Clothing describes the material and the technical garment, devoid of any social meaning or connections; costume has come to mean fancy dress or masquerade wear. Fashion can signify the latest trends, but may often reference fashions of a previous era, leading to the understanding of fashions from a different time period re-appearing. Kaiser states that everyone is "forced to appear", unmediated before others.[4] Everyone is evaluated by their attire, and evaluation includes the consideration of colors, materials, silhouette, and how garments appear on the body. Fashion scholar Susan B. Similarly to art, the aims of a person's choices in fashion are not necessarily to be liked by everyone, but instead to be an expression of personal taste.[9] A person's personal style functions as a "societal formation always combining two opposite principles. Though the term fashion connotes difference, as in "the new fashions of the season", it can also connote sameness, for example in reference to "the fashions of the 1960s", implying a general uniformity. It is a socially acceptable and secure way to distinguish oneself from others and, at the same time, it satisfies the individual's need for social adaptation and imitation."[11] While philosopher Immanuel Kant believed that fashion "has nothing to do with genuine judgements of taste", and was instead "a case of un reflected and 'blind' imitation",[11] sociologist Georg Simmel[12] thought of fashion as something that "helped overcome the distance between an individual and his society". For example, Gucci's 'stained green' jeans[10] may look like a grass stain, but to others, they display purity, freshness, and summer.[1]


Fashion is unique, self-fulfilling and may be a key part of someone's identity. According to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, fashion connotes "the latest difference."[6]


Even though the terms fashion, clothing and costume are often used together, fashion differs from both. While what is fashionable can be defined by a relatively insular, esteemed and often rich aesthetic elite who make a look exclusive, such as fashion houses and haute couturiers, this 'look' is often designed by pulling references from subcultures and social groups who are not considered elite, and are thus excluded from making the distinction of what is fashion themselves.


Whereas a trend often connotes a peculiar aesthetic expression, often lasting shorter than a season and being identifiable by visual extremes, fashion is a distinctive and industry-supported expression traditionally tied to the fashion season and collections.[5] Style is an expression that lasts over many seasons and is often connected to cultural movements and social markers, symbols, class, and culture (such as Baroque and Rococo). Fashion, by contrast, describes the social and temporal system that influences and "activates" dress as a social signifier in a certain time and context. Garments identical in style and material also appear different depending on the wearer's body shape, or whether the garment has been washed, folded, mended, or is new.


Fashion is defined in a number of different ways, and its application can be sometimes unclear. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben connects fashion to the qualitative Ancient Greek concept of  ,meaning "the right, critical, or opportune moment", and clothing to the quantitative concept of  ,the personification of chronological or sequential time.[7]


While some exclusive brands may claim the label haute couture, the term is technically limited to members of the Chambre de la Haute Couture[8] in Paris.[5] Haute couture is more aspirational; inspired by art and culture, and in most cases, reserved for the economic elite.



Fashion is also a source of art, allowing people to display their unique tastes and styling.[9] Different fashion designers are influenced by outside stimuli and reflect this inspiration in their work. Fashion is a form of expression. Fashion is what people wear in a specific context. If a stranger would appear in this setting, adorning something different, the stranger would be considered "out of fashion."


Early Western[when?] travelers who visited India, Persia, Turkey, or China, would frequently remark on the absence of change in fashion in those countries. In 1609, the secretary of the Japanese shogun bragged inaccurately to a Spanish visitor that Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years.[13] However, these conceptions of non-Western clothing undergoing little, if any, evolution are generally held to be untrue; for instance, there is considerable evidence in Ming China of rapidly changing fashions in Chinese clothing.[14] Similar changes in clothing can be seen in Japanese clothing between the period and the later centuries of the Edo period (1603-1867), during which a time clothing trends switched from flashy and expensive displays of wealth to subdued and subverted ones.


Changes in clothing often took place at times of economic or social change, as occurred in ancient Rome and the medieval Caliphate, followed by a long period without significant changes. In 8th-century Moorish Spain, the musician  introduced to Córdoba[15][unreliable source][16] sophisticated clothing styles based on seasonal and daily fashions from his native Baghdad, modified by his inspiration. Similar changes in fashion occurred in the 11th century in the Middle East following the arrival of the Turks, who introduced clothing styles from Central Asia and the Far East.[17]


Additionally, there is a long history of fashion in West Africa.[18] Cloth was used as a form of currency in trade with the Portuguese and Dutch as early as the 16th century,[18] and locally-produced cloth and cheaper European imports were assembled into new styles to accommodate the growing elite class of West Africans and resident gold and slave traders.[18] There was an exceptionally strong tradition of weaving in the Oyo Empire, and the areas inhabited by the Igbo people.