fashion - The prevailing style or custom. Most often refers to clothing (costume), but may refer to any cultural trend. Manner or mode. Also, to give shape or form to; to make. Fashion design refers specifically to designing clothing, and its associated accessories.

Examples:

French, A Yellow Dress, c. 1780, fashion illustration, hand-colored engraving. This picture presents a design that is representative of the fine dresses of this period in France — the reign of Louis XVI, about ten years before the French Revolution. See costume.

American, Hoop, c. 1865, half circles of reeds or whalebone riveted to bands of heavy linen tape. It is fastened at the waist with a steel buckle. This is an example of a cage-hoop used underneath a skirt to provide a fashionable fullness at the back of a woman's dress. An important effect of the hoop was the graceful, swinging motion it gave to a woman's skirt as she walked. Rendered by Mae Szilvasy, Hoop, 1935/1942, watercolor and graphite on paperboard, 38.8 x 31 cm (15 1/4 x 12 3/16 inches), Index of American Design, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. See Index of American Design.

Cristobal Balenciaga (Spanish, 1895-1972), Evening Gown, 1950, black silk crepe with Honan draping and panniers, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ.

Charles James (American, 1906-1978), "Petal" Ballgown, 1951, black velvet and silk satin, ivory silk faille, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ.

Betty Brader (American, 1923-1986), Quite a Catch, c. 1968, a fashion illustration for a poster advertising Joseph Magnin stores in the San Francisco area.

Giorgio Armani (Italian, 1934-), Giorgio Armani Fashion Show, a model who wears one of the designer's latest ensembles, walks the runway as spectators look on. This presentation of Armani's "new line" took place in Washingon, DC, May 16, 2002.

Bob Mackie (American, 1940-), Evening Dress, c. 1989, silk chiffon, glass beads, sequins, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ.

American, Stylishly Drawn, Contemporary Fashion Illustration, 2000, a fashion illustration used for the dust jacket for a book by Laird Borelli, presenting "210 color illustrations by the new generation of illustrators."

John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960-) for Christian Dior, Saddle Bag, 2000, denim, leather, metal, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ.

American, Swimwear Designs for Summer of 2003, a presentation board by a fashion design student, markers, photographs, and computer-generated text. This illustration shows each of several designs in four colorways.

See more examples of fashionable clothing in ArtPage's article on costume.

• "Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new."
  Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden, "Economy," 1854.
  
  
• "Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit."
  George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish and American philosopher, poet, and novelist. The Life of Reason, "Reason in Religion," 1905-06.
  
  
• "For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards be always old-fashioned."
  George Santayana. Winds of Doctrine, "Modernism and Christianity," 1913.
  
  
• "I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time."
  Orson Welles (1915-1985), American actor, and radio, film, and theatrical producer.
  
  
• "Today, there is no fashion, really. There are just . . . choices. Women dress today to reveal their personalities. They used to reveal the designer's personality. Until the 70s, women listened to designers. Now women want to do it their own way. There are no boundaries. And without boundaries, there is no fashion." Oscar de la Renta (contemporary) French-American fashion designer (couturier), quoted in an interview with Lynn Hirschberg, New York Times Magazine, May 26, 2002, p. 15. See couture and couturier.

• Internet Centre for Canadian Fashion and Design. This site centers on the fashion and design industries in Canada. It also has links to other worldwide fashion and design resources. The fashion section includes a useful online textiles dictionary:
  
  
• Textile Dictionary. All terms are divided into four categories: cotton; silk and silk imitation; worsted, wool and hair; other cellulose fabrics. Each term description includes the fibre of the textile, the weave, its characteristics and uses.
  
  
• Art on the Edge of Fashion. Concerns an exhibition of contemporary art using the visual language of clothing and fashion held at the Arizona State University Art Museum in 1997. The works of eight North American artists are featured: sculpture, photographs, installations, performance and video. There are images of the works exhibited and a discussion among the curators on the ideas behind the show.
  
  
• CNN's Cold War Fashion Timeline.
  

Also see art careers, costume, couture, new, technology, and textile.

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