In this blog I want to talk about how fashion was started. I want to ask questions like: When was Fashion first recognized? How was it recognized? What does the word fashion mean and where did it come from? Who were the first fashion designers? And most importantly, Where would we be today if fashion did not exist?

When was fashion first recognized and how? In research I’ve found that the first historical signs of fashion in the early 1800s were shown as signs of wealth or power. In ancient Rome and Europe, wealthy historical figures wore luxury robes and cloaks to show their power over the middle class. Poorer citizens made their own clothes often used for working and were never seen as a type of fashion with any symbol besides the fact that they were poor. As I was looking at these articles about increased fashion along with increased wealth I started to realize that even though people only saw wealthier figures as having a certain fashionable style, the middle class and peasants that were creating their own clothes also had to of had a sense of creative design and style to making their own clothes how they liked.

What does the word fashion mean and where did it come from? Fashion first came from the word Fasoun, which means, “physical make-up or composition; form, shape; appearance,”. This roots from the creative aspect of fashion and shows how fashion is formed from appearance of yourself and others and even could be attributed to the designer part of fashion with the “make-up or composition”. From there, many other words have contributed to the formation of fashion and its meaning such as, from Old French façon, fachon, fazon “face, appearance; construction, pattern, design; thing done; beauty; manner, characteristic feature” (12c.), from Latin factionem (nominative factio) “a making or doing, a preparing,” also “group of people acting together,” from facere “to make” (from PIE root *dhe- “to set, put”).” which all orderly contribute to the creativity of fashion with the words like “pattern, design, beauty, characteristic feature, and to make”.

Who were the first fashion designers? This question is difficult because before fashion was fully recognized there had to be someone creating clothes, the people better at it creating for wealthy individuals. So while the research that I’ve found isn’t fully correct in being the first EVER fashion designer, he is the first modernly coined fashion designer in history. Charles Fredrick Worth was the first Fashion designer in the modern sense of the term. “Charles Fredrick was born in 1825 and he dominated Persian fashion”; “Gained support of empress Eugiene, wife of Napoleon III of France.”; “Successful and popular dressmaker”.

Where would we be today if fashion did not exist? Well, while doing this study I’ve found that even though fashion hasn’t always been recognized, it’s always existed, even in the BC days people were finding ways to use their own personality and creativity to create their own clothes and feel comfortable in what they wear.

All throughout history fashion has been a key player, even if we never knew it.