The Importance Of Fashion: The Desire For Change

According to the sociologist, Kimball Young, (1930), fashion is the desire for change and is an ego-expansion of an individual. This desire for change is related to our egoistic wishes for social approval. Fashion can be the basis to define what type of person he or she is. Fashion is an outlet for many individuals to express themselves. Therefore fashion is a powerful tool for people to make statements of themselves because appearance is the source of first impressions. As a saying goes, "the essence of fashion is comfort before style". Dardis (1974) cited that our way of clothing or what we wear basically speaks for us and it defines who we are, and what our worth is as a person. Dardis (1974) also stated that fashion has been called the force behind most discretionary spending. It influences not only what we wear but what we do and how we live.

According to Panopio and Rolda (2000),

What is important is that people do assign meaning to items of dress such that what is done to the body, in the form of body modifications and supplements that are used as a basis for making inferences about the dressed individual. Dress affects self-perception, as well as self-directed behaviors. For example according to researchers Nancy Rudd and Sharron Lennon (2000) as well as Jaeha Lee, Kim K. P. Johnson (2009), an individual who believes in something unacceptable to others can motivate him to get involved in risky body modification behaviors. Concentrating on the social psychology of dress helps in revealing the part of dress in forming self-coordinated mentalities and practices as well as the attitudes and behavior of others towards individuals so that the prediction of possible future consequences coming from our decisions concerning dress is conceivable. (Francis,