Fashion today

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person.
Fashion industry

The fashion industry is a product of the modern age. Prior to the mid-19th century, most clothing was custom made. It was handmade for individuals, either as home production or on order from dressmakers and tailors. By the beginning of the 20th century—with the rise of new technologies such as the sewing machine, the rise of global capitalism and the development of the factory system of production, and the proliferation of retail outlets such as department stores—clothing had increasingly come to be mass-produced in standard sizes and sold at fixed prices. Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, today it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold world-wide. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally. The fashion industry has long been one of the largest employers in the United States, and it remains so in the 21st century. However, employment declined considerably as production increasingly moved overseas, especially to China. Because data on the fashion industry typically are reported for national economies and expressed in terms of the industry’s many separate sectors, aggregate figures for world production of textiles and clothing are difficult to obtain. However, by any measure, the industry accounts for a significant share of world economic output.

The fashion industry consists of four levels: the production of raw materials, principally fibres and textiles but also leather and fur; the production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors, and others; retail sales; and various forms of advertising and promotion. These levels consist of many separate but interdependent sectors, all of which are devoted to the goal of satisfying consumer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit.

Trends
Seeing Red:

The Hour's take on 50s fashion

The Hour is not the style spectacle that Mad Men was – but the clothes tell us so much more about the characters.

The cast of The Hour: Romola Garai as Bel and Dominic West as Hector are in the centre of the group. Photograph: BBC/Kudos Film and Television/Amelia Troubridge

The title of The Hour, the new BBC drama set in the 1950s, refers to the TV programme around which it revolves.

Tom Ford to show at London Fashion Week

The fashion world’s most coveted show will hit London Fashion Week this year, as Tom Ford is set to show his spring/summer 2012 collection in London this September. The American designer has appeared on the schedule for London Fashion Week on Sunday 18th Septmeber at 6pm, but the venue is yet to be confirmed.