How Individualism Defined Fashion Design, Style, and Dress at the Turn of the 21st Century

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How Individualism Defined Fashion Design, Style, and Dress at the Turn of the 21st Century

The free individual had triumphed over social citizenship and community and the free world over communism at the turn of the 21st Century. These changes brought about significant effects in the US. One of the sectors that were affected by individualism was the fashion industry. This paper discusses how individualism defined fashion design, style, and dress at the turn of the 21st Century.

To begin with, during the turn of 2021, the US was under the leadership of Bill Clinton, who strived to promote human rights in international policy. Bill Clinton was enthusiastic about free trade and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law. NAFTA led to the development of a free-trade zone that included the US, Canada, and Mexico (Foner, 2017). Free trade between these nations facilitated the exchange of ideas on textile manufacturing between the countries involved. Consequently, this defined the fashion design, style, and dress. Also, NAFTA led manufacturing companies to shift overseas. As cloth-making companies shifted overseas, this affected fashion design, style, and address. This is because the companies had to manufacture the clothes that fit the culture of the people where they had moved to.

Secondly, individualism defined fashion design, style, and dress at the turn of the 21st Century by promoting immigration to the US. Immigration in the US was a result of globalization’s reorganization of the workforce, and immigrants came from diverse backgrounds. As a result, immigration made racial and cultural diversity more prevalent in the US. When the immigration law of 1965 was passed, the majority of the immigrants in the US were from Europe. However, at the turn of the 21st Century, immigration had changed drastically. Almost 50% of the immigrants came from the Caribbean and Latin America, 35% from Asia, and smaller numbers from Africa and the Middle East (Foner, 2017). The influx of immigrants in the US changed the nation’s racial and religious map. In the 21st Century, there were many Muslims living in the US (About 4 million), and the combined population of Hindus and Buddhists exceeded 1 million (Foner, 2017). Like in the past, the majority of newcomers chose to live in cities, but unlike in the past, many chose to relocate to the suburbs and remote regions. In spite of the fact that most immigrants remained on the East and West Coasts, some spread their wings and made their way to the heartland, bringing cultural and ethnic variety with them. Consequently, this influenced the fashion design, style, and dress in the US as these immigrants shared their fashion designs and dresses in areas where they settled.

Furthermore, individualism defined fashion design, style, and dress at the turn of the 21st Century by bringing to end segregation in the US, which helped bring historic numbers of blacks into the American workforce. Foner (2017) reveals that the most significant shift in American society at the turn of the 21st Century was the end of legal segregation and the inclusion of African-Americans in formerly segregated areas of American life from which they had been previously excluded. As African Americans spread into the US workforce, they spread the African culture to these workplaces. Consequently, this affected the fashion design, style, and dress in these places.

Also, the fall of communism between 1989 and 1991 freed up the whole globe to market capitalism and the belief that government should meddle with the economy as little as possible. The free market had prevailed over central planning, the free individual had triumphed over the community and social citizenship, and the free world had triumphed over communism. Politicians also increasingly criticized environmental and economic regulation and welfare as burdens on international competition (Foner, 2017). Consequently, this led to foreign investors in the country. For instance, Viviene Tam, a renowned Chinese American designer, who grew up in Hong Kong, China, established a very successful business in New York (English, 2013). Her business defined fashion design, style, and dress in the US as it led to the introduction of Chinese fashion design and style in the US. Also, increased competition in the fashion industry due to foreign designers who started their businesses in the US-led companies that manufacture clothes to introduce new fashions and styles in order to compete favorably.

Lastly, President George W. Bush, who was the Republican presidential candidate at the turn of the 21st Century, promoted a multicultural conservatism rather than an exclusionary conservatism (Foner, 2017). The term “multiculturalism” came to signify a heightened awareness of the racial and ethnic variety of the United States’ history and a call for employment, education, and politics to reflect that diversity during the 21st Century. Consequently, this defines fashion design, style, and dress in the US as the fashion industry strived to make clothes for the diverse population.

References

Foner, E. (2017). Give Me Liberty! An American History: One Volume. WW Norton & Company.

English, B. (2013). A cultural history of fashion in the 20th and 21st centuries: From catwalk to sidewalk. A&C Black.