Fashion Friday: What is Fashion?

Fashion is a vague topic to cover, and I will divide the topic into 6 parts.  We are going to find out the what, who, when, where, and why’s of fashion to have a better understanding as to why it is so popular and influential. I am also going to share how fashion is being approached here in the Philippines. Let’s start from the very basic…

I. WHAT IS “FASHION”?
Fashion is a general term for a popular style or practice, especially in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, body piercing, or furniture. Fashion refers to a distinctive and often habitual trend in the style with which a person dresses, as well as to prevailing styles in behaviour. Fashion also refers to the newest creations of textile designers. (Source: Wikipedia)
I will define fashion as one’s individual taste in clothing, his own self-expression, and an extension of his character. One can be plain (just t-shirt and jeans) or over-the-top like Tessa Prieto-Valdes with her costumey-taste. There are different fashion styles that I can’t even begin to count as numbers wouldn’t figure. Some examples would be vintage, girly, punk, ghetto and rock. We can mix and match, add accessories, jewelries, pair it with a nice bag and a good pair of shoes and we’re good to go.

There are 3 main categories of fashion. The first one is called “Haute Couture” or high fashion. This category in fashion is custom-made which means the textile is measured exactly to the person wearing the dress. The dressmaker uses expensive fabric and materials that’s why Haute Couture is very expensive. The second category is called “Ready-to-wear” or RTW which is not custom-made but high attention to detail is applied in choosing the cut and fabric. RTW’s are presented during Fashion Week by famous fashion houses. The third category is called “Mass Market” which caters for a wide range of customers. Mass market values quantity over quality so machines are basically used to create a lot of clothes without careful consideration of the cut and fabric and are sold at a very cheap price (like the ones in Divisoria).
Fashion industry is the business of fashion. It satisfies customer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit. 

Here are the 4 levels in fashion industry:
1. Production of raw materials – the source of fibers and textiles as well as leather and fur.
2. Production of fashion goods - either by designers, manufacturers, contractors and others.
3. Retail - the sale of clothing, shoes and accessories as well as services.
4. Advertising and promotion – where fashion models play a vital part.
(Source: Wikipedia)

In the next Fashion Fridays to come, I’m going to share the who, when, where, and why’s of fashion as well as fashion here in the Philippines. I hope you learned something from this article though it’s mostly from Wikipedia. :p I just actually chose the parts that are relevant from different fashion topics in Wikipedia and combined them here so we concentrate on the interesting parts and throw the boring parts. Next Friday is about people in the fashion industry. From level one to four, we are going to find out who is who in the real world of fashion. So, see you next Friday readers! :)

Thingamajig Thursday!!!

ABOUT ME(as of May 23, 2013):


Hi! I'm "Q", I'm a free-time blogger (the term just popped in my head as I was thinking of a more appropriate term other than a 'blogger' who blogs all the time and a 'part-time blogger’ who’s committed to blogging half of the time). :p TEEHEE. Sooo, you can say I blog just whenever I’m free and inspired so I can write honest and quality reviews and experiences. No strings attached. J I’ve been blogging since high school (around 2^nd year in 2006) and have had numerous blogs since the first one. I’d start a blog, and then forget about it. Haha I stumble upon them at times and whenever I do, I’d laugh at all my grammatical errors. Lol I’ve always wanted to write since I was a kid but I never thought of committing to it until it became a powerful tool in advertising and marketing (which by the way, my major is Marketing).

Right now, I have 3 blogs of different subjects so that readers don’t get mixed up. They’re in different hosting sites too so I can compare which one is the easiest to use. My first blog started in 2011 (okay, I started another blog all over again just like all the other blogs I started in high school but this time, I will not forget about it). :p  It’s a personal blog, like a diary or journal where I can dump all my emotions into and some places I’ve been to or is listed in my dream vacations. And oh, it’s still active up to now. (Improving!!!) CHOZ. I named it “my wtvs.” (a name most appropriate for my dumpsite). I’ll do my best to post articles here for Techie Tuesdays, Wandering Wednesdays, and Thingamajig Thursdays. You can find this blog here: http://queeniefly.tumblr.com SHOOT! Disclaimer: this is not my first and only tumblr account but this is the only tumblr account I am using right now. ;)

My second blog is called “Q for Cucumber”. I changed its name after deciding to use its old name “Quintessential Q” for my other blog. This is not my first and only WordPress blog but right now this is the only WordPress blog I’m using and updating. It started just this month when I read a book by Robert Kiyosaki and got extremely inspired that I was able to write a decent article about financial literacy. The purpose of this blog is to raise financial awareness among people who hasn’t realized the value of money and how to multiply it instead of just spending for commercial products and food, paying debts and bills, saving and even to just get by until the next pay day. This blog also serves as an online self-help and motivational tool for people who has ideas but has never decided to put those ideas to something feasible. Here, I will feature entrepreneurs and their success stories, write about money-making ideas, and other inspirational thoughts. Since the name sounds yummy and refreshing (‘cucumber’), I decided to add a little refresher to it and I hope people who landed on my page for this purpose would read something about money matters too. :p Ye, my food reviews would fall under this site as “food” is defined as “any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body” and therefore matches my tag line, “Health and Wealth”. You can check this blog at http://qrfr.wordpress.com …I’ll be updating and posting something new to this blog every Spotlight Saturdays and Savory Sundays when I’m free and inspired (fingers crossed). :p 

The last blog I just started last week (and accidentally signed up for because I wanted to learn about Google AdSense) is about the most common subject we could ever imagine in blogosphere—beauty and fashion. HOORAY!! (at least now you realize I’m a girl) :p To make the common even more common, I’d be posting beauty articles, make-up reviews, services and some fashion articles. But ‘common’ doesn’t mean I’m no different from all the beauty and fashion bloggers. Of course I have my own opinion too that are not biased, honest and read-worthy. I’ll be making tambay on this blog called “Quintessential Q” whenever I can every Make-up Mondays and Fashion Fridays, see it here: http://queeniefly.blogspot.com  

This is another fresh new start for me but I’m hoping to find loyal readers and followers. J LEGGO! xx