Duplo (Lego)

Lego currently makes Duplo sets licensed with Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, and Thomas the Tank Engine characters as well as a new castle theme. The other major fashion capitals are London, New York and Milan which together with Paris each host a bi-annual 'Fashion Week' where both established and new designers showcase their latest collections. As of 2005 there are currently two other Duplo-related Lego systems:. The ultimate world capital of fashion is Paris, which is home to the premier fashion houses of the world including Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. In the 2004 spring catalog there was a reminder that Duplo was now called Explorer, but that fall the well known Duplo name was back yet again with a new rabbit logo. Modern underground fashion:. The name Duplo was dropped again in favor of Explore in 2002. Ethnically-based fashions:.

1993 brought a grey rail train system with a stop and start track. Fashion can operate differently depending on gender, or it can promote homogeneity as in unisex styles. These used internal screws to stay together. Image consultants help people revamp or create fashion sense. In 1992, Duplo Toolo was introduced. Designers show the public what is new and in style by using fashion models to display the clothing. This included a Duplo people mother, father, and smaller child. Some people style themselves as "fashion consultants" and charge clients to help the latter choose what to wear.

In 1986, a Duplo doll house with sliding doors was introduced. Since the entire notion of fashion depends on subjectivity, so does the question of who possesses "fashion sense". Also in 1983, set number 2700 was introduced with a model of a steam engine with two train cars. "Fashion sense" consists of the ability to tell what clothing and/or accessories look good and what do not. These figures have a moveable head, arms, and legs and look like large Lego minifigures, but the Duplo people cannot be taken apart for safer handling by small children. Conversely, a person who exhibits a fashion style that rejects or deliberately tries to offend the current trend may also have an advantage in finding other like-minded individuals. In 1983, other Duplo figures appeared, often called Duplo people. Perhaps even more importantly, it sends a signal of superiority to potential competitors of the same gender, who are frequently better informed about what's fashionable than the potential mates are.

The name Duplo was brought back in 1979 along with a new Duplo logo with a rabbit. As well as showing certain features of a person's personality that appeal to prospective mates, keeping up with fashion can advertise a person's status to such candidates. The new sets included figures, doors, and 2 by 6 knob wagons that could act as a car or train. Many people often use fashion as an indicator of what a person is like. Another new brick was a half arch. Fashion can help attract a partner. They included a head and body, but had no legs. Adherence to fashion trends can thus form an index of social affluence and an indicator of social mobility.

Small figures the size of 2 by 2 knobs were introduced as well. Because keeping 'in fashion' often requires considerable amounts of money, fashion can be used to show off wealth (compare conspicuous consumption). In 1977 the Duplo name was dropped in favor of Lego Preschool. Groups with high cultural status like to keep 'in fashion' to display their position; people who do not keep 'in fashion' within a so-called "style tribe" can risk shunning (see also peer pressure). With these new Duplo sets, Lego is targeting children 1½ years old with the idea that when the children reach 3 the Duplo bricks can be used together with Lego bricks. Fashion can suggest or signal status in a social group. This wagon, and its coupler system, is still sold today. Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.

New additions included a round-topped 2 by 2 knob brick and a small 4-wheel wagon with two rows of 6 knobs. The global village has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times. In 1975 Duplo became its own product, with five sets made up exclusively of Duplo bricks. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, for example, might favor things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese at a third. In 1972, the Duplo brick with 2 rows of 2 knobs was introduced and continues to be included in sets today. Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time. In the product catalog for 1971, the sets were targeted at children from 1 to 2 years, but still sold mixed with Lego bricks, normally designed for ages 3 to 12. (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.).

The following year, two more sets were added with blue and red wheel plates with 4 rows of 8 knobs. At the same time there remains an equal or larger range designated (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. The number 510 has been reused to name other Lego sets. Materially affluent societies can offer a variety of different fashions, in clothes or accessories, to choose from. Both sets were designed to target younger children. Note too though that fashion can change to enforce uniformity, as in the case where so-called Mao suits became the national uniform of Mainland China. Set number 510 had 9 Duplo bricks mixed with 8 Lego bricks, while set 511 had 19 Duplo bricks and 8 Lego bricks. Others, especially young people, enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience "new" and "interesting" things.

The knobs stick out less than current Duplo bricks, and the holes had four tags for a better grip with traditional Lego bricks. For some, modern fast-paced change in fashion embodies many of the negative aspects of capitalism: it results in waste and encourages people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. The bricks were available in four colors: red, yellow, blue, and white. The change may proceed more rapidly than in most other fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). The first Duplo bricks, with 2 rows of 4 knobs, appeared in 1969. Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. The most common sets are the farm, zoo, police station, fire station, airplane, and train sets. (Compare some of the work of Roland Barthes.).

Many Duplo sets have reappeared multiple times over the years. One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion language incorporating various fashion statements using a grammar of fashion. The Duplo product line changes from year to year — even the name Duplo had been dropped twice. The term "fashion victim" refers to someone who slavishly follows the current fashions (implementations of fashion).. Since 1977, Duplo has made sets with figures, cars, and houses. If, for example, an older person dresses according to the fashion of young people, he or she may look ridiculous in the eyes of both young and older people. Despite their size, they are still compatible with traditional Lego bricks. Fashions may vary significantly within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation and geography as well as over time.

Duplo bricks are twice the size of traditional Lego bricks, and are easier to handle for younger children. When people who have cultural status start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may start; people who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar style. Duplo is a version of Lego bricks from the well known Danish toy company, LEGO Group. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's personality or likes. Baby bricks can be stacked on Quatro, Duplo, or Lego bricks but the large rounded knob prevents other systems from stacking on it. Modern Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. It has a single large round knob and is twice the size of Lego Quatro, making it four times the size of Duplo or eight times the scale of Lego bricks. Fashion in clothes has allowed wearers to express emotion or solidarity with other people for millennia.

Lego Baby (formerly called Primo) is for children as young as 6 months. By 1800, all Western Europeans were dressing alike: local variation became first a sign of provincial culture, and then a badge of the conservative peasant (James Laver; Fernand Braudel). These bricks are twice the size of the Duplo bricks and can be used together with Duplo bricks. The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles. Lego Quatro is for children 1 to 3 years old. Men's fashions derived from military models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk" cravat (see Cravat). Fashions among upper-class Europeans began to move in synchronicity in the 18th century; though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year, (Thornton), the cut of a gentleman's coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly.

But the local culture still set the bounds, as Albrecht Dürer recorded in his actual or composite contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right). The European idea of fashion as a personal statement rather than a cultural expression begins in the 16th century: ten portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats. . The remainder of this article deals with clothing fashions in the industrialized world.

For a broad cross-cultural look at clothing and its place in society, refer to the entries for Clothing and Costume. This linguistic switch is due to the so-called fashion plates which were produced during the Industrial Revolution, showing novel ways to use new textiles. Of these fields, costume especially has become so linked in the public eye with the term "fashion" that the more general term "costume" has been relegated by many to only mean fancy dress or masquerade wear, while the term "fashion" means clothing generally, and the study of it. The rises and falls of fashions have been especially documented and examined in the following fields:.

Fashions are social psychology phenomena common to many fields of human activity and thinking. In this sense, fashions are a sort of communal art, through which a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. The term is also frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour and style. In this sense, fashions are essentially a relief from boredom, or a distraction from important matters, for the idle rich.

The term "fashion" is often used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads and trends. The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the currently popular mode of expression. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will change more quickly than the culture as a whole. The term fashion applies to a prevailing mode of expression.

urban fashion. BDSM fashion. Industrial fashion. Black metal fashion.

Death rock fashion. Gothic fashion. Punk fashion. Cyberpunk fashion.

Primitivism. Orientalism. Chinoiserie. Baroque and Rococo Silks..

Thornton, Peter. Technology, such as the choice of programming techniques. Philosophy and spirituality (One might argue that religion is prone to fashions, although official religions tend to change so slowly that the term cultural shift is perhaps more appropriate than "fashion"). Politics and media, especially the topics of conversation encouraged by the media.

Etiquette. Entertainment, games, hobbies, sports, and other pastimes. Economics and spending choices, as studied in behavioral finance. Forms of address, slang, and other forms of speech.

Dance and music. Cuisine. Body type, clothing or costume, cosmetics, grooming, and personal adornment. Arts and crafts.

Architecture, interior design, and landscape design.