Fashion victim

Fashion victim

A fashion victim is a term - claimed to have been coined by Oscar de la Renta [According to John Fairchild, " [Oscar and I] were sitting at the Caravelle and Oscar looked around and said, 'These people are absolute hell, they look like fashion victims,' and that was the first time anyone had used that expression." cite book| last =Coleridge| first =Nicholas| title =The Fashion Conspiracy | publisher =HarperCollins| date =1989| id = 0060916362 ] - that is used to identify a person who is unable to identify commonly recognized boundaries of style.

Fashion victims are victims because they are vulnerable to faddishness and materialism, two of the widely recognized excesses of fashion, and consequently are at the mercy of society's prejudices or of the commercial interest of the fashion industry, or of both. According to Giorgio Armani, "When a woman alters her look too much from season to season, she becomes a fashion victim." [cite book | last =Agins | first = Teri| title =The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever | publisher =Harper Paperbacks | date =2000| pages=116|id = 0060958200]

Faddishness

A fad is an intense but short-lived fashion. Fads are also by their nature at the extreme range of currently acceptable style, which means they commonly cross the line from the sublime to the ridiculous. Fashion victims can be seen to have crossed this line.

Materialism

Keeping up with fashion is often very expensive. Expensive clothes signal that the wearer is financially successful, but they are not necessarily cool or fashionable. [ Michelle Lee notes that in order to appear casually well-dressed, shoppers pay extra for designers to "sew on decorative patches, slash gaping holes into the knees of jeans and fray the hems." cite book|last=Lee|first=Michelle| title =Fashion Victim: Our Love-Hate Relationship with Dressing, Shopping, and the Cost of Style | publisher =Broadway | date =2003| id = 0767910486 ]

Designer labels have come to form an important part of our identification of style and fashion. We have all become accustomed to the social acceptance that comes with wearing the right brands. The labels have in many cases migrated from the inside of a garment to the outside. Common examples of this types of branding are Nike, Kappa, and other sports and leisurewear manufacturers. A fashion victim, able to recognise this phenomenon but unable to determine its boundary, may become a ‘walking billboard’.

Designer branding is sometimes associated with a higher quality of manufacture and a more expensive price. The ownership and display of such products of quality is frequently marketed to suggest that the wearer will automatically embody a personal characteristic of quality by association. Designers have identified this fact and in some cases are able to exploit this to the extent that prices can be escalated to surprising proportions without reference to the cost of manufacture. Extreme examples of this type of branding are found among accessory manufacturers such as Versace, Gucci and Burberry, scent manufacturers such as Chanel and Guerlain and watch manufacturers such as Rolex and Bvlgari.Fact|date=March 2007

Fashion victims, by their characteristic inability to recognize boundaries, may aspire to the extreme end of what is available, seeking expensive products (or copies of these products), believing that the outward display of such items will draw admiration in proportion to their actual or apparent cost. Because of this, "the term 'fashion victim' became the ultimate insult to the aspirational." [cite book| last =Arnold | first =Rebecca | title =Fashion, Desire, and Anxiety| publisher = I B Tauris & Co Ltd | date =2001| pages=10|id = 1860645550 ]

References

www.victim.at [http://www.victim.at]


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • fashion victim — noun (informal) Someone who slavishly follows the latest fashions • • • Main Entry: ↑fashion * * * ˈfashion victim 7 [fashion victim] noun a person who always wears the newest fashions even if they do not suit him or her …   Useful english dictionary

  • fashion victim — fashion victims N COUNT (disapproval) A fashion victim is someone who thinks that being fashionable is more important than looking nice, and as a result often wears very fashionable clothes that do not suit them or that make them look silly. I m… …   English dictionary

  • fashion victim — fashion .victim n informal someone who always wears what is fashionable, even if it makes them look bad …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Fashion Victim — Als Fashion Victim (auf dt. Modeopfer) wird eine Person bezeichnet, die stets nach der aktuellen Mode gekleidet ist und jeden Trend mitmacht. Sie orientiert sich an Modezeitschriften und bevorzugt angesagte Marken und Labels. Die Modeexpertin und …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fashion victim — Victoria Beckham, paradigma de una fashion victim. Fashion victim (en español: Víctima de la moda ) es un anglicismo que designa a una persona que sobrepasa los límites comunes de vestir a la moda. Es un término que se afirma haber sido acuñado… …   Wikipedia Español

  • fashion victim — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms fashion victim : singular fashion victim plural fashion victims British informal someone who always wears whatever is considered fashionable, even if it does not suit them …   English dictionary

  • Fashion victim — Une fashion victim (« Victime de la mode » en anglais) ou fashionista (terme anglo hispanique) est une personne qui, d après Oscar de la Renta, généralement considéré comme le créateur du terme[1], est incapable d identifier les… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • fashion victim — noun A person who slavishly follows current fashion. Syn: slave to fashion …   Wiktionary

  • fashion victim — /ˈfæʃən vɪktəm/ (say fashuhn viktuhm) noun a person who slavishly follows current fashions even though the styles do not suit them personally or are worn without flair or true fashion sense …  

  • Fashion-Victim — Engl. für Mode Opfer. Ein Teenager, der stets nach der neuesten Mode gekleidet ist und eine erstaunliche Kenntnis der internationalen Mode und Markenszene besitzt …   Jugendsprache Lexikon

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