At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, the possibility of ordering and shipping clothing items to any part of the world was born thanks to the media or the Internet. Consequently, current fashion seems to be heading towards universal uniformity.
2000s
Throughout the 2000s, the concept of urban tribes took hold . These directly influenced the ways of dressing, mainly due to the increasing exposure to mass media such as the Internet. Although subcultures already exist since the 1960s and 1970s, such as Beatnik and Hippies , some do not adopt the countercultural feeling that gave rise to them, being only identifiable by their way computer coding for kids of dressing, for example, emo culture . Both men and women adopt the tracksuit for almost every type of occasion. Women wear high- waisted shorts , skirts, miniskirts, and pants, and some garments from the 1980s are reincorporated, returning the flowered pattern. As for footwear, women wear sturdy boots, clogs or sandals.
2010s
Men introduce the V-neckline along with skinny pants and designer sneakers in their wardrobe. Light pants, although on the other hand, dark pants provide great elegance, as well as open shirts with undershirts and rolled up sleeves. Women prefer fresh fashion but with a modern touch, little makeup and natural hair with structured hairstyles, incorporating details of the fashion of the 1960s. Vintage has a strong presence in the feminine wardrobe. On the other hand, in men’s clothing an alternative fashion that seeks identity begins to grow, in which trends and own tastes influence, giving rise to a style a little more risky and fun.
The impact of the media
The mass consumer society began to play a central role at the time when fashion began to be understood as the need to make a distinction between each individual, of which Pierre Bourdieu and Jean Baudrillard spoke . 8 Fashion is part of our context as people, it influences different aspects of our lives, from what we eat and drink to the places we should go to. Currently, the simple act of dressing brings with it factors as diverse as self-esteem, security, aesthetic experience, consumption and imitation practices or the desire for inclusion. It should never be forgotten that all fashions are dangerous from the moment they become extreme.
The mass media are and have been an important tool in the field of information and in its dissemination, 10 since they can reach any part of the world in a very short time due to the globalization process . They are creators of a new culture and global reorganization of the market, generating millions of income worldwide and having such an influence in contemporary society that few computer coding for kids equal the power that has been conferred on them. Fashion is strongly linked to these media and is controlled by them, as they contribute to socialization processes.
We live in the age of communication: the media make us accomplices of information of all kinds and are in charge of teaching us to model the perceptions we have of reality. These media bombard the entire population, although their target is mainly adolescents and young adults, with series, television commercials, programs, reality shows, social networks such as Instagram and Facebook, magazines or music, among others. All of this leads us to a new multicultural individualism. The impact of social networks and technology among young people, based on the sociological concepts of group and primary relationships, generate a need for identity among young people.
The influence of brands
Fashion and clothing have a complex relationship with identity: the clothes we choose to wear can be a way of expressing who we are, giving details about our gender, class or position, for example.
The new generation of consumers do not passively accept the stories of the brands that companies tell, but are joint creators of their meaning. For marketers, this means that the old trick of screaming how great the brand or use of it is no longer works. Today it is crucial to listen to young consumers and understand how brands fit into their lifestyle.
In their Talk Track surveys of more than 2,000 US teens ages 13-17, the Keller Fay group found that young people have an average of 145 conversations a week about brands.
Of course, each country or region has its preferred local brands. Topshop dominates the industry in the UK, Zara triumphs in Spain and G-Star in the Netherlands; But overall, it’s H&M that achieves the most international success in the Gen Y market . 13
Color as an important part
It is known that there is a strong compatibility between emotions, fashion consumption and color, whatever the cultural roots or the different types of population analyzed; that is, color shows correspondence in terms of its meaning and is associated with emotions. In addition, from the analysis of the surveys carried out in a single region, a strong tendency to obey color preferences is shown both in making entry decisions in consumer establishments and in the event of the purchase itself; with conclusive and definitive results for the most part, which allows us to infer that consumption is affected by color and that the consumer can be influenced to such an extent that they give up consuming an object because they cannot find their favorite hue.
The link of color with fashion consumption is not consistent and generates conflicts with respect to the meanings of color, but it is concluded that as a result of the effects of color on the emotions of individuals, the object must contemplate trends and color ranges of color from a design perspective in order to cover as many individuals as possible. 14
Identity search
Fashion and brands not only embrace the desire to imitate other people or a certain community, but to express individuality; that is, although clothing indicates our affiliation to specific communities and expresses shared values, ideas and lifestyles, we do not want to be “clones” dressed identically to the members of that community. The clothing we choose to wear computer coding for kids represents a compromise between the demands of the social world, the environment to which we belong and our individual desires.
A successful fashion captures the emerging “mood” or “taste.” Fashion, as discourse and as practice, embodies the body, making it social and identifiable and explains how this construction of the body through clothing is of considerable importance for the development of modern society. 12
Throughout history, different cultures, cities and social groups have used clothing belonging to fashion as a support to make a public manifestation of their symbolic particular universe, that is, their ideologies, creeds, emotional culture, traditions, etc .; as well as as a communicative element to inform about the group that creates it. «Also, individuals, taken in terms of personal identity, perceive that“ the dress speaks ”and fulfills a socializing function in that what we wear contributes to the process of creating our image, understood in terms, not what we really wear. we are, but how others perceive us. “
Thus, fashion has become the cultural expression of tastes, lifestyles or personal identity, in other words, a metaculture capable of expanding with the help of social communication media, which through advertising and marketing , segment the market and address the masses in a personalized way; exploiting the role of acquisition and construction of the personality expressed through consumer objects that become an extension of who we are, due to the meaning given to them in the media, be it inherited, traditional or emerging. “Fashion would serve as an effective counterweight to stimulate the personal entity and with it our condition of persons” Glover, 2017.
New challenges in fashion
Today, the fashion industry is being questioned due to its production process and consumption.
Some fashion brands have been denounced for not offering decent working conditions to their workers.
Many production processes are not friendly to the environment and only take into consideration satisfying the changing demand of consumers. In this matter there is a great task to be done; It must be considered that the new generations are increasingly fluctuating with their tastes. Social networks provide a lot of information from all corners of the world, which also causes new trends to spread, become widespread and become obsolete more quickly.
Currently some brands and fashion lovers have highlighted the value of used clothing and have preferred to modify their own garments or those of others according to the styles that are worn, contributing to the recycling of garments.
Throughout the history of fashion, a distorted image of beauty, the body and women has spread. Little by little, great fashion brands have emerged that through their campaigns have shown that there is no perfect body shape or size, nor is there a perfect race, skin color, or weight.