Project Runway

The main lights dim, the runway lights flash on and the audience grows excited. The models backstage grow nervous as the audience starts to cheer. The models are about to show off a new line of clothing from a designer that will become the newest trend in fashion. But what is fashion? Many people think about models, the runway, New York and expensive clothing when they hear the word fashion. But fashion is much more than that. Fashion is clothing that defines who a person is, their likes and dislikes, their personality and most importantly their culture.

Clothing dates back to about 100,000-500,000 years ago. The first clothing was made out of animal hide and fur, vegetation and bones. This type of clothing was usually draped over people or tied on. It wasn’t until about 30,000 years ago that people realized they could use animal bone as a needle to sew their clothing (The History of Clothing). Fashion changes over time due to economic and social changes. The most dramatic changes took place during the 8th and 11th century because these were the times when sophisticated clothing came about. As the textiles became more impressive so did the clothing. The clothing became more sophisticated and stylish as the materials became more specialized throughout the years (cite). Cultural clothing did not come about as fashion progressed it was the reason fashion came about. When clothing first started to appear you could tell a lot about the culture of the consumer. In the early days one could assume that the people were hunters and gatherers because they made their clothing out of animal hide, fur and bones.

Fashion is very important to people as it defines the cultures that they come from. One can tell a lot about a person and where t...

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...ntity” when they paint their faces white, put chopsticks in their hair and wrap themselves in the colorful kimono. Sandra Bernhard, a film maker, represents this idea very well in her film Without You I’m Nothing. The film is opened with her dressed in African clothing and pretending to be black. This represents that cultural identity can be easily constructed and worn by someone who is not of that culture (Eating the Other 436). The author of Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance, Bell Hooks suggests that people “put on an identity” because “one desires “a bit of the Other” to enhance the blank landscape of whiteness” (430). Consumers believe that their lives are a blank landscape of whiteness until they put on the fashion of other cultures. The fashion of other cultures add color and excitement to the consumers life so it is not a blank landscape of whiteness.