Fashion is the way in which a person dresses, or in other words, it’s an expression of a person’s personal style. It can also be a means of social communication. Fashions are not only about the clothes, but they can also include accessories, hairstyles and make-up. In order to be considered a fashion, there must be a trend in dress and behaviour that is followed by others. Trends can be based on ideas that are created by an individual or group. They can be a form of self-fashioning, or they can be influenced by the broader culture and media. The trickle-down theory, for example, explains how individuals of higher socioeconomic status set trends in society that are then followed by people of lower socioeconomic status.
A fashion can also be a fad or craze. For instance, bell-bottom jeans were once a popular fashion and then became obsolete when designer jeans with more legroom came on the market. A fashion can also be a style that is associated with a certain type of organization, such as military uniforms or the way that teachers wear more casual clothing than their students.
The word fashion is often used in the context of design or manufacturing. For instance, the fabric may be engineered and woven with new technology in order to improve its quality or to add some special features. New materials and fabric finishes may be offered first to the world of haute couture and then made available to mass market buyers. Similarly, new designs are created and prototyped in order to test their feasibility before they can be brought into production.