I wanted to write a short post about how fashion terms break down but mainly how I personally break them down. Fashion is somewhat a broad term that includes many different areas and words that tagged along to it. However, some of the most popular words that get fashion gets put together with are trend and style. Some people believe that these 3 words are all synonyms for each other but actually they are all a little different.
Fashion is an aesthetic expression through different means such as clothes, accessories, lifestyle, footwear, make-up, hairstyles, etc. Fashion typically gets linked with the words trends and style because it has such a broad overview. Fashion isn’t necessarily something that is hip and on point but just the clothing that we wear on a daily basis or the way someone furnishes their home.
Trends are something that are very specific to an aesthetic expression and often last a very short period of time before becoming extinct. There is often more than one trend happening at a time in each different part of the fashion industry. An example of this would be the bucket hat that was trending in late 2019, now in early 2020 we already see the trend fading to the background and something else taking its place (step away from the Bra top craz, nobody needs that).
Now let’s get to my favorite fashion term, style (I’m looking at you Jackie O). Now style is something every designer wants to have and I know that is something weird to say. But having a style created after you or something you created in the fashion world is extremely difficult. This is mainly because of pieces becoming popular and then quickly becoming unpopular (see that pesky word above). Even with the core style types such as, vintage or artsy, there are new style categories being created from trends often. Style is basically something that has been maintained by the consumer through time and is often seen from generation to generation. It is something that is a staple in your closet, for instance something like the little black dress.
This is the most condensed and consolidated way that I can describe what fashion, trends and style are in the most basic format. I often get asked what these words mean and thought it would be good to write it up for everyone. People don’t usually understand that fashion terminology is not as easy as it seems, but hopefully this helps someone out there.
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