The Influence of Fashion Magazines throughout History on Consumer Society, Culture and their Status in the 1990s
Number of pages:
27
ABSTRACT:
This is a 27 page paper discussing the influence of fashion magazines throughout history on consumer society, culture and their status in the 1990s. The history of the fashion industry in relation to cultural influences, consumerism and the projected images of women and men in today’s society has led to a great deal of research in the fields of sociology, psychology and economics. While fashion magazines have changed their format a great deal in the past century as today their pages contain over one third in advertisements, their content has also changed a great deal. Initially the focus of fashion magazines was women’s clothing and the models were portrayed as older elite women who replaced the dolls previously used. Although women models replaced the dolls, there was no emphasis on the body of the woman. Men did not appear in advertisements and no close-ups were taken of the models. The influence of the fashion magazine on the female consumer at the beginning of the 20th century reflected the expectations of society in regards to conservative or opulent looks depending on the decade. Today, fashion magazines tend to reflect the standards, or lack of standards, as now seen in the music and media industries. Models within fashions magazines, both men and women, are seen as the disturbingly images that continuously reflect not necessarily the expectations of society but the unreal and artificial world of the media. Studies in focus groups have found that most women and men feel that they can discern from the images presented in fashion magazines those images which are more “realistic” than others. In addition, it appears that in regards to consumer choice, fashion magazines are considered one of the less reliable sources available to consumers who prefer peer, family and local store recommendations over that of fashion magazines which appear as unreliable and unrealistic in regards to most situations and events.
Bibliography lists 17 sources.
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File: D0_TJinmag1.rtf
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