Fashion is actually a kind of autonomy and self-expression in a certain time and location and in a certain context, of clothes, footwear, lifestyle, makeup, hairstyling, and physique. It means a look generally defined by the fashion industry as what is fashionable at that moment. It can be defined as something you do not want to see yourself in, or it can simply mean something you like. It also can refer to the way a person dresses, presents himself or herself, or even acts.
During the late nineteenth century, fashionable dress developed and gradually developed into a system composed of specific kinds of fashions: lounge, house, haute couture, and evening. It was soon recognized that fashion had to refer to a real category of individual traits and actions. The French called it la mode de formation which means the path of the formation of an individual’s individuality. A trend becomes “haute couture” only when it expresses a particular tendency existing in the society at the time, which is still an objective idea, instead of an affective idea or attitude.
Haute Couture in the nineteenth century was characterized by extreme individualism, where anything could be worn and anyone could wear whatever they wanted. This meant that individuals were free to express themselves in a lot of different ways. This then was the period when fashion started to change its name. Then, instead of being called the fashion world, it became called the high fashion world. People started to refer to themselves as fashion icons instead of just fashion stars. This was done because at that time people associated the entire fashion world with the so-called style mongers: the designers.
Thus, haute fashion was soon identified as the style that emerged out of the high fashion world. However, in the twentieth century, people started to think differently about fashion. They began to see fashion not as something out of the ordinary, but as something that were highly specialised and even sacred. The twenty-first century wore haute fashion on its head only when they were seen as pretentious snobs.
In the twenty-first century, the haute couture continues to be looked upon as high fashion. High fashion designers are still looked upon as the key creators of the new fashion world, instead of merely style icons. The best designers are still looked upon as the elite few who have made great contributions towards the continuation of the fashion world. Haute couture continues to be looked upon as an elite fashion statement and not a simple statement of dressing.
However, in some regions of the world this elite haute couture is beginning to be dismissed as merely a trend. There are many areas of the world, for example in Latin America and Asia for instance, where high fashion fashions are simply not accepted. People here regard such fashions as being vulgar and uncool. Such attitudes towards fashion may soon change as fashion has become more widespread in other regions. It is not hard to imagine that once enough high fashion designers get over their squeamishness, fashion will once again become the fashion of the masses.