Old Specification Module 5 - Personal Communication
Clothing and Hairstyles

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The Influence of Celebrity on Fashion

Clothing

Clothing
Extension work (more ideas and resources to try about cultural significance of clothing)
Hair and Hairstyles
Extension work

Clothing serves many functions for human beings from the purely practical such as protection and modesty to the more abstract expression of individuality.

Functions of clothing
· Protection
· Modesty
· Attraction
· Communication
· Individualistic expression
· Social worth or status
· Social role
· Social ritual (e.g weddings, funerals etc)
· Recreation

ACTIVITY 1
Using the list of functions above, try to identify items or types of clothing that you use to fulfil each of the functions above.

Fashion, in terms of clothing, is largely a western concept based on ideas of consumption, status and identity. Simnel (1971) looked at the conflicting needs of people to both be part of a social group and to be individuals – fashion and clothing are ways in which this complex set of desires may be negotiated (more about Simnel in ‘Culture and Identity” pages 58-61 and in ‘Chic Theory’ article).

Fashionable clothing is used in western capitalist societies to affirm both membership of various social and cultural groups and individual , personal identity. Another theorist, Flugel divided attitudes to clothing in different parts of the world in this way – fixed and modish – in places where clothing tends to be national costume clothing changes slowly as opposed to rapidly in geographical areas where modish clothing is the norm ie western cultures. Fixed clothing styles are associated with a particular place and time and becomes anti-fashion. Societies with a ‘socialising impulse’ – primitive societies will have little if no fashion.

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Societies with an ‘individualising impulse’ such as most capitalist societies will be drawn to fashion as a way of fulfilling this impulse.

Marxists would see fashion as something perpetuated by industry – consumerism - to support capitalism – we don’t need new fashion – we just need to be warm and practical. Class is displayed in choice and availability of clothing e.g suits for upper class, T-shirts and jeans for lower class. Designer labels versus street fashion. Subcultural clothing such as Punk are examples of clothing used as a rejection of class and authority. However, even these attempts to subvert or reject dominant ideology were not entirely successful because haute couture appropriated aspects of Punk for catwalk fashion and designers like Vivienne Westwood, who began in the Punk era is now a haute couture designer.

Is this process inevitable?
Is haute couture the equivalent of ‘high culture’ in clothing, exclusive to a class or set of people with money?
Is the fashion industry creating ‘false needs’ and duping the masses?

In terms of feminism, or fashion and gender, think about the way clothing is and has been used to control women’s behaviour as well as a form of ornamentation and display.

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What is the difference between the women in these two pictures?

ACTIVITY
Click on the image of the veiled women above to listen to a radio programme on the cultural significance of the veil. 
(You will need to have Real player installed on your computer, to listen.  If you are listening in college, you need to use a PC in rooms 1.1 or 1.3 where this programme is installed.  Alternatively, go to the BBC Radio 4 site, click on Woman's Hour, then Search and look for The Veil under the list of Political programmes)

Click on the image on the left for Channel 4 website section on Islam and the Veil - lots of interesting info

Covering up

Panorama looks at Muslim Identity in 2004, through the eyes of four young British Muslim women - who tell us why they are proud to cover up - to wear the hijab, and the veil.
More and more young British women, born and bred here, are choosing to wear the hijab - to cover their hair with headscarf - or even to veil themselves, and to cover their face entirely. To many this may seem a very surprising decision. But in this film four women themselves speak out - and they say are covering up not because they were told to do so by their Asian families; on the contrary, this is their own decision. They have no doubt or confusion about their identity: they are British, and Muslim, and proud of it. (Click here to watch Latest programme - you will need Real Player on your computer)

POST COLONIALISM

Western cultures would look at the clothing of other countries and regard it as national costume rather than fashion. Look at the pictures below. These are regarded as the national costumes of various countries. Despite our feeling, as westerners, that these cultures have not changed their clothing this is not always so. In countries which were formerly colonies, particularly, western influences as well as local political changes have caused changes. Read the article on the veil in Egypt at the end of the booklet.

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POST-MODERNISM

In western fashion, particularly, post-modernism is becoming a particularly strong influence as designers draw on elements of past eras and other cultures and combine them in a variety of different ways or recycle eras like the 1970s but with a 21st century twist.

ACTIVITY 2

You have watched the video on the Doc Marten boot. Remember how this article of clothing has acquired various meanings throughout the twentieth century and is now used by people far removed from the original users, in a post-modernist clash of images.

Choose another item of clothing e.g the leather jacket, the stiletto shoe, the petticoat, jeans etc. Research its history and note the different groups who have acquired this item of clothing and used it in different ways to express different aspects of individual and group identity.

This archive site on BBC website might help you research different types of clothing and their historical cultural significance:

WHAT WE WORE | Charting the evolution of fashion, from gowns for aristocrats to style for everyone

The History of High Heels - illustrated Guardian articles

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Present your findings as an illustrated article – printed on A4 paper – no more than two sides of A4.

Extension work

You can use the BBC style website to look at some different strands of fashion - use it to do some research into the relationship between different styles and British culture.

Click on this illustration to listen to a radio programme about 'High heels' (You will need Real Player to listen - download it by clicking here)

The cultural significance of clothing in families - look at this BBC website discussing how parents dress their children, called "What were your parents thinking"