Clothes and fashion

People have different attitudes to fashion. Some are indifferent, they do not care what they wear, others, especially women, are very choosy and particular about what to wear and like to spend a lot of money on clothes. Different factors which have influenced the styles of clothing, such as geography, climate, poverty and wealth have […]

Different factors which have influenced the styles of clothing, such as geography, climate, poverty and wealth have played their role. Fashion concerns not only clothes, but also hair style, make-up and accessories, such as shoes, handbags, gloves, belts, hats, scarfs or jewellery and glasses.

Styles, cuts, designs and particularly the length of clothes change very quickly because dressmaking has become big business nowadays.

There is also a variety of materials the dress can be made of – traditional natural materials such as cotton, wool, linen, silk and the vast collection of new fabrics based on man-made fibres. Their design can be plain or patterned (flowered, geometric, striped, checked, dotted or spotted) and taken from the whole spectrum of colours running from the brightest and most garish to the coolest and most subdued.

The way we dress also depends on our taste, on the season and the proper occasion. In summer we wear light summer dresses, loose blouses with a low neckline and with short sleeves or without sleeves, skirts, cropped trousers, shorts or Bermuda shorts and various T-shirts, and on our feet we pull on sandals, mules, slippers or plimsolls. When we go swimming we put on a swimsuit (bikini, one-piece or two-piece) or trunks, sometimes a beach gown and a straw hat. In winter we need to wear something warm – suits, trousers, jeans, woollies, cardigans, polo neck sweaters, jumpers, anoraks and parkas, winter coats and jackets, sometimes even a fur coat, gloves and mittens, caps, hoods, hats, scarfs and mufflers. And boots of course.

On special occasions we like to be dressed properly too. When we go to a concert or to the theatre we prefer to be dressed up. We wear an evening dress, which consists of a dark suit, a light shirt and a tie or a bowtie, sometimes a dinner jacket, an evening gown, court shoes and pumps. For sports we put on sports wear, such as jeans shorts, T-shirts, blazers, parkas, track suit and to the mountains a waterproof jacket or anorak and sports shoes (trainers, plimsolls, heavy boots or skishoes). At home we like to feel comfortable, and so we prefer leisure wear – slacks, jeans and T-shirts and on our feet slippers or mules. To school we wear something practical and plain. The most favourite wear of teenagers include jeans or trousers, shirts and T-shirts of different colours, sweatshirts or pullovers and trainers. For workshop or cleaning jobs we must put on an apron, overall or overalls.

Special kinds of clothes are uniforms and costumes. Uniforms are worn particularly by professionals such as the police, the armed forces, health workers, sometimes workers of a certain firm. It is still a tradition in some schools in Britain (mostly private ones) to wear a school uniform. It usually consists of a white shirt and grey or dark trousers and a dark sweater or blazer with a school badge on the breast pocket and perhaps a cap. A girl’s uniform looks quite different from an ordinary girl’s dress since it consists of a plain coat, a blouse and a skirt in some dark colour, such as grey, navy blue or brown.

Costumes on the other hand reflect the style of a past time. Apart from the theatre they are not seen very often, only on special occasions. Scotsmen are well-known for their national costume which consists of a kilt (a short skirt with many pressed pleats), knee-length woollen socks, a cap and a sporran (a fur-covered bag worn as a purse). The kilt is made of tartan, a kind of woollen cloth woven in stripes of various colours which cross at right angles so as to form a pattern. The difference is in the colours and the with of the stripes. Most tartans have either green or red as the dominant colour.

The fashion changes so fast. Worn-out clothes we can discard but what to do with unworn clothes which you do not like any more? People in the west often arrange a jumble or garage sale but it is not a custom in our country yet. Some people store them up in their wardrobe if they have enough room, pass them down to somebody younger or give them to a charity organization. Women who can do needlework (sew, knit, crochet or embroider) often remake an old dress and alter it into a new stylish model which is admired by their colleagues as if it was bought in a boutique.