Fashion

People have different attitude to fashion. But what is it fashion? It´s an important thing in modern society, a big business (because nobody wants to be naked), the way we can express our personality and an art. Each person has his own style and taste. We will scarcely find two individuals who agree on every detail of their clothes. People wear clothes according to their taste, mood and their character. Everybody wants to look good. It´s quite difficult to put the clothes together because they should be well-combined. Some people have excellent taste in dress and are always dressed perfectly, others are slovenly.

Fashionable trends are imitated all over the world. Nowadays you can wear everything, but there are many differences in dressing. The major contrast is visible between men and women. Fashion is mainly a women´s domain. Fashion often reverts to older styles, what is out of fashion, funny or ridiculous now, may look romantic a few decades later. The biggest centres of fashion are Paris, London, New York and Milano. Fashion shows are also popular. Designers, models and dressmakers, they all earn a lot of money in this business. Designers - Calvin Klein, Versace, Valentino, Ungaro, Dolce & Gabbana, Beáta Rajská, etc.
Models - Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crafford, Eva Herzigová, Karolina Kurková, Hana Soukupová, etc. Different factors which have influenced the styles of clothing, such as geography, climate, poverty and wealth have played their role. Fashion has a concern not only in clothes, but also in hair style, make-up, accessories, such as shoes, handbags, gloves, belts, hats, scarves or jewellery and glasses, and of course materials, designs and colours.


At the tailor´s

We go to the tailor´s when we wish to have a made-to-measure garment made. The tailor or a dressmaker shall measure our entire body, sleeves, bust and waist perimeter. Then we choose a suitable and becoming cut and a material. Sometimes we go to the tailor´s only to remake our clothes, which has gone out of fashion. Short history of fashion

Fashion has acquired its contemporary look very slowly. It developed for century upon century, looked for and discovered new charms, invented ways how to correctly use newly discovered fabrics, colours, patterns and tailoring methods. Its history you might find quite interesting. Before the First World War fashion didn´t change very quickly. Men wore dark suits and had short hair. In those days, moustaches were popular.

Women wore long dresses with a very narrow waist. Under their dresses they wore stiff corsets, but it was very uncomfortable. Their beauty was emphasized by long hair. In the Roaring Twenties dresses and hair became much shorter. People saw women´s knees for the first time! A straight figure with no waist or bust was fashionable and corsets disappeared. Man wore trousers with very wide legs called “Oxford Bags“. In the 1930s and 40s everything was longer again. Men´s fashion didn´t change very much. Men wore a suit, a tie, and usually a hat, too. Moustaches were less popular and then they went out of fashion. In the 1950s men wore long jackets in very bright colours – pink, orange or yellow – and very tight trousers called “drainpipes“. Women liked jumpers and blouses with wide skirts and short socks. Both men and women wore “winklepicker“ shoes with long pointed toes. The women´s shoes had high stiletto heels.

In the late 1960s and early 70s the colourful hippie “flower power“ style was fashionable. With this style are joined long hair, which were popular among women as well as among men. Women wore loose maxi-skirts or maxi-dresses. Men wore jeans and bright shirts or T-shirts. Beards became more common.

In the late 1980s and early 90s loose, casual clothes were in fashion – baggy trousers, loose sweatshirts, and baseball caps (usually back to front). Sports clothes like tracksuits and trainers were very fashionable too.


Hair style

Another important part of our image is hair. You can change its colour by dyeing it or bleaching it. There are three main hair styles: straight, curly and wavy. We can also use a wig. Wigs were popular in the Ancient Egypt. In Europe, they began to be worn by the aristocracy in the 17th century. Nowadays, they are still worn by judges in the UK.


Clothing

On special occasions we want to be dressed properly. When we go to the theatre or to a ball we prefer to be dressed up. We wear an evening dress, which consists of a dark suit, a light shirt and a tie or a bowtie, sometimes a dinner jacket, an evening gown, and pumps. Fashion designers prepare fabulous collections of evening dresses for women. For sports we put on sports wear, such as shorts, T-shirts, blazers, parkas, track suits and to the mountains a waterproof jacket or anorak and sport shoes (trainers, plimsolls, heavy boots or ski boots). At home we like to feel comfortable, and so we prefer leisure wear – jeans and T-shirts and slippers. To school we wear something practical and plain.

The most favourite wear of teenagers includes jeans or trousers, shirts or T-shirts of different colours, sweatshirts or pullovers and trainers. Summer clothing
When it´s hot, everyone feels better in clothes which are light and airy. But when it´s raining, the best thing to wear is a long raincoat. In summer we wear light summer dresses, loose blouses with a low neckline and skirts gathered at the waist or bell-shaped, cropped trousers, shorts or Bermuda shorts and various T-shirts, and sandals, slippers or plimsolls. When we go swimming we put on a swimming costume (bikini, one-pice or two-piece) or trunks, sometimes a beach gown and a straw hat.

Winter clothing
In winter we need to wear something warm – suits, trousers, jeans, woolies, cardigans, polo neck sweaters, jumpers, anoraks and parkas, winter coats and jackets, sometimes even a fur coat, gloves and mittens, caps, hoods, hats, scarves and mufflers and boots of course. Women´s clothing
Women are very choosy and spend a lot of money on clothes. The most common wear for women are blouses, T-shirts, skirts, dresses, trousers, jeans, stockings and tights, jackets, anoraks, mittens or gloves and scarves. Ladies carry a handbag in which can be found a handkerchief, a mirror, a lipstick, a coin purse, keys and a mobile phone. Men´s clothing
Men usually wear jeans or trousers, shirts and pullovers or sweaters and on cold days they wear an anorak, a winter coat, gloves, and scarves. Men don´t have many decorative items, maybe a tie or bow tie and a belt.


Uniforms

Uniforms are worn particularly by professionals, such as the police, the armed forces, health workers and sometimes workers of a certain firm. It´s still a tradition in some schools in Britain (mostly private ones) to wear a school uniform. It usually consists of a white shirt and grey or dark trousers and a dark sweater or blazer with a school badge on the breast pocket and perhaps a cap. The girls complain about them and hate wearing them. It consists of a plain coat, a blouse and a skirt in some dark colour, such as grey, navy blue or brown. Girls would prefer ordinary and more comfortable clothes. The argument for uniforms is that they prevent competition among the girls and hide differences in family incomes.


Costumes

Costumes, on the other hand, reflect the style of a past time. They are seen in the theatre or on special occasions. Scotsmen are well-known for their national costume which consists of a kilt (a short skirt with many pressed pleats), knee-length woolen socks, a cap and a sporran (a fur-covered bag worn as a purse).

The kilt is made of tartan, a kind of woolen cloth woven in stripes of various colours which cross at right angles so as to form a pattern. The difference is in the colours and the width of the stripes. Most tartans have either green or red as the dominant colour. Clothes, materials, design

Clothes
We could note various types of neckline (high or low, oval, V-neck, boat neck, tie or polo neck, with collar or without it). The dress may have a classic line, A-line or be straight, the waistline may be natural, high or low. Skirts – straight, slit, full and bell-shaped.

Materials
There is also a variety of materials the dress can be made of – traditional natural materials (cotton, wool, linen, silk) and the vast collection of new fabrics based on man-made fibres (nylon). Favourite material is denim. Design
Design of our clothes can be plain or patterned (flowered, geometric, striped, checked or spotted) and taken from the whole spectrum of colours running from the brightest and most garish to the coolest and most subdued. My clothing

I usually wear jeans and a T-shirt. It´s comfortable and practical and you can wear it in winter as well as in summer. Of course, sometimes you put a jumper or a jacket on. I prefer cotton
T-shirts than clothes made from man-made fabrics. I´m a girl and girls want to look perfectly and they spend a lot of money buying clothes. I´m different from these girls. I don´t watch new trends and I wear clothes I like and in which I feel good. In summer I wear short-sleeved T-shirts, shorts, skirts, dresses, sandals, a hat or a scarf on my head and a swimming costume when I go swimming. I don´t like bikini. I wear two-piece sporty swimming costume. In winter these clothes are replaced by jeans, long-sleeved
T-shirts, jumpers, sweaters and a winter jacket, gloves or mittens, a scarf, a cap and boots.