Fashion, society and individual

Fashion as a cultural activity is produced by norms that interpret social and personal meanings. Social experiences very in accordance with the consumer that categorizes clothing; however, factors such as the role of gender in socialization and level and type of involvement take on remarkable importance focusing social interactions and the dynamics of the interpretational processes existing in the development of symbolic processes. The two main characteristics of fashion can be recognized in appearance and topicality. Look allows extravagant attitudes and in clothing everyone is his own boss. The second characteristic of fashion is topicality, which gives fashion some social functions that facilitate separation from obsolete models, labeled as out of fashion, and thus allow an easy adjustment to novelty. Research studies on fashion can be grouped into research on the public of fashion, that is to say on those who buy and wear clothes, and studies on fashion creators, i.e., stylists, and on the fashion market itself. The first type of research addresses the socio-psychological aspect and should also include the sociology of fashion products and the use of a given outfit by particular groups, for instance city youths or youths who meet in specific places of the. Furthermore, fashion is also a form of rhetoric and induces a consumption of symbolic differences. The volumes by Georg Simmel, René Koenig and John Fluegel have greatly influenced the development of research studies on fashion that have appeared in Italy since 1976.