What really is meant by the word fashion? As simple as it may seem, this question is valued for its diversity in interpretation. Fashion is not just about one’s clothes or accessories, it is a complete way of life. It encompasses one’s complete way of living.

But what am I really trying to say? Without confusing matters further, I would like to say that fashion revolves around clothes more than anything else, although I will still say that fashion is one’s entire lifestyle that changes with change in the fashion cycle in the garment world.

The colours and décor of one’s house are driven by fashion. The colours on walls of your house, the cushions you prop against those really hip couches, the curtains, the home accessories -- everything is driven by the changes in fashion.

The terms “fashionable” and “unfashionable” are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the current trends, or even not so current popular mode of expression. The term “fashion” is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour, beauty and style. In this sense, fashions are a sort of communal art, through which a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. The term “fashion” is also sometimes used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads and trends, and materialism. A number of cities are recognised as global fashion centres and are recognised for their fashion weeks, where designers exhibit their new clothing collections to audiences. These cities are New York City, Milan, Paris, and London. Other cities, mainly Los Angeles, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, Miami, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Sydney, Barcelona, Madrid, Vienna, New Delhi and Dubai also hold fashion weeks and are better recognised every year.

Fashion, by description, changes constantly. The changes may proceed more rapidly than in most other fields of human activity (language and thought, among others). For some, modern fast-paced changes in fashion embody many of the negative aspects of capitalism: It results in waste and encourages people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. Other people enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience “new” and “interesting” things. Note too that fashion can change to enforce uniformity.

Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time, for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the 18th or 19th centuries, for example, might favour things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese at a third. A modern version of exotic clothing includes club wear. Globalisation has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times, and has seen the introduction of non-Western wear into the Western world.

Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rate and direction of fashion change.

Like I always like to say, fashion is a form of ugliness that is much appreciated in its time.