The focus of this course is on the influence of various ethnic groups, their cultures, and clothing practices on Western apparel fashion and textile arts during the 20th century. In this course, we will do as Baizerman, et al . Western dress has been defined as including only dress that can be clearly identified as within the influence of western European fashionable dress. However, all those things European have actually been influenced by centuries of exposure to and intermingling of many cultures.
Most cultures use some form of clothing.
Within a society, dress may have very distinctive functions. This means that contemporary fashion is an evolutionary outgrowth and elaboration of previously existing fashions. Contemporary fashions generally evolve from the previous years' fashions. It has modified such things as class structure, lifestyles, roles of men and women, and structure and function of families. Fashion reflects these socio-economic, political, and cultural changes.