Beauty, in layman’s term, is a word that can be related to external attractiveness. It becomes a basis for influencing human decision-making processes in various endeavors like art, partner-seeking, job hunting, and whatnot. Beauty is a source of inspiration because with it comes a positive feeling that paves way to belongingness. But a great caveat is placed on the possibility that over reliance to beauty can reach to that extent of blinding the credulous mind to give in to superficiality. This very fact became a propelling force for some to at least augment that inherent beauty in them, among of which is what we commonly call as fashion, in order to make life “easier”.
As an innate attribute, fashion is indeed related to beauty(and time). The stated premise is exemplified by this analogy: Fashion, whatever it may be, becomes a badge of positive conformity dictated by a specific period of time that ultimately conveys an instant message of eliciting beauty. Dressing well is the fundamental rule of showing beauty and anything in furtherance to obtain attraction. That alone would show that beauty and fashion are tailored fit. However, the end product would of course depend because while it is true that a perfect “fashion per se” is attainable, there would always be a question as to the person hiding behind the mask of fashion, e.g., is the fashionable person’s face or body beautiful wearing a 3 carat diamond ring?
A distinct source of question would be, who gets to dictate the in and outs of fashion trends? Answer? The world of mass media.
Mass media has this undisputed notoriety that the collective consciousness of society is well aware of. Prior to the 1960’s, the emphasis of fashionable beauty is placed on the sophisticated look of today. However, when “Barbie” came into the mainstream, it became a great factor that changed beauty and fashion as human knew it – thin proportions, generally slim body, cool clothes, various accessories and among others. Evolution just slowly modified the prototypical Barbie fashion and turned it into what it is today but to stress, a closer look would reveal that the contemporary look really started from the Barbie era.
Fashion, in realty, is highly dependent upon culture in the determination of what is actually beautiful. What may be good looking for Americans, who trends for a more diverse and liberal approach to fashion, may be different for the traditional Europeans, whose fashion tastes are quite sophisticated. This fact can be a source of conflict of what is beautiful, in the realm of pragmatic transfers, should foreigners interact with each other equipped with that mindset of impressing the other through the means of their cultural fashion. For indeed, it is really inevitable because fashion is simply relative, nothing more, nothing less.
At the end of the day, it should be noted that beauty vis-à-vis fashion is something like