"Fashion" is thus defined in the
dictionary: "The prevailing mode in such things as are subject to
change in form or style, as in ornament and etiquette, and especially in
dress." It is the name given to the prevailing style of living among
the upper classes and the rich. Among the members of the "smart set "of
any country, certain styles of houses, furniture, foods and drinks,
times of meals, amusements, polite customs, and especially dress, are
"fashionable".
No one in society would dare take his
meals at unfashionable hours, or furnish his rooms with unfashionable
furniture, or, above all, wear clothes that were out of fashion. To do
so would be considered odd and eccentric, or, as people of that class
would say, "Quite impossible".
Fashions in all things are constantly
changing. Certain games and amusements, styles of furniture, rules of
etiquette, foods and drinks, come into fashion and go out of fashion.
What was fashionable in the days of our fathers is no longer fashionable
to-day. This is especially true of fashions of dress which always means
the latest fashion.
One year ladies' dresses will be short
and their hats small; the next they may be long and the hats large. Now
the prevailing color will be blue; in a few months, it may be pink; and
sometime after, everyone will be wearing black. A fashionable lady will
call a beautiful and costly dress she has worn only once, "that old
thing", and give it away to her maid, because it has gone out of
fashion. As it is impossible for any but wealthy people to bear the
expense of discarding perfectly good clothes, and of buying new and
up-to-date dresses, only well-to-do people can always be in the fashion.
How can we account for these constant
and rapid changes in fashion? They are due, partly to love of novelty,
and partly to what is called the "herd instinct". Animals that live in
herds or flocks (such as cattle, sheep and deer) are in the habit of
moving together, and all doing the same thing at the same time. Now men
are animals that live in "herds" or societies; and, as a rule, a man or
woman feels uncomfortable, if he or she is not doing or wearing just
what their equals in society are wearing or doing.
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