Hello everyone! My name is Ishani and for this semester’s topic, I picked the inquiry question “How has fashion changed and developed throughout history and how does that impact us?”.
As I’ve grown older, I have realized how substantially the way we dress and act impacts our daily lives. Whether it was the 1900s or early 2000s, there have always been certain norms for clothing and style. This inquiry question appealed to me since I have always wondered why this was the case. Why should the way someone dresses change your perspective on them? Fashion has also always appealed to me. Learning about how clothes are made, manufactured and finally put into your favourite stores is unreal! Getting to understand how clothes are designed and the process it takes to make a singular piece of clothing is fascinating! As people change their ways of thinking, so does their opinion on certain things. I wonder, what makes something “popular” or “stylish” and what makes it boring. Who gets to decide what is “cool” or “normal” and how does that change the way others think? I hope my inquiry question appeals to you and I can’t wait to finally learn about the impact fashion has on us!
Hello Ishani! Thank you for sharing your intriguing inquiry question about the evolution of fashion throughout history and its impact on us. It’s clear that you have a genuine interest for this topic and I am looking forward to what ideas you will introduce! . It’s fascinating to explore the various factors that have shaped fashion over time and your curiosity about what defines something as “cool” or “stylish” and how this impacts people’s perceptions and self-expression is an excellent point of inquiry.
As you dive into your research, you might want to consider how globalization and technology(the internet) have accelerated the spread of fashion trends across the world in recent years. What do you think has been the most significant driver of change in fashion during the past century? How do you believe fashion might continue to evolve and shape our lives in the future? And also which age group will you focus on, teenagers or adults, is there a difference in the way they are influenced?
Here are some websites and online resources that can help you research your inquiry question, https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion
https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/
Best of luck with your research 🙂
Hello Ishani!
I love this project idea and I think it’s so interesting! I don’t know much about fashion, but it’s very cool to see how it’s developed over time because the changes are very noticable! For your future research, maybe you could talk about how in our generation fashion has changed since the introduction of social media? For example, things like fads and trends have always been a thing, but with social media, it seems like trends are beginning and ending at a much faster rate which is super noticeable through fast fashion!
Here are some resources that may help you in the future:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/learning/how-fast-fashion-became-faster-and-worse-for-the-earth.html
https://fashinnovation.nyc/how-social-media-influences-fashion-trends/
Overall this was a really great post and I’m looking forward to reading your next one!
-Shaila
Hi Ishani,
I loved the idea for your inquiry post because I was also curious on why how we dress impacts our daily lives. I love how you added different sub ideas to help me reflect deeper into this question. For example, what is cool clothing, what makes a clothing popular and why should the way someone dresses change their perspective? Reading these sub-topics reminded me about a survey that showed the injustice between online school and in-person school because student’s grades are commonly impacted on how students dress themselves. This topic will be beneficial to the community because we all want our clothing to help improve our first impressions. Some questions I have for you are: what clothing is popular for different age groups? How can we create clothing, so that it is more eco-friendly? What are some techniques to remake new clothing from old clothes that don’t fit us? When was it socially acceptable for women to wear pants? What can we destroy the concept of boy-clothing and girl-clothing to tackle gender equality?
Here are some resources to further your research:
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/study-finds-clothing-based-racist-stereotypes-persist-against-black-men
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=6785&context=etd
https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/07/womens-fashion-history-through-newspapers-1921-1940/
https://libguides.library.kent.edu/c.php?g=278036&p=1853676
https://www.lib.niu.edu/1998/iht529836.html
I enjoyed reading your post,
Sarah Kim
Hi Ishani!
I love your question so much, I personally am doing my question on fashion as well and I love the perspective you have taken on fashion and the point of view you are reflecting your interests in! I’m so excited to read more about your topic. I personally love seeing the affects of fashion throughout history through movies, I feel like the modern interpretation of the fashion eras through movies really shows how the insdustry views the changes and the growths of fashion throughout history. In addition, I feel like as a visual learner, seeing that change in fashion in such a manner not only helps me understand more, but also allows me to have my own ideas and opinions about the topic!
Here are some perspectives which may help you in visually extending your research as well as gaining more ideas:
https://www.varsity.co.uk/film-and-tv/19455
https://vocal.media/styled/how-fashion-has-changed-over-the-years
https://www.vogue.com/article/oral-history-of-marie-antoinette-15th-anniversary (a personal favourite of mine as this film has such a modern twist and view on the fashion of the 1700s, its almost insane how accurate but not accurate the fashion in this movie is)
I’m so excited to read your next post!
– Sanam M.