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Introduction
Once one understands fashion, it becomes easier for one to understand the complexities of relationships between the individual and society. It sums up many of the strains in the modern life experiences and particularly lays emphasis on the function of consumerism in that understanding (Miles, 1998, p. 95). At a personal level, it offers social obedience alongside individual differentiation. From fashion, one gets a sense of individuality while on a wider scale it brings out a picture of how the society is. In this case, the fashion sense of an individual interconnects with that of the society.
Youth cultures
According to scholars, the rise of cultural practices by the youth can best be explained as a form of reaction towards the existing class conflicts found in the developed world. It is also noteworthy that in the developing world there are also existing sub cultures among the youth.
Resistance by the youth
Resistance by the youth can be traced back in the 1970’s as well as the 1980’s as Britain was being re-industrialized. The continual change in the global economy where workers around the world have been rescheduled to work in other locations different from their home country, have reacted by changing their fashion into flashy styles. A youth program that was put up by the British government in the 1980’s was meant to reduce the high rates on unemployment among the youth as well as help workers to acclimatize with their new working environment as well as become flexible with no fighting. However, despite this effort by the government, the youth still rebel. There are various ways in which the youth rebel (Barker, 2000, P. 325). For example in a work environment youths may decide at an individual level to change jobs as they do not get the job satisfaction they are looking for. There have been several explanations of opposition by various youth identities. The youth culture is characterized by sub- cultures and thus leading to the rise of social centers that are grounded in politics as well as music (Barker, 2000, p. 325)
Influence of Media to the youth
The media has played a great part in promoting resistance movement by the youth due to the beliefs they portray to the youth and this is sometimes copied by the youth. The media has been criticized for producing content that targets teenagers with a lot of emphasis on femininity. This kind of media content is mainly found in fashion magazines as well as romance novels. The kind of picture portrayed by the media focuses on beauty, romance as well as the domestic sphere as the true representation of femininity (Miles, 1998, p. 96). A similar case has been witnessed in countries like Japan where a culture known as the cute culture has risen; in this case women have been guided into an age where attractiveness is stressed in fashion, advertisements as well as the handwriting. The images portrayed by the media have a gap between the modern lives shown in the media as well as the actuality of the inadequate financial opportunities for majority of the youths.
As much as the media is viewed negatively in terms of its presentation of depictions that can hardly be achieved by the youths, as well as creating advocacy for consumerism, it can also be a foundation for information as well as organization. For example, a study carried out among the youths in America, found out that youth who feel rejected by their fellow peers, learn from the media on how to cope with such situations. Several kinds of body alterations promoted by the media can be seen as a form of rejecting some ideologies like capitalism as claimed by the people who practice it. Moreover it could also be a way of redefining one self. Examples of such body alterations include body piercings, tattooing and so on. Youths who have such kind of body alterations have formed their self- identity, of maybe rejecting a certain ideology or form of expression of themselves different from the genuine self (Rosenblatt, 1997, p. 300).
Definition of self, identity as well as social identity
The self refers to the way in which we perceive ourselves to be. The self may include ones’ knowledge as well as belief of his or her personal qualities, and constitutes one of the two elements of self- knowledge. The other element of being is self- esteem, which stands for how we feel about ourselves (Smith and Mackie 2000, p. 104). The actual self tells a person how he views himself while the ideal self is about how one would like to be viewed by others (Sirgy 1982, p. 287). We view ourselves in terms of the many roles that we occupy, the actions we perform as well as the relationships that we get into. In the contemporary, the self is in part created by the kind of brands we consume. According to Weigert, Teitge and Teitge (1986, p. 80), an individual has single character characterized by many identities. Identities are made up of a number of roles that demonstrate certain expectations. The different identities in the self are used at specific times.
The youths are constantly feeling the need to have an identity and they do this by identifying with a group. Identities are characterized by essentials that are both private as well as social.
The presence of groups
During a person’s lifetime, one identifies with various groups. This is especially true in the case of adolescence, where a lot of importance is attached to one’s look, which the youth use to evaluate themselves. A social group is composed of a set of two people sharing a universal trait that has a social meaning to them as well as others. While members of a social group may not interact with one another, face- to – face groups do interact with one another.
The concept of social identity is what shapes the concept of “I” and “we” where a person conceives of himself or herself according to the group which a person belongs to. A group may affect a person’s self- esteem as well as moods where the person may feel excellent or terrible as regards to the achievement as well as the collapse of the group. This practice of viewing oneself as an affiliate of a social group is referred to as self- categorization. At this point when the others turn into we, the result is formation of an in- group, which is a group that one belongs to. Individuals forming an in- group, treat each other well as they believe that they share the same interests as well as goals. When a group of people, is seen as not being part of them, this group is referred to as the out- group that is viewed as distasteful. When it comes to the consumption of brands, the in- groups, consume what they associate to be part of the in- group.
A reference group on the other hand refers to a group which informs how an individual is going to act.
Identity in fashion
According to the above discussion, groups influence people actions. The same case applies to the youth who are influenced by people close to them who include friends, school mates as well as family members. If a family utilizes a certain product frequently, for example a computer brand like Dell children from such families are likely to buy computers with the same brand as they identify with that brand (Barker, 2000 p. 330).
Certain types of clothing also have different meanings for different groups for example youths who have been labeled as punks, are believed to wear shoes that are long- legged while on the other hand rockers favored ankle- length shoes and this served to identify them as either punks or rockers. Groups come up as a result of ones fashion for example a group like Piss- Lizzys who are mainly girls who dress as well as act in a certain way. These groups of girls originate from Finland and are believed to design clothes, which are composed of tops as well as tight jeans. They are regarded as haughty and girls who over do their make up. Fashion which was identified with this group was the Miss Sixty jeans and this led to some girls steering away from this fashion as they were afraid of being associated with this group.
Other kinds of fashions are associated with certain kind of sports. For example according to a study carried out among a group of boys, boys serious with skateboarding preferred wearing skateboards shoes like Element, Death and Circa.
Other types of fashions are worn by the youth because they identify with a certain group of people like, celebrities, the athletic and successful people. For example girls would wear Lacoste fashion because their favorite celebrities wear this brand. On the other hand, guys would wear fashion like Adidas and Nike because they look cool (Barker, 2000. p. 40)
Certain kind of fashion also represents ones age and hence teenagers may choose to wear certain brands to conform to other teenagers. These kinds of brands include Puma, Nike as well as Adidas for the boys. Fashion brands associated with teenage girls include Paul Frank as well as Topshop.
Conclusion
The fashion certain youths decides to adopt is associated with a certain character or age. Some fashions are associated with haughty girls and hence some teenage girls may stay away from such fashion in order to avoid being given a negative label. Other teenage fashions are associated with sports like skate boarding. On the other hand a certain kind of fashion is associated with someone’s age. Most youth therefore wear a certain brand to identify with their youthful age. Fashion has different meanings for different youth groups and that’s why youths will adopt a certain type of fashion to represent the in- group in which they belong to.
Reference List
Barker, C. 2000. Youth, Style and Resistance’ in Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice: London: Sage.
Miles, S. 1998. ‘Consuming Fashion.’ Consumerism as a way of life. London: Sage.
Rosenblatt, D. 1997. The antisocial skin, structure, resistance, ‘modern primitive’ adornment in the United States. Cultural Anthropology, 12, 287- 334.
Sirgy, M. 1982. Self- concept in consumer behavior: A critical review. Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (3), 287- 300.
Smith, R. and Mackie, D. 2000. Social psychology. 2nd Edition. Psychology Press: Philadephia, PA.
Weigert, J, Teitge, J and Teitge, D. 1986. Society and identity- Toward a sociological psychology. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
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