Fashion

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.
. 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. This can be a species known only from fossils until living representatives were discovered, such as the coelacanth and the ginkgo tree, or a single living species with no close relatives, such as the horseshoe crab, that is the sole survivor of a once large and widespread group in the fossil record. Modern underground fashion:. Living fossil is a term used for any living species which closely resembles a species known from fossils, i.e., as if the fossil had "come to life". Ethnically-based fashions:. Concretions, round or oval-shaped nodules found in some sedimentary strata, were once thought to be dinosaur eggs, and are often mistaken for fossils as well.

Fashion can operate differently depending on gender, or it can promote homogeneity as in unisex styles. Other types of pseudofossils are kidney ore (round shapes in iron ore) and moss agates, which look like moss or plant leaves. Image consultants help people revamp or create fashion sense. Some pseudofossils, such as dendrites, are formed by naturally occurring fissures in the rock that get filled up by percolating minerals. Designers show the public what is new and in style by using fashion models to display the clothing. They can easily be mistaken for real fossils. Some people style themselves as "fashion consultants" and charge clients to help the latter choose what to wear. Pseudofossils are visual patterns in rocks that are produced by naturally occurring geologic processes rather than biologic processes.

Since the entire notion of fashion depends on subjectivity, so does the question of who possesses "fashion sense". These fossils can be found in sandstones or mudstones or washed up on beaches like those around the Baltic Sea. "Fashion sense" consists of the ability to tell what clothing and/or accessories look good and what do not. Smaller animals, such as insects, spiders and small lizards, can be trapped in resin (amber), which is secreted from trees. 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. Fossilized droppings, called coprolites, can give insight into the feeding behavior of animals and can therefore be of great importance. 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. Trace fossils are the remains of trackways, burrows, footprints, eggs and egg-shells, nests, and droppings (among other types of impressions).

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. To sum up, fossilization processes proceed differently for different kinds of tissues and under different kinds of conditions. Many people often use fashion as an indicator of what a person is like. In this case the fossil consists of original material, albeit in a geochemically altered state. Fashion can help attract a partner. Compression fossils such as those of fossil ferns are the result of chemical reduction of the complex organic molecules composing the organism's tissues. Adherence to fashion trends can thus form an index of social affluence and an indicator of social mobility. In some cases replacement occurs so gradually and at such fine scales that no "hole" in the rock can ever be discerned and microstructural features are preserved despite the total loss of original material.

Because keeping 'in fashion' often requires considerable amounts of money, fashion can be used to show off wealth (compare conspicuous consumption). If this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is called a cast fossil and is considered a replacement fossil since the original materials have been completely replaced by new, unrelated ones. 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). When all that is left is an organism-shaped hole in the rock, we call this a mould fossil or typolite. Fashion can suggest or signal status in a social group. In some cases the original remains of the organism have been completely dissolved or otherwise destroyed. 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. Once covered with sediment, these layers slowly become compacted and cemented into rock, and the organic remains are slowly replaced with hard minerals.

The global village has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times. Some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth; other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. 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. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details of the fossil. Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time. For permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment soon after death or soon after the initial decaying process. (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.). Permineralization consists of organic remains being to some degree impregnated by minerals derived from the surrounding sediments or waters.

At the same time there remains an equal or larger range designated (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. . Materially affluent societies can offer a variety of different fashions, in clothes or accessories, to choose from. Even older deposits (3.8 billion years old) of heavy carbon that are indicative of even earlier life are currently proposed as the remains of the earliest known life on Earth. 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. Now understood to be formed by the entrapment of minerals by mucous-like sheets of cyanobacteria, the oldest of these formations dates from 3.5 billion years ago. 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 oldest known structured fossils are most likely stromatolites.

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. Finally, past life leaves some evidences that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of chemical signals; these are known as chemical fossils (for lack of a better term). The change may proceed more rapidly than in most other fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). These types of fossil are called trace fossils, as opposed to body fossils. Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. However, fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as the footprint or feces of a dinosaur or reptile. (Compare some of the work of Roland Barthes.). Fossils usually consist of traces of the remains of the organism itself.

One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion language incorporating various fashion statements using a grammar of fashion. There are several different types of fossils and fossilization processes. The term "fashion victim" refers to someone who slavishly follows the current fashions (implementations of fashion).. However there are exceptions to this, such as if an organism becomes petrified or comes to rest in an anoxic environment such as at the bottom of a lake. 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. In order for an organism to be fossilized, the remains normally need to be covered by sediment as soon as possible. Fashions may vary significantly within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation and geography as well as over time. Fossilization is actually a rare occurrence because natural materials tend to decompose.

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. Because fossils are by their nature old, the word has also entered the modern vernacular as a derogatory term for an elderly person. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's personality or likes. The study of fossils is called paleontology. Modern Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. The totality of fossils and their placement in fossiliferous (fossil-containing) rock formations and sedimentary layers (strata) is known as the fossil record. Fashion in clothes has allowed wearers to express emotion or solidarity with other people for millennia. Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally "having been dug up") are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms.

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). The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles. 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.