The Good and Bad Side of Fashion for Teens

When you're fifteen, appearance isn't just about how you look. It's who you are. Does the fashion industry influence teens fashion or do teens influence the fashion industry? Teens influence fashion through individual personal style shown through Internet fashion shows. Fashion influences teens through things such as the media. Teens influence fashion just like fashion influences teens. Teenagers are the tastemakers in today's entertainment world. (Chang). Teenagers have a huge influence on fashion. Teens have an influence on fashion because they are the youngest, and are the future, so people listen to them.

Not only do teens influence fashion, but they come up with creative ways of giving their ideas. Teens have started making videos, and posting them on the internet. Internet fashion shows performed by teens is known as hauling (Chang). This is a new and upcoming trend(Chang).

For Example, 14-year old Bethany Mota shows off her new clothes on a YouTube video for both those close to her and those who don't know her to see(Chang).

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Teens and young adults are not the only ones benefiting for these haul videos; retailers have started to notice these videos and take advantage of them. Retailers from many different stores have realized that internet videos may be a good marketing tool for them(Chang). Major retail stores such as JC-Penny and Marshals are showing interest in the actions of haulers and are trying to figure out how to best use them to their advantage. Major retail stores are giving teen girls, haulers free merchandise in hopes they will be featured in their next online video.

Some stores like Urban Outfitters and Forever 21 are holding haul video contest and offering prizes for the best video (Chang). Fashion is not just for fun, or to be the bested dressed; but it is a way for teens to express them selfs.

We express many things through fashion, what we wear is a reflection on our personality (Current Modern Fashion Trends). We get peace of mind and security with society as well as ourselves to be current with the fashion season and trend (Current Modern Fashion Trends). When you're fifteen, appearance isn't just about how you look It's who you are(MOORE). Fashion plays a big role in the lives of teens, whether or not they personally care about clothing choices (Thomas). As teens discover who they are they also try to show others their personal tastes, and personalities(Thomas). Having a certain look can give teens an idea of their person and character. (Chang) Fashion can be good and a bad things for teens. Fashion is helpful to teens in many way. Fashion is one area where teens can express themselves in a good way (Chang) As a teen, being able to pick what they wear can be really empowering. (Chang).

While some may try to restrict what teens wear, there are a number of benefits to teens having a sense of personal fashion and style. (Chang) Teens that find that sense of style often feel a great sense of self confidence (Chang). Being able to express oneself through fashion and style allows teens to feel comfortable with their self-image (Chang). Clothes and style allow for characters and personalities to come about. (Chang) It is healthy for teens to be able to express their personality. Fashion is one of the greatest ways to do so. (Chang) There are several positive effects that fashion has on teens, but there all also negative. Parents tend to worry about their daughters wearing trendy, body-revealing attire(MOORE). Unfortunately, self-expression can also lead to judgment and bullying(Thomas). Teens will always judge other people, their peers, parents, and authority figures, if it's not ones clothing, they will find something else to pick on (Thomas).

The internet has a huge impact on fashion. The internet is how people communicate between each-other now a days. When a teen posts a video of what they have just bought on the internet, the fashion industry is effected. When someone buys clothes online instead of in the store that also has an effect on the fashion industry. The internet helped the fashion industry in so many ways in the beginning, but as it has become more advanced with more items being offered. The internet has started to become the fashion industries worst enemy. According to Moore of the Los Angeles Times, Retail sales at stores have declined 7% in the last year, and industry observers say that they must reinvent the shopping experience, and enhance it with entertainment and technology, or risk going under. A business consultant from Bain & Co. customers are wanting new looks in the store every time. Stores need to be constantly changing their store layout to promote different items.

They can not depend on prices to sell the items. They need to be constantly changing their marketing. Stores need to be using todays technology to market to teens and people of all ages (Moore). The fashion industry is worth about $300 billion dollars. This fashion industry is changing the way clothes are designed, marketed and purchased. According to Moore, The Internet, the same force that has splintered the media and music industries is challenging the taste-making role of the fashion elite, a shift that is being accelerated by the rise of cheap chic and a recession that has blunted more-is-more spending. Like the music industry computers have made it possible for people to get around spending money when they dont have to. In the fashion industry, people are always looking for sale or bargain. If people can get more items at a cheaper cost, they are spending more money (Moore).

Not only does the Internet allow the convenience of shopping anytime, anywhere. It also allows the shopper to compare prices of like items at different store in order for the shopper to get the best deal. There are several websites on the internet that allow shoppers to compare prices for example Shopstyle. There are other websites that people can use as a personal shopper to customize his or her style. The website Covet allows the shopper to shop only clothing that fits their style the best, by having the shopper take a simple and quick questionnaire about his or her clothing choices. Then internet picks out clothes that fits the person best. Rather then choices, the website MyShape uses a persons measurements and picks out clothing that is the persons size. The computer is not the only alternative to shopping at a store. Currently there are apps for the Iphone that allow a person to scan the barcodes of items and it gives you a price comparison of the item. In the future the fashion industry is going to be making their own fashion industry apps (Moore). This technology make shopping easier and less time consuming. "Between new technology and the economy, the fashion industry will never be the same (Moore).

In the past, the new trends for the season are shown are shown on the runway a few months before they are in stores. New York designer Norma Kamali said, One tradition that's being rethought is the semiannual New York runway show, which typically costs a designer $200,000 to $300,000 to mount. Designers are starting to realize that timing is everything. People are so used to being able to click on something and have it in a few days, they wont wait for six months. During New York Fashion Week in 2009, for the first time the designer Norma Kamali made it possible people to buy the new styles that day (Moore).

Fashion has changed greatly over the past 100 years. Women's fashion trends have changed most. Women always wore tight clothing like the extremely tight cosets, but the amount of clothing women wore has changed over time. Women during ancient times wore clothes of grass, while people during Greek and Roman time wore layers of detailed clothing. People especially women have always had an interest in clothing. However, fashion changes still occurred slowly, sometimes hundreds of years apart (Thomas). Teens now a days are the fashion inspiration, and trend-setters, but they were not always. The trend in the 1900s was the tight and extremely fitted bodies and then a full, slender, or short skirt. The fashion industry influenced the people more then the people influencing fashion. 100 years ago fashion was just starting to become big.

The fashion designers in Europe were the ones to set the trends. In the 1900s the older women were more influential in fashion than the teens were. The teens in the 1900s usually wore what their mothers wore. The older women in the family dictated what the younger kids wore. It was common to see a family out, the mother and the daughters wearing he same thing but in different sizes and same with the men and younger boys. Fashion was not as big of a hobby, or trend 100 years ago, but it was when people started to become interested in it. Before the 1900s the point or purpose of fashion was just to cover up everyones body, that was the only reason clothing was around. Even though teens now a days are the ones who set the trend, come up with the new fashion and influence the fashion world, they were not always the ones that set the trends. Teens influence fashion just like fashion influences teens. The internet, the fashion industry, and teens all contribute to what the fashion trends are. The teens set the trends, the industry makes the clothes, and the internet advertises them and tells the world about them. Fashion has changed drastically over the years, and I am sure that it will change many more times as the years go by.