Does fashion also reflect the culture? The answer is not really- because fashion means the style which is in with time, but culture is not always cognizant of a contemporary period. It has an ingredient of history in its content. For every nation or a country defined by race, ideology or mere geographical boundaries. Culture very often represents the traditional and distinct ways of living. How one can make a fashion statement through cultural dresses.
It is a fact that clothes reflect the cultural identity but does fashion takes this fact into account?
Let’s have a look at different factors that can impact the dressing choices of a person.
What We Wear on Daily Basis and Why?
Usually, two factors impact our choice of what we wear on a daily basis- the first is what makes us comfortable and the second one is what gives our personality a pleasant look. There is a third factor as well. And, it is not a factor but more like a pressure of going with the ongoing fashion trends. Many people, merely choose for wearing the trendy style not to feel left out of the mainstream.
Those who don’t want to face the pressure of following what world says them to follow, often come up with a more distinctive way. They give up the idea of supporting a fashion statement and come up with a unique style and call it a personal statement.
So what is the room for cultural content in making a personal statement?
Traditional Culture’s Gateway to the Fashion World
It is very common for people to make a fashion statement by wearing the cultural dresses. By doing this they choose a safe path as they don a style which is not only mainstream also capable of making a fashion statement. Such a form is often introduced by the brands who want to target a particular niche. In other words, culture often impacts the fashion as cultural factors can impact the society.
In modern Pakistani fashion scene, one prominent example is presented by Yousef Bashir Qureshi, a designer from Southern Punjab who is branding the Punjabi cultural dresses so that one can make a fashion statement with it.
Cultural Inspiration for Making Fashion Statement
Many times international designers also take inspirations from the cultures of different nations. The one recent example is the famous clothing brand that made an expensive skirt out of the traditional design of lungi or Dhoti. The brand got slammed and accused of copying a design and selling it to international customers.
YASSSSSSSSS now its socially acceptable to wear a dhoti. Whatta time to be alive ⚡ “A new Zara skirt looks very familiar to some people ?”https://t.co/7PLlspB6sq
— Talha (@TalH_A) 31 January 2018
Another incident of artistic inspiration for making a fashion statement emerged after the international shoe designer Paul Smith presented Peshawari Chappals, which are traditional footwear in the culture of KPK province of Pakistan.
what we dont consider appeals world fashion gurrus peshawari chappal by Paul smith pic.twitter.com/RJELlfmun7
— hassan khan (@hassankochi) 9 March 2018
In the modern globalized era, people not always wear the traditional dresses to make a fashion statement. But when they do this, they often end up surpassing the most fashion-freak people out there.
