The Manifestation of Fashion in Modern Culture: Fashion as a Form of Self-Expression in the 1920s

Fashion is a ubiquitous dimension of our modern culture and to a certain extent, defines and shapes an era the way different forms of art do, such as music, literature and architecture, although fashion is by no means to be considered as art. Nonetheless, art and fashion may have one thing in common: the effect which they have on a certain culture and a certain period. Playing a dominant role in characterizing a certain period, fashion has a dualistic feature, since it contributes to culture in that it is a formative factor, but at the same time culture is also forming fashion. It is essential to state that fashion is not accessible to every social class, which is why fashion is based on hierarchy and it is only found in hierarchical cultures (Simmel 541). In hierarchical cultures, the elite is the group that could gain access to fashion with the purpose of differentiating themselves from the masses, hence it can be argued that fashion, besides being a formative force in culture as well as being formed by culture, also served as a way of distinction. (Introduction)BSc/BAAnglisztik