Essay Example on the Topic of Communication and Fashion

I have come to believe that the fashion choices that people make are not only influenced by the celebrities and fashion magazines. When a person decides to wear a specific piece of clothing or have a particular fashion trend, there is often a lot more going on when making such decisions about whether to embrace or shun an individual style. Besides the bloggers, our friends and our peers influencing what we wear, our own emotions and memories play a bigger role in determining it for us.

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We seem to be compelled to either dress the same or not by different and independent reasons. Things that we are usually exposed to when we were young, the kind of clothes that we saw our parents or siblings or other people close to us wear would make us develop a certain perspective and inclination towards them. You might come across a dress or shirt that appeals to your fashion side because we feel that it will be safe, comfortable and secure to wear them. On the other side, someone else saw the same clothes and for some reasons maybe same as yours or different, loved them. This is one way through which people are compelled to dress the same or not. Perhaps one person's perception of a specific style is the opposite of someone else's perception (Kim et al., 2011). When at some point you discover that a particular look boosts your self-esteem and confidence and makes you feel happier, it is also for this reason that you stick to that same look through the years. Because every time, they remind us of how we felt from the first time.

Some people do not just understand how others are so determined to follow fashion trends and never to be left out. Such people dress the way they want and feel like, and they are not dictated by what kind of fashion trend is new in town. Others live for these things. We have certain trends because they are just ways in which some people, the rich and wealthy, can show the rest of the world just how wealthy they could get and how free they are to entertain fashion. Additionally, there are some trends that are specifically for emulating people at the top of the society, usually the royal court. These are the kind of fashion trends that are only or at least, mostly allowed to be maintained in such groups of people (Kim et al., 2011). They are called trends because they are just in season for a limited time and then they are replaced by something more appealing and charming that the market can have. And who but the wealthy can afford to discard expensive clothes just days or weeks after purchasing them. Certain trends come up as result of the peer pressure and being associated with a certain social group of people. It is often common in teenagers; they buy what their friends seem to be buying most and get rid of their old-fashioned clothes. This is a matter of social identity. In as much as trends show the social hierarchy, it shows the desire for people to fit in a tribe, to demonstrate their sensitivity and awareness to the tastes of their community.

Everything, including fashion trends, always carries some negative or positive impacts in the long run. Because the most population selling and marketing these trends are the youth and young generation, they are the ones to determine just how long a certain trend will stay in the market. Thanks to technology, young people spend most of their time on the internet idling and checking up what the new trend is and get to socialize with people that seem to have common interests with them. These trends, on the other hand, encourage creativity. If one thing trends, the next one has to be better and more aesthetically appealing in a way to surpass its predecessor. This requires the designers to be more creative and redesign things in a particular style and manner. Finally, there might be long-term health effects caused by these trends. When women feel compelled to wear high heels, use suffocating belts to keep the waist small and wax their eyebrows it could cause internal damage to their organs (Alfred, 2015). Recent studies revealed that when we force our bodies to squeeze into unfitting clothes, we might experience heartburn, injure our guts and experience abdominal discomfort.

Clothing can be persuasive in very many different ways. Not just facts from research can persuade people; clothes can do so too. If for instance I am a motivational speaker and I have been invited to a conference to talk about success to a group of important people, I will want to be persuasive enough to motivate them. I will have to wear professionally and elegantly to achieve this. Your audience will be more aligned to side with your ideas if they consider you attractive and smart from the way you dress. When we put on things that make us confident, we will be more confident in social settings and will be respected more in return (Charles, 2013). This is because you persuaded people enough to believe that you deserve such respect just with how you look clothing-wise. It shapes other people's perception of you as an individual.

Fashion trends are not just about what we see other people wearing, but it is a psychologically influenced activity. For various reasons, certain trends exist either for social hierarchy or societal support purposes, but they do come with different impacts all the same. One's sense of style is shaped by their reasons which vary from one person to the other. Because of these varied perceptions and perspectives, clothes have a role in persuading people to think about you in certain ways. Despite all these, fashion trends are one thing that shows no sign of coming to an end because there will always be a need for a more sophisticated trend to come up. Whether we believe it or not, we all have the fashion trends that make us feel unique, independent and give us a sense of identity.

References

Alfred, J. (2015). Life's gripes. Place of publication not identified: Bookbaby.

Charles, K. (2013). How to influence and persuade someone effectively: Secret to connecting to. Place of publication not identified: Lulu Com.

Kim, E., Fiore, A. M., & Kim, H. (2011). Fashion trends: Analysis and forecasting. Oxford: Berg.