does not isolate societies and cultures but it connects one community to another through lifestyle influence. In the African society for example, fashion goes beyond the aspect of clothes and explores the various life bound decisions (Tajudeen, 1996). These include the way people communicate, perform entertainment, travel, and decorate residential environments and the kind of foodstuff that different cultures live on. In the Asian society, Fashion influenced culture in manners that extend beyond all these and covers advanced systems of life including religious practices, marriages and learn. In the Asian community, there has been an influence of culture through music and martial arts. Another aspect of the celebrity culture has been the spread of languages such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese (Muggleton, 2004).
Lifestyle and the patterns of cultural integration are strongly determined by the fashion, which both African and the Asian communities view as social and cultural transformation. They view any new idea and creativity as modernization, which is the desired position of the two societies to ensure positive development. According to Gelder (2007), fashion also manifest in the African community in form of technological innovation as well as inventive movements. The analysis of patterns views the interaction of various social groups in relation to the practice of fashion and consumer lifestyle. The result is seen in social culture and the framework in which the communities understand and interpret the transformation of fashion (Steele, 2000). As it comes out, the members of the society make fashions. The same members practice the aspects of fashion in their various cultures. In the understanding of fashion trends and patterns, there is need for understanding of the aspects of life that influences the daily routine of the society, in the social-cultural factors of life. The propagation of new the fashion trends into the cultural lifestyle usually involves a considerable period of time, since it takes longer for the community to get acquainted with new ideas borrowed fashions from other communities. According to Muggleton (2004), fashions in Africa and Asia are similar in their implementation since they influence the lifestyle, cultural values and live.
1.2. Types of Culture
The major areas of culture affected in Asia and Africa include pop, high and low cultures (Mehrabian, 1998).
High Culture
High culture is the professional activities including visual art, such as painting and the creation of sculpture. High culture is common in both the two regions, Asia and Africa. Other influential categories of art include music as well as audio art (Halim, 1993). A lot of creativity is applied in art, including photograph, design of various architectural plans and oral participation such as music and literature. Through many generations, artistic design of fashion has made the societies develop similar cultural practices as they aspire to attain high levels of civilization or modernization. For example, there is no difference among beauty contest shows from one community to another, whether in Africa, Europe, Asia or America (Gelder, 2007). Fashion is a product of work from the hands of human beings. They are constructed to fulfill the intention to stimulate the creativity and human senses. The question of whether culture can operate without fashion, meets various reactions because the human mind receives and transmits emotions and ideas. Once the mind observes fashion, it integrates it into culture as an individual’s life before finally spreading among various members of the same society (Muggleton, 2004). It eventually becomes a common cultural practice. In the view of fashion and inspiration, human ideas and emotions go through advanced processes that cause newer forms of inspirations and ideological concepts. The designer takes the conceptual inspiration to collecting of more creative idea. In this regard, observation of the contemporary artistic designs provides information and inspiration concerning the influences of fashion on the designers upcoming artistic design trends (Wolfert, 1997).
Popular Culture (Pop Culture)
Popular or pop culture is another product of fashion that is followed and practiced by a larger target group. In Asia, popular culture is majorly transformed by the activities of celebrities. The culture spreads through daily routine interactions as well as the lifestyle of the mainstream communities. Being a commercial culture, the popular culture is produced in mass and spread through invention of newer versions of influential fashion. In African culture, it is developed and propagated for mass consumption (Gelder, 2007). In view of the rapid changes in fashion and design, culture in the African societies changes almost at the same speed. For example, the popular culture influence is a product of direct influence of the lifestyle and outward looks. This is found through the most fashionable TV shows, which captivates individuals (Halim, 1993). The African and Asian communities soon begin to imitate the dressing styles of the protagonists of the popular fashions. 
In the past few decades, there has been an increase in the celebrity exposure of celebrities by mass media and the social media (Strong and Rodney, 1992). Because celebrities occupy most of the mass media airtime, their fashions are exposed to the society to which they have a great influence. Literally, people celebrate celebrities, who are typical role models to many. Their outward looks quickly find their acceptance and adoption into the fashions designers, which every consumer identifies with. For example, Michael Jordan has been a celebrity to many youths in the African cultures. His smooth shaving of hairstyle therefore became popularly known in the mid and late 1990s as the Jordan Style (Gelder, 2007). In the recent years, there has been a popular trend of replacement of models by Hollywood actors in the advertisement of fashion. Among the most used models is Victoria Beckham, who has been instrumental for advertisement of products by Giorgio Armani Underwear (Muggleton, 2004). Another example is Madonna, who has been in advertisements by Louis Vuitton. These products transform the society behavior towards the celebrities as cultural practices in love of Fashion brands. These brands utilize the glam of the Hollywood stars to illuminate and reflect the same glam on the products. The companies also create an impression that regardless of the turbulent economic depression period, luxury can be promoted in the contemporary society (Muggleton, 2004).
Low Culture (Sub Culture)
The third class of culture that has been influenced by fashion is referred to as the subculture (low culture). This includes the motions in the local streets. A good illustration is the graffiti and Hip Hop among other groupings out of the mainstream. The influence of fashion on this culture has been seen in the Asian communities especially in the surf as well as the skateboard, which has been popular from the 1970s (Halim, 1993). It has also gained popularity over the years in the African communities. The practice of Graffiti street movement and the skateboard has greatly affected the entire global community, including street wear, to the present day. It may not be an easy exercise to identify some styles and fashions in subcultures considering the fact that the majority in the society rapidly copies their images (Morwitz and Pluzinski, 1996). This is especially visible in the transformation of African and Asian Clothing and music, for cultural values and for commercial reasons (Pankhurst, 1997). A good example is the Harajuko girls in the Japanese culture. These are teenage ladies in Tokyo, Japan who have a unique style of dressing (Greene, 2012). Popular American music lady Gwen Stefani, to act as backup dancers, has contracted a large number of the girls. She adopted their name and used it in her global tour in the year 2005 (Steele, 2000). She also used their name in her clothing line. Fashion has indeed transformed subculture, causing them to be practiced by the fashion and design market.
As many protagonists of fashion and cultures argue, observation of the street can be equated to the process of keeping updated by popular cultures and fine arts (Douglas, 2008). This implies that popular culture is a product of observation of the popular fashions in the streets. Additionally, out of the three cultural classes, the high culture, the low culture and the popular culture, none of them is independent of each other. All of them are interlocked into each other. At the same time they transform the fashion business and practice in the African community reflects in the environment, in the development of fashion improvement trends. Bowden (2007) obs...