Please forgive my tardiness in posting this homework!!! I had thought that I had done so with the many others last Monday and Tuesday. Thank you for your understanding. Here is the prompt for e-journal #6:
Describe, with sensory detail where possible, a fashion trend that you have noticed and participated in during the past three or four years. Where did it begin (if you know), or where did you first begin to notice it? Who were the people to first wear this style? Does this particular fashion help identify a particular group? If so, who or what? Do you identify with them or it? Is there a music genre attached to this group; a set of beliefs; ideals; behaviors or rituals? Devote two paragraphs to this e-journal response, properly citing at least one quotation from Gladwell’s text to support your conclusions.
I don’t usually go into fashion trends and things. I would usually just wear things that are comfortable and not really pay attention to whatever fashion trend was going on at the moment. Like a year or two I began to wear fitted caps. I remember coming to class one day and just noticing how a lot of people had fitted caps. You couldn’t walk anywhere without seeing someone wearing his or her colorful caps with their team logo showing likes a billboard sign. Most of my friends had them too, so I began to want to wear them. Like Gladwell said “But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses.” which fits in perfectly to what happened to me. I saw a whole bunch of people doing it, so I decided to do it too.
ReplyDeleteThe fitted baseball caps must have started with both baseball players and the fans wearing it. It helped people identify with whatever teams they were fans of, although now people are probably just wearing it as a fashion trend or as gang paraphernalia. I guess I could identify with them if I wore my Mets fitted hat. The music genre that is most attached to this type of fashion trend is rap and hip/hop. You have people like Kanye West wearing a Yankees fitted hat. Because of this most people who wear fitted hats usually listen to hip/hop and rap and can identify with that scene.
I haven't really followed anyone's style of dressing. But, when the whole guido look came out.. a guido is an italian guy that dresses european looking, listens to lots of house music, and goes to a lot of parties and just has a great time. This whole look came out way before the MTV series "Jersey Shore" came out. Everyone around me used to listen to rap. hip hop and R&B and what not, and i did too...until the day i listened to house music, it basically changed my life. It's not just a genre to me, it's a way of life. People around my neighborhood and everywhere i hung out started listening to it too and house music became the new trend. Along with it came the whole guido look, particularly earrings, pumas, ed hardy, armani exchange, affliction, and all types of name brands that guidos wear. I began to do this as well, as if it came over me and took over me as Gladwell said “But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses.” So these people got addicted with looking fresh. All of the sudden all you see in my neighborhood is guidos and guidettes coming out of nowhere.
ReplyDeleteOur beliefs are all the same. It's really one belief. House Music. thats the only thing we can say. Drink all day drink all night. Party all day and party all night. There wasn't really a place where guidos came from. House music first came from Ibiza and Romania. That's the original place of House Music birth. People these days stereotype people like us but hey, we live a great life of no regrets as well as a life with lots of happiness. Ripped jeans, designer shirts, glittery hats, tans, earrings, eyebrows have to be done, blowouts, mohawks, frohawks, tape ups, shape ups, fades, jewelery, shades and what not. Thats what a guido wears. We listen to house music primarily as well as all different types of music such as hip hop and rap. This all started about 3 years ago. You can identify these people by the way the dress and even the way the act or speak.
The fashion trend of jeans has become a very popular style of casual dress around the world, and has been so for decades today. The American soldiers were the first group of people introduced jeans to the world by wearing them when they were off duty. After the war, the rival companies like Lee and Wrangler began to compete with Levi’s for a share of international market. In addition, the cowboys who often wear jeans in the movie lead to an increased interest in the adamant trousers. As a result, as time goes on, more and more American witnessed the new fashion trend and adopted it. It is now one of the most popular fashion trends in New York City by all genders and age groups.
ReplyDeleteOriginally, leans were only designed for work, but they became popular among teenagers staring in the 1950s. I don’t usually participate in any kind of fashion trends. I usually prefer to wear clothes that are comfortable and not exaggerated. My personal fashion trend if jeans and tee shirts. I usually wear them to every sing day to everywhere I go. I like this kind of style because they are convenient and simple. I remembered the first time I wear jeans was the first day of High School. When the first day I walked into High School, I noticed that everyone was wearing jeans with all kinds of style and color. I did not see any one who wears trousers other than jeans. I was so surprised at the time that wearing jeans was the fashion trend in teenagers. From the time pass by, I can say that jeans is the only most popular fashion trend in High School and it will go in to the next decades.
In the article “The Tipping Point” by Gladwell, he states how the trend of Hush Puppies has become a popular tend in American’s history. Gladwell said that “They infected them with the Hush Puppies “virus”.” Like the fashion trend of jeans. It is worn by everyone that it is become a virus like the fashion of Hush Puppies. Jeans it’s not worn by a specific group but by everyone. It has taken over the fashion of America denim.
Fashion this and fashion that. Since my arrival in the country, all I’ve been hearing about is fashion, and my arrival immediately included me in that trend as well whether I liked it or not. The first sneakers I bought in the country were converse, I remember clearly but I was soon to find out that it wasn’t what was considered to be “cool.” At that time, the style in town was the baggy jeans, du-rags and the Nike’s- the gangster look. Wearing skinny jeans back then was also not accepted because it meant you were gay.
ReplyDeleteNowadays though about five years from then, the converse has stepped out from the not cool zone to the “it’s ok to wear them” region. Everyone, even those who used to think converse were not cool are now wearing them. And the same people who thought skinny jeans made normal guys look gay never stop to think twice before putting them on. In Gladwell’s story “The Tipping Point” he says “The best way to understand the transformation of unknown books into best sellers or the rise of teenage smoking or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of other mysterious changes that mark our everyday life is to think of them as epidemics.” What Gladwell is trying to say is that fashion like an epidemic is ready to spread in a vast amount but there is something that first has to start it off. For example, sometime ago I didn’t know what “grenades” meant but I now say it frequently only because I watched the Jersey shore.
In the past year I noticed that Silly Bandz became a fashion trend. At first it wasn’t popular then an “outbreak” occurred and everyone started to wear them with their outfits and matching them. It is crazy how rubber bands that were the shape of animals became a fashion trend. I first began to noticing this when my friend had them all over her wrist and I was said to her, “Why do you have so many?” She replied as it being simply “nice and cool.” I notice that mostly the popular kids had them and then began to spread to everyone; mostly teens.
ReplyDeleteThere was a “follower” trend attached to this since everyone started to wear it. This fashion trend became known worldwide in the fact that almost every teen in the world were using these wristbands. They came in a variety of colors and shapes such as: animals, sport team logos, foods. As shown in the article “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, he states “Hush Puppies had suddenly became hip in the clubs and bars of downtown Manhattan.” Basically proving my point in the ways trends spread.
About 4 years ago, Just out of H.S I began to see the emerging trend in sneakers. I've always expressed my fashion sense in multiple ways, shoes being one of them. For me the trend began in my H.S and the place me and my friends traveled to (I.e. Soho). I sneaker wave had hit and hit hard. It for me focused on Nikes Dunks and Customization pieces, The first people I started to see wearing the new trend were my Friends in H.S , Going to an art school we all had a way of trying to express our individuality... Sneakers being one of mine.
ReplyDeleteAs Gladwell States " if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses.” This fashion wave Spread like wild fire and soon was an emerging trend with young urban kids, we became more heavy immersed in hip hop culture. It became our lifestyle our sneakers our clothes our music and our attitudes were affected by one fashion trend. The ritualistic release of a new sneaker would spawn a frenzy! But I loved it and just as Gladwell states " The idea that epidemics can rise and fall in one dramatic moment." It happened just as quickly for me.
Since I came to this country 3 years ago I had notice different kinds of fashion trends. Two years ago when I was in high school I started noticing people wearing leopard and zebra clothes, shoes and accessories. At first I really didn't like at all. Days were passing and almost every girl on my school was wearing leopard and zebra clothes. I was shocked at first because I felt I wasn't cool like other girls and that same day I went shopping for that kind of clothing. Since that particular fashion trend I started to be more fashionable and I am always trying to wear cloth that is in fashion but most important that I feel comfortable with it.
ReplyDeleteI remember when this fashion influenced everyone around it. Artist such as Ciara has done a video using zebra costume. As it's mentioned on the article "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell " A world that follows the rules of epidemics is a very different place from the world we think we live in now." This meaning that fashion trends can be contagious and that in the world we are living now have being influenced by fashion.
I remember in the tenth grade, sitting in global with my two friends talking about ug boots. One of my friends had 5 pairs of ugs already in every type of style. I had no idea where she got that money from to get so many. At the tyme, ugs were around $160 a pair, for the long ugs. I didn't really like those boots because so many people had them. so, i just decided to get bearpair, which cost me $84. They weren't as expensive as the ugs but they look just like the ugs just different company, and no they werent "fake ugs" like the ones you find in walmart for 20 bucks.
ReplyDeleteI will say i follow fashion, but to an extent. I didn't want to get ugs because everyone else had them, so i just bought something that looks like ugs but different company. I'm not sure how the fashion trend started i just know it orginated in Australa, well that is what i was told. Many people can be influenced by the weirdest things. When ugs came out i was wondering why people like snow shoe type of boots. They looked funny to me, but eventally i started to like how they looked just because of how everyone was wearing them. I realized my friends were getting them so i had to get something like them, so you know when we go out we can match, its a friend thing. It is fuuny how people are addicted to fashion and influenced by it. I'm most definitly influenced by fashion and i do like certain trends. It almost acts like a disease, or vursues that continues to spend from one person to another. Just like Gladwell stated, "But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses". Fashion is contagious. When something new comes out everyone watchs to get it. It has gotten so big to the point wear phones can be considered as fashion. It's either you have your blackberrry or iphone. Fashion does shape our society, and honestly particaping in it can be fun at times.
It is interesting how people get so conscious about what to wear and if it is fashion. Fashion and trends hadn't been important in my life until I first attended university back home. At that time I have just stared university, almost ten years ago, boot cut jeans was one of the must haves. Everybody at school had at least one pair and I din't have. I felt dislocated and even if that pair of jeans wasn't the best fit to my body type that was a need to have it. I end up with a few pairs of boot cut jeans during the school years.
ReplyDeleteA pair of jeans was my first experience of how strongly fashion act in a society. After the jeans came other things that was so important not for the beauty, but for the need to fit in somehow in a society. Moreover, interesting was when I came back to my small original city and every single boutique carried a boot cut jeans jeans. The wide leg pants seemed being to old and out fashion. Not long ago, skinny jeans have spread like quickly and became so popular that even diets mentioned about how bad you want to fit in a skinny jeans.
Fashion is a virus without anti- virus. There are two choices in fashion to follow or not to, but most of the people even those who don't care follow without notice that. Gladwell have state in Tipping Point that " ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like virus do,'' likewise the fashion spreads. Virus and fashion even if is unwanted you take and in both cases there are a need to work to understand first and than see how it will work on your body. My first boot cut jeans was unwanted, but needed and I have to find which brand , color will suit me better in order to fit into my new physical world at that time.
Over the past years the U.S has been becoming a more modernize nation. I noticed new technologies being released. One trend that has made a huge impact has been smart phones. Phones like blackberry, iPhone, touch screen phones, etc. I began noticing this when the first iPhone was released to the market. At first mostly the wealthy were able to afford this type of phone. With this new product other electronic companies were even inspired to create smiliar phones.
ReplyDeleteWhile the trend started to become a success, I was one of the first to obtain an iPhone. Soon after everybody had a texting phone, with a full keyboard or a touch phone. Like Malcolm Gladwell said in " the tipping point", we can conclude that these trends have " one, contagiousness, two, the fact that little causes can have big effect and three, that changes happen not gradually but at one dramatic moment"
One fashion trend I’ve witnessed emerge in the last 3 to 4 years is the vans shoe line. It appeared randomly and spread fast. I think the first people to wear them were mostly skaters. I assume the reason skaters bought them was because skating destroyed their shoes and vans was convenient for them because of its low price. It would let them be less regretful when their shoes did get ruined. Or maybe they just bought it for its classic style.
ReplyDeleteAt first it seemed that vans were a style that only caught on with the skaters, but it soon spread to people of every ‘group’. It caught on quick. Like Gladewell mentions in his article, “Changes happen not gradually but at one dramatic moment.” People who would have never considered skating were wearing them. So at this point it was hard to classify vans with any particular genre. Vans were worn by artists from a range of music categories. The heavy metal band slipknot, wore the shoes in their music video for their song ‘before I forget’. And the hip hop group ‘Shop Boyz’ mentioned the shoes in one of their hit songs. Because of the amount of diversity among the people who wore the shoes it’s impossible to attach any specific ideals or belief of what to expect from the people who wore them. I myself bought them because of its casual look and its convenient price.
There are many styles and trends that have been developed as a sense of expression for many people. With this sense of expression the have developed into trends that have been sported by many people and eventually became a fad. Throughout m high school years I have been found to taken part in a polo fad, which is currently still going on. My sense of fashion has been derived from my friends and surroundings. I first noticed this trend when a few of my fellow students were wearing this brand is school. I actually had already brought a few outfits prior to this but after seeing the new uprising trend I decided to take part. This trend actually did not help to identify you with a particular group but just was a style that more so identified you as a individual.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is very stereotypically to identify clothes with music or any other thing but I have grown to accept the fact that clothes do have an impact on social status instead of depicting how a person is and how they characterize themselves. As an individual I classify myself not with the clothes I wear but how I present myself. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “The Tipping Point”, in a quote states, “The idea of the Tipping Point is very simple. It s that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb, and flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics.” Here Gladwell is explaining a stance he has taken, which I believe to be stereotypical. Gladwell illustrates that all entities of life are epidemics, which I believe to be untrue but would rather states all entities of life are affected by the people who make decisions on how the characterize themselves.
Throughout the past three to four years there have been many fashion trends whether it is clothing, hairstyles, or even the things that people do. I have seen many different trends but I follow very little of them. One trend that I have taken part in was wearing Uggs, this was a very big trend because eventually you see many people (especially girls) wearing them and everyone wanted a pair, including me. My reason for wearing them was because it keeps my feet warm in the winter; I definitely did not fathom them because of the look because they were not very attractive boots. Then finally, summer came, therefore I had no reason to continue wearing them, but suddenly I find more and more girls still wearing them with skirts and shorts and Capri’s, it was ridiculous and not a trend I wanted anything to do with, that was where I drew the line. I always wondered if their feet weren’t sweating in those boots and what was the point of wearing them in the summer time. I realized that there was no point, people just seen other people do it and so they decided that it was cool since others were doing it and therefore started to do it also.
ReplyDeleteAnother trend I noticed was smoking. This was a trend I took no part in as well. Lately I’ve noticed a lot of people(especially teenagers) are doing it. The teenagers who do it are either people who want to fit in with the majority or the “cool” crowd because these people are so popular so they want to be considered “cool” as well, or they are the people who are very stressed out and need something to relax them or make them feel like all of their troubles are gone. For whatever reason it is, these people seen others doing it and/or heard about what it does to you and decided to try it out. Why? Because other people are doing it so it must be the right thing to do. In Gladwell’s text, The Tipping Point, he states, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” By this, he means that people don’t follow trends because someone told them that they should do it or wear it or because they seen it in an advertisement, they follow them simply because they noticed other people doing it or wearing it and, like a virus, that trend is spread from person to person as if they were infected by that trend. One single person can start their own trend and sooner or later that person might see a dozen other people rocking that trend because someone seen it and liked it and more people seen it and liked it and so on. Anyone can do it, even if you don’t want it to become a trend, I mean, people don’t want to infect anyone with a virus, it is unwillingly passed on to them.
Fashion is what people rely on to set them apart from everyone else. If everyone was to dress the same no one would be unique. One fashion trend that I have noticed during the past three years is the name brand Polo by the designer Ralph Lauren. Towards the last two years of high school I have noticed that anytime we were allowed to wear clothes other than uniform, the main brand that was worn by almost everyone was Polo. Polo hats, Polo t-shirts, Polo jeans, Polo boots, and the list goes on. The boys were even wearing Polo boxers. The students in my school were not the only ones wearing this name brand. Other teenagers and young adults were also wearing it. Back in the 90s Polo existed and people were wearing it but it was not as popular as it is now. In Hip Hop rappers were even talking about Polo in their songs. For example in Juelz Santana's song Featuring Chris Brown, "Back to the Crib" he mentions, "If not I stay Polo down to the socks". To teens and rappers wearing polo meant that they were "Fly" and that they knew how to dressed.
ReplyDeleteWriter Malcom Gladwell mentions in his article, "The Tipping Point" that "The idea of the Tipping Point is very simple. It is that the best wat to understand the emergence of fashion trends,s the ebb and flow of the crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." I agree with Gladwell because this is so true. Anytime something new comes out and if we see someone with the product that we like, the need to have it can sometimes be contagious and spread like a virus. Gladwell is right because fashion trends and other transitions in the world can be seen as the Tipping Point.
English 125/PQ1
ReplyDeleteThe only time I ever recall certain fashion trend, was at my High School. The trend wasn't just a paticular one. I remember the students in my high school also wear certain outfits and each group and ethnic had their own style, so each one of them had a different style that stands out in their own way. What that tells me is that every year or so people change and the style they also used changes with them; that’s why when young adults from my generation see old pictures or movies about the 60’s or from other past decades the style seems and looks so weird to them.
Certain group of people that have their own particular style, also have some certain music they listen to mostly because I know and noticed the music I listen to is influenced by my friends and society but sometimes other people from differents ethnicity don't fall into that category; like a friend of mines who is hispanic but loves anything but hispanic music.
A fashion trend that I have seen amerged lately would that of shutter shades and I wore them once to a pep rally my senior year of highschool . I don’t particular like them but I was part of hip hop team so it was requuired to wear them before our performance. It was reintroduced to the american culture in Kanye West hit song sometime in July 2008. Like Mr. Giadewell stated “changes happen not gradually but at one dramatic moment” Iafter that video many people from my school started wearing these glasses on a day to day bases. I first noticed it woren by a fellow peer by the name of Pantor Reyes. He was a well known kid in our school due his partying, cocky attitude, and lack of common sense as well as his fairly good dancing abilities. His friends and acquitances, who are a little hot headed, also started wearing the same shades. I saw that in general to trend did not pertain to one specific group but rather across the spectrum people wearing the shutter shades. I believe the first people who wear the shades were other celebrities who enjoyed Kanye West music and fashion sense.
ReplyDeleteThese shutter shades have become an pop culture symbol because it was reintoduced by a pop song. AS I mention before I’m not fond of the shades for two simple reason. One is that shutter shades are not functional as sunglasses; although some provided protection for the eye from the sun’s harmful rays. Another reason would be because the shape and pattern it create isn’t to my liking. I going to make a generalization by saying that I think a major of people who wear these shutter shades a usually eager for attention and tend to be somewhat high mantience. For instance during the 2010 FIFA World Cup many fans wore shutter shades with the design of their respective flag pictured on the glasses providing evidence to my piont that the shutter shades are used , in a more significant way the other assocerios, to draw attention to oneself for whatever reason that may be.
The trend of skinny jeans has become a very popular style today. It first started in London where it was worn by Kate Moss. About a year later America has witnessed the new trend and adopted it. It’s now one of the most worn denim in New York City by both female and male. One is guarantee to find a pair of skinny jeans in any clothing store one walk into. Many would agree skinny jeans make them look slim and fit.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “The Tipping Point” by Gladwell he stated how the trend of Hush Puppies had become a popular tend. “They infected them with the Hush Puppies “virus”.” he said. Like the trend of skinny jeans. It is worn by everyone that it is become a virus like the fashion of Hush Puppies. Skinny jeans it’s not worn by a specific group but by everyone. It’s on television, ads and so much more. It has taken over the fashion of America denim.
In the last year I realized that Silly Bands was a fashion trend. In the beginning it was not popular at all and then suddenly everyone became a fan. It’s weird how they made a rubber which changes into something when taken off becomes a fashion trend. I saw it first on my little cousin he had so many and I asked why. He replied as it being “cool and everyone has them.” Everybody had them, from the popular to the not so popular.
ReplyDeletePeople seemed to follow whoever had them first which allowed it to spread very fast. This trend became so popular that almost every teen was talking about the new silly band that they got. They come in different shapes forms and sizes. In the article “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, he states “Hush Puppies had suddenly became hip in the clubs and bars of downtown Manhattan.”