Fashion and You...

I have been talking about how design is part our day to day life. Every action that we do, design is involved in it in some way or the other. I have discussed different design disciplines and how they affect our everyday activities or we can also put it in this way that bringing more life in these activities gave rise to these design disciplines. 
Receiving feedback from people that these small reads are helping us to gain a different perspective to look at things really encourages me. People share that they have started noticing details of the products and spaces around them. Sensitising more and more people towards design is one of my goals for writing these posts, as I believe design impacts us all!
One of my friends asked me about my last post 'Dress up your attitude!' how fashion design affects us, we common people? We cannot afford designer clothes displayed in a fashion show. In fact some of the clothes look so weird to be worn in real life.
What we see in fashion show is creative work of designer based on a 'theme'. The theme need not be from our day to day life. It being a creative show it takes liberty to break away from practical themes. It's an opportunity to witness fantasy! At the same time it gives clues to the audience which could help them evolve their own style. 
“Fashion is what you're offered four times a year by designers and STYLE is what YOU choose” - Lauren Hutton (American model and actress ). 

I think this is the role of fashion in our daily life. It keeps us updated about current trends in clothing and accessories such as fabric, colours, print and patterns. This helps us to come up with our own dressing style everyday. In India, it's not only fashion shows, magazines, celebrities but also Indian Cinema and TV shows that influences current trends in fashion. Which in turn influences the clothing available at retail clothing stores which is affordable to masses. Fashion influences are so evident that no one can forget solid chiffon sarees worn by late Sridevi or Bell bottom pants of Amitabh or casual look of Karina from Jab we met. 
Everyone wishes to look their best. How you dress is how you are perceived by  others. It becomes your style. Few makes conscious efforts to select clothing by keeping in mind the whole picture, own personality, comfort, occasion, trends. Those who can do this succeed in coming up with their own style. Awareness about latest trends help choose right clothing for right occasion. For practical clothing comfort is utmost important. There is no point in wearing a Lycra dress on a hot day of sight seeing no matter how stylish it looks on the wearer. Costume designers do exactly this, they style the actors as per their character that they are playing. It is not true that only expensive, branded clothing is required for a great style. The key is to choose appropriately as per your personality and occasion.

Same dress looks different on different people
Image source:https://lovin.ie/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/this-new-asos-
feature-shows-the-same-clothes-on-different-body-types

Famous fashion designer Oscar de la Renta says "Being well dressed hasn’t much to do with having good clothes. It’s a question of good balance and good common sense.” 
Many of us like the fashion of celebrities and we aspire to look that charming. Copying the clothes ditto won't make us look like them as every person is unique and have their own way of carrying clothes. Same dress will look different on different people. 
So I would like to sum it up with quote by Oscar de la Renta. “Fashion is about dressing according to what's fashionable, style is more about being yourself.”
As mentioned earlier Fashion is not only about clothing but accessories are integral part of it. More about it in coming post. 
Some useful links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TuLSx3doEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es-6kFYe9ME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yAz6FOUvKA&t=310s