The DNA of Fashion

(see also fashion, fashion legacy, augmented fashion and other relevant terms)
N.B. these incomplete and subjective notes represent work in progress

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Today's concept of clothing-oriented fashion helps us to manage our identity.

• e.g. it can operate as a unifier of collective identity.
• e.g. it can operate as a signifier of individual status.

However, this brief overview starts and ends with clothing as a necessary protection against climatic conditions. Just as the exodus from Africa to colder regions called for warmer clothing, so today's climate breakdown will necessitate the design of protective clothing that reduces the harm from extreme weather conditions.

70k BC	we wore animal skins & vegetation for migrating to colder climates.
34k BC	we acquired the skills to weave or plait fibres into synthetic textiles.
5.8k BC	Earliest discovered game (Mancala) that encourages a theory of mind
500 BC	Plato envisions paradigms as perfect exemplars or Supermodels.
500 BC	Aristotle described design as a causal process (τέλος, télos) for realising aims and desires.
500 BC	In western culture Humanism encouraged Homo sapiens to see itself as exceptional.
	This gave rise to increasingly presumptuous & solipsistic modes of individualism.
8th c.	Ovid's Narcissus character seems more interested in appearance than in feelings.
10th c.	Persian horse riders wear galesh partly to signify their elevated status.
1535	Henry VIII obliges holders of arable land to cultivate flax or hemp (quarter of an acre for every 60 acres)
1610-1643	King Louis XIII introduces red heel & postures signifying deference / superiority.
1637	Descartes wonders whether he had merely imagined everyone else.
late 17th c.	High heels become adopted in women's fashion.
1689	Locke argued that humans were "self-owning individuals" capable of original thoughts.
Early 18th c.	Cheaper imports of European flax had put Britain's production into decline.
1710	Berkeley includes others in solipsistic theory: "to be is to be perceived (esse est percipi)"
1638-1715	Louis XIV's strict fashions (La mode) upheld status-based social hierarchy
	His rigid codes operated on two levels:
	a). Styles and standards of clothing manufacture
	b). Bodily deportment and gesture.
	n.b. this outside-in logic uses style to engender individual and collective experiences
	Even then, courtly style also led to performative gestures (c.f. ballet) signifying deference to rank.
1789-1799	The French people copied many lifestyle conceits of royal privilege in their republic.
18th c.	Popularity of high-heeled shoes grows with both men and women.
1725-1840	Jacquard introduces technology to make clothing cheaper and more accessible.
1772–1834	Coleridge introduces the idea of the self-conscious individual.
1788–1824	Byron develops the performative notion of celebrity and lifestyle.
late 1870s	Chardonnet produces a synthetic fabric (Chardonnet silk).
1839	Robert Cornelius takes the first photographic selfie.
1868	Chambre Syndicale de la Couture established.
	n.b. haute couture's quality standards made it unaffordable for most people.
1926	Laban publishes his theory of Choreutics.
1927	Heidegger outlines his definition of Dasein.
1935	Stanislavsky publishes his plan of experiencing.
1931 / 1936	Wallon / Lacan argues that mirrors encourage an infant's individuation.
1939	Morojo's futuristicostumes created for a Science Fiction Convention.
1934 / 1943	Goldstein / Maslow introduce the idea of self-actualization.
1935	Dupont produces first commercial synthetic fabric (nylon).
1945	Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture makes it a controlled appellation.
1948	The first commercial Polaroid camera becomes available.
1959	Goffman publishes Presentation of self in Everyday Life.
1961	Rogers introduces the psychotherapeutic idea of positive self-regard.
1965	David Bohm reintroduces the term relevation.
1971	A young copywriter creates the advertising tagline "Because I'm worth it".
1974	Maturana, Varela & Uribe create their theory of autopoiesis.
1984	Japanese term "cosplay" (コスプレ) coined.
2000	Climate change begins to necessitate new types of protective clothing