Here’s How Fashion and Culture Vie for Influence & Space

Over 8000 cultural communities living in the world means there must be as many fashion and culture trends.

It is because the terms and the underlying concepts of fashion and culture have close, rather inseparable, affinity with each other.

Though not synonymous, the knowledge of one gives a clue to the understanding of the other.

People belonging to an ethnic, religious, caste, regional, or national group have their own lifestyles, attitudes, habits, and practices.

And fashion is just another popular term that is usually used to refer to such styles and practices.

For example, the existence of over 600 cultural communities in the US alone provides an astonishing blend of fashions over there.

The United States also retains its historical identity as the center of the modern world.

Similarly, the fashion trends vary across nearly 200 cultural communities in Brazil, a South American nation.

Since the beginning of history, fashion and culture have been in a fight for influence, space, scope, and logical standing.

Size of a Cultural Community

A cultural community varies in size from a small group – like the people belonging to a specific caste group – to a whole nation.

In some cases, a culture may extend to multiple nations or countries.

Did you know?

With the spread of English culture, learning English has become a fashion around the world.

In today’s world, religion is the strongest factor to contribute to the size of a cultural community.

For example, Christians and Muslims make the largest and the second largest religious communities, respectively, in the world.

If a culture gets popularity across the globe, the whole world will make a single cultural group.

Fashion Boundaries

Here you should also note that fashion isn’t something limited to clothing and hairstyles.

It goes beyond the bounds of art and architecture, language and literature, pastime and entertainment, traveling and tourism, learning and teaching, cooking and serving, and approaches to earning and spending, etc.

Influence of a Culture on World Fashions

The influence of a cultural community on other cultures and communities defines its strength and ranking.

And when a fashion has a more appeal, online media gives it all the energies to reach every nook and corner of the continents and remote islands.

When it comes to the power of a country’s culture or fashion, Italy may indisputably be ranked as the world leader.

With her fashion houses of Milan, pizza, and Michelangelo, the country has been shaping the world cultures since the Renaissance.

The next slot may go to France, which is the center of haute couture, i.e. dealing in fashionable and expensive clothes. And in terms of fashion, it ranks the most culturally influential nation.

Other countries that are hailed for having the most influential cultures include the US, Spain, the UK, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and Sweden.

Difference between Fashion and Culture

While fashion and culture are two interrelated terms, they do have certain conspicuous differences.

The first major difference lies in their scope. While culture is a broad term encompassing many fashions, a fashion may only apply to a style of thinking about or doing something.

For example, a culture can be a collection of arts, practices, habits, and lifestyles that characterize a particular nation or a social group.

On the other hand, an art – one of the components of culture – can have many fashions linked to it.

When you take culture and fashion as nouns, the former represents a relatively static or a less volatile situation where the things – practices – may take time to change.

The cultural practices usually have a sound logical and intellectual standing. So, people oppose and disapprove changes in their culture/s.

And fashion – as a countable noun – may refer to a present and constantly changing trend which people choose for frivolous reasons. Such a trend may not have a justification on the logical and practical grounds.

When you take culture and fashion as verbs, the former refers to maintaining a growth-friendly environment while the latter means making or constructing something.