Cultural

Religious Diversity - Limitations to dress and product use

The fashion system works simultaneously with the cultural system. Some cultural systems may put unique restraints on the fashion system. For example since 1979, when the shah of Iran was overthrown ans fundamentalist Islamic clerics took over the country, women’s attire in public has been carefully monitored and controlled. Strong limitations are put on tightness and body exposure in womens clothing styles, as well as on how much of their hair is allowed to show in public.

Dress and World Religions - Islam 1997

Islam is based on the principal of submission to Allah (God). Its Holy texts are the Koran and the Hadith. Islam pays special attention to the status and clothing of women. Although there are no specific injunctions or rules in the Koran regarding veiling, women are believed to have sexual powers that may tempt males. Therefore, many Islamic women veil their faces and cover their heads, hair, necks, and bodies to a greater or lesser extent. The type and extent of veiling of women varies greatly from one Islamic nation and from one group to another, depending on the nature of their beliefs and the political context in which they live. For example Sciolino examines the veiling practices of women in Iran in 1997 and stresses the importance of women’s hair and social status. Veiling also being associated with expressing nationalism and/or anti-Western sentiment associated with rejecting Western fashion.

Damhorst, Mary L. "Fashion as Social Process." The Meanings of Dress. Ed. Kimberly A. Miller-Spillman. New York: Fairchild Books, 2005. 449.


Conflict Between Different Cultures - 1998

January 8 - Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing.
January 22 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty, and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
January 29 - In Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing 1 and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is the prime suspect.
February - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United States Senate passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bill Clinton to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
February 18 - Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada, accused of plotting biological warfare on New York City subways.
February 19 - 1998 Auckland power crisis: A 66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand.
February 19 - Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations and William Leavitt are arrested in Henderson, New York, for possession of military grade anthrax.
February 20 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the United States and Britain.
March 4 - Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
March 10 - United States troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first anthrax vaccine.
March 24 - The Jonesboro massacre, 2 young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. 4 students and 1 teacher are killed, and 10 are injured.
April 6 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
May 13 -May 14 Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia. Indonesian natives destroy and burn Chinese Indonesian-owned properties and kill and rape more than 1,000 Chinese Indonesians.
May 21 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel (who was suspended for bringing a gun to school) shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 and wounding 25 others, after killing his parents at home.
May 21 - Crime: In Miami, Florida, 5 abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
May 27 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
June 4 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
June 7 - Three white supremacists murder James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas.
August 7 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama Bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia.
August 20 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
October - College student Matthew Shepard is found tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming, a gay-bashing victim. He dies October 12, becoming a symbol of gay-bashing victims and sparking public reflection on homophobia in the US.
November 13-November 14 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq, then calls them off at the last minute when Iraq promises once again to "unconditionally" cooperate with UNSCOM.


Predictions of Cultural Changes Due to Diversity in Society Based on 90's census
The 1990 figures painted a picture of increasing ethnic and racial diversity in the united states. According to estimations based on 1990s census data, the proportion of European-Americans in the United States could be approximately 50 percent by the year 2050. As a result, the United States is rapidly moving to a situation in which there is no ethnic majority group. Three scenarios or possibilities of what could happen:

True Equality: if ethnic minority groups increase proportionately in the U.S. population and increase their educational and occupational achievement, by 2050 the United States might see greater levels of pluralism and decreasing white or European-American hegemony.

White Supremacist Takeover: threatened by affirmative action policies, increasing numbers of minorities in positions of power and achievement, and government policies favoring diversity in schools and other public institutions, wealthy groups of white European-Americans seeking to hold on to privilege and opportunities afforded in the prior hegemonic situation may band together to influence business leaders ,politicians, religious leaders, and media moguls to support new policies and practices that tend to exclude minority groups from the upper echelons of society.

White Backlash: a third possibility could be that increasing diversity in the population could move toward emphasis on ethnic minorities as attractive and anything European-American as unattractive, unfashionable, and unappealing. Those who could afford it might seek physicians who dispense drugs that darken skin color all over the body.



The increasing trend toward recognition of diversity in the population has encouraged the U.S. fashion industry to pay attention to more diverse markets. Interest in ethnic minority consumer markets began rapidly expanding in the 1990’s after U.S. census results indicated substantial and future increases in those populations.

Damhorst, Mary L. "Fashion as Social Process." The Meanings of Dress. Ed. Kimberly A. Miller-Spillman. New York: Fairchild Books, 2005. 528-529.


MEDIA

Rap Influence of the 90’s
Rap groups has a phenomenal influence on adolescent make fashion. A combination of the tough inner-city living situation they came from, their creative music, their rebelliousness, and their active and bold manipulation of style gave rap groups a cachet that captured the interests of many adolescents. In this case, the celebrities who helped to introduce the styles from the streets were the rap performers themselves, rather than unrelated fashion leaders who picked up ideas from lover socioeconomic groups to serve as gap bridgers to the mass public. This giving an example of the trickle up theories of fashion.

Damhorst, Mary L. "Fashion as Social Process." The Meanings of Dress. Ed. Kimberly A. Miller-Spillman. New York: Fairchild Books, 2005. 410-10.

Influences of the Masses

In 1997 Jean Hamilton organized influences of fashion on a continuum from micro – Level personal or individual factors to larger Macro – Level cultural influences. Hamilton emphasized that fashion results from:

( MICRO LEVEL )
1.) Individual action (negotiation with self) within…
a. Individual choice, tastes
b. Aesthetic learning
c. ambivalence
2.) Social groups (negotiation with others) that choose ( or do not choose) products and style ideas offered by…
a. Conformity
b. Fashion leaders and innovators
c. Trickle – down, Across, up, theories
3.) The fashion industry (fashion system) that is, in turn, influenced by…
a. Retail buyers, fashion designers
b. Fashion media and promotions
c. Global production system
4.) Larger trends and forces of the surrounding culture (cultural system).
a. Cultural values and ideology
b. Tradition versus change
c. Media, arts, economy, religion, politics
d. Generation and population trends
(MACRO – LEVEL)

All four levels in the continuum are interconnected in that fashion is influenced by all components of the system working together simultaneously.

Hamilton, J.A. (1997). The Macro-Micro interface in the construction of individual fashion forms and meanings. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 15(3): 164-171.

Popular styles of 1998
Cargo Pants
- Ralph Lauren Cargo pant in suede – $2,295
- Abercrombie & Fitch Cargo pants - $58
- Arizona Private Label cargo pants at JCPenney - $25
90’s
- Flare leg pants

Peoples Worst and Best Dressed List - 1998
- Majority of the best dressed were wearing modest sexy slimming cloths. with tube top shirts and dresses.
- matalic shinny pleather pants were in
- people in fur were in the worst dressed list as well as people that exposed a lot of skin.

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20126249,00.html

Damhorst, Mary L. "Fashion as Social Process." The Meanings of Dress. Ed. Kimberly A. Miller-Spillman. New York: Fairchild Books, 2005. 404.