fashion design essay conclusion

Fashion Design and Famous Designers Essay

Fashion design is an expression of a particular character’s art and uniqueness. It is mainly based on original work, while others are borrowed and improved. It is how individuals show their creativity and talent through their productions. The designers have grown to influence the world with their products globally. They are known internationally for their products supplied globally due to their efficient expression of art in original work. This project is about fashion design because it focuses on the most exciting journeys of widely known designers and their influence in the industry. Considering the stories of the most famous individuals, the upcoming designers are inspired to keep growing. They start looking up to these influencers and admiring their brands, which are the most significant influence in society.

Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela is referred to as the silent designer whose clothes tell his story. This is because since he started his career in 1988, he had never appeared before the press or conducted an interview. This brought up the character narrative of Martin Margiela as one who would not take a bow for his achievements but let his art express him. Martin Margiela challenged all that was deemed traditional couture when he first began working in early 1980. Margiela’s designs were motivated by his mother’s reconstruction of furniture, frequently revealing the layout of the garments and intentionally exposing the linings and seams. One of the most prominent looks that Martin Margiela pulled on the runway was during their first show for his eponymous label in the fall of 1989. Against all other expectations, his collections included ripped sleeves, frayed hems, and clumpy shoes in uneven runaway and stumbling models.

Demna Gvasalia

Demna Gvasalia is a Georgian fashion designer who innovates a streetwear-savvy brand that has dominated the fashion industry. He has been the creative director of Balenciaga collections since 2015. His general approach to the design philosophy is to recreate something which dismantles the boundary between vernacular, street, and luxury wear. Some of his creations are crocs, satirical prom suits, leather Ikea bags, baggy tracksuits, subversive tailored denim, and others that made the headlines on the platforms. He dresses most celebrities, such as Kanye West and the Kardashians, which is the best platform to express his art. One of the most prominent looks that Gvasalia sent to the runway was a chic, floor-sweeping, cap-sleeved gown overlaid with an understated veil, which was contrary to what a bride would look. He is portrayed as one who fearlessly expresses his art and talent without fear of public opinion or online critics.

John Galliano

John Galliano was the founder and the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior, respectively. His design philosophy is romantic historicism with technical skills and progressive aesthetics. He represented the garments that people wore on romantic occasions. Galliano’s designs became known for their twisted romanticism. His work was intricate, feminine, and undeniably beautiful – but also sinister, slightly frightening, and lavish to the point of showy. Galliano has always seen the runway as a storytelling medium. The designer told the story of an escaped Russian princess on a journey of self-discovery in his spring/summer 1994 collection. The fashion elite praised Galliano’s “Princess Lucretia” show for its crinolines, capes, and impossible-flowing locks. However, the most outstanding character of John Galliano came up when he was fired from Dior due to the racist utterances that he made. Regardless of the controversies, he is one of the most fabulous designers.

Virgil Abloh

Virgil Abloh has worked with different brands as a fashion designer, such as Off-white and Louis Vuitton. He was the first African American to be the artistic director of a French Luxury Fashion House when he joined Louis Vuitton in 2018. His most extensive design philosophy is based on compromising between two different options. He brought streetwear into the world’s high fashion when working with Off-white. He has proven to be a team player from his many successful collaborations. The main was his collaboration with Kanye West, which was brought about by the success of Off-white. He uses that to inspire the success of black children in the fashion world. Some of his most significant creations are Nike x Off-White™ “The Ten” Jordan 1, which was made in collaboration with Nike. The most iconic runway moment was Louis Viton’s first outing, as he demonstrated menswear for the following male celebrities.

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto is a master tailor known for his avant-garde tailoring featuring Japanese design aesthetics. He has worked as a fashion designer with brands such as Adidas and Hermes. His signature aesthetic, which distinguishes his collections, is that all his collections are black. He put a new spin on tailoring and stood out among the cinched waists, shoulder pads, and bold block colors that ruled the 1980s fashion scene. His design philosophy states that he does not look for perfection because perfection is ugly. However, black is modest, and it also brings the imperfections, such as arrogance, which is what he likes to show. His narrative explains the display’s unisexual oversized apparel, which means that any gender can express fashion. The Yohji Yamamoto spring/summer show is one of the hugest demonstrations of his collections, which shows different designs of all-black apparel with other models who strive to bring back to the 1990s.

Alexander McQueen

He is the founder of a luxurious British fashion house known as Alexander McQueen. His label does not only include clothes but also shoes, perfume, and fashion accessories. McQueen is widely known for his well-tailored clothes and other controversial designs. He took classic pieces and redesigned their form to look chic and unique. His design philosophy was to make a piece that could go beyond any trend and still be relevant in a hundred years. His character narrative is about the blend of the past and the present as he tries to make his collections more relevant. The skull scarf and armadillo shoes are two of his most well-known creations. The LACMA Museum is currently displaying “Mind, Mythos, Muse,” a collection of imaginative clothing. McQueen’s most controversial runway show was the fall/winter of 1997, which was the theme of the jungle. The animalistic designs included tiger stripes, cowhide material, and horned headpieces.

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean-Paul Gaultier was a seven-year fashion director at Hermes. He did not only sell clothes but also his fragrance and colognes. His designs are primarily costumes, which are simple and ambient. His design philosophy is for the ateliers to work hard to present the designer’s collections to the world. He believed that having different is beautiful in that representing something opposite to society’s expectations is a significant step that any designer would be willing to take. Even though the new generation has taken them over, his most outstanding designs on the runway are the naked dresses with techno dots. They have been ranked the highest viewed for the designer. He reinvented Haute Couture by using exceptional French savoir-faire to satisfy his obsession with combining different genres, cultures, and materials. His character narrative states that it is the job of the models to bring the designer’s work to the field to help them push forward.

Thierry Mugler

Thierry Mugler is a French fashion designer, creative director, and creative adviser of Mugler Fashion house. He is one of the few people who rose to dominance due to the promotion of haute culture. He was often met with racism, ageism, and critics for incorporating non-traditional models such as drag queens and transgender women. His design philosophy was to make women look beautiful and efficient with essential glamour. He is strong-willed and willing to give any woman a chance to showcase his collections with the basics of making them look gorgeous. Mugler has hosted fashion shows with over 300 exhibitions on display. When attending the Met Gala, he dressed many celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, which was a significant step in showing his work. Pat Cleveland’s descent from the skies as a sparkling Madonna descended from the skies, pregnant and surrounded by cherubs with golden wings, was the most iconic moment.

Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld was a German designer who was represented by his signature white hair, black sunglasses, and shirts with high-detachable collars. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel and the Italian fur and leather goods fashion house Fendi. Karl Lagerfeld has a very different design philosophy, believing that ‘less is more and emphasizing objectivity, simplicity, and elegance. He emphasizes the cut and proportion of the garment and occasionally adds details. He was known to be a person who would turn anything into gold, especially after revamping Coco Chanel and making ready-to-wear garments and a huge success. His Fall 1977 collection, one of the most celebrated of the 1970s Soft Look era, featured lace trim, headwear, and thigh-high boots in 1700s styles. His Fall 1979 collection was one of the most influential of the early years of the big-shoulder era, featured millinery reminiscent of Napoleonic bicornes. It also included button-sided spats/leggings that looked somewhat like military accouterments from the same period.

Alessandro Michele

Alessandro Michele is an Italian fashion designer who, in 2015, was appointed the creative director of Gucci. He is responsible for Gucci’s brand image and collections. His design philosophy is that fashion is more than just clothes. It is like a whole universe by itself, where everything is connected to it. This tells that he showcases style not as a dependent component of human lifestyle but as the entire independent world that humans depend on. Michele created replicas of selected models’ heads to carry down the runway as accessories for the Fall/Winter 2018 season. While other models walked down the catwalk holding baby dragons in their arms, the catwalk was transformed into an operating room. Michele worked with the Italian special effects studio Makinarium to make the fiction as accurate as possible. He explained that these post-humans represented how people build identities today and how one can expose, hide, or reshape oneself through social media, fashion, and cosmetic surgery.

Phoebe Philo

Phoebe Philo is a British fashion designer who was the creative director of fashion brands Chloe, Celine, and Louis Vuitton. Her main philosophy was to redesign and revolutionize the industry with her new aesthetic, to define the new modern look of today’s generation. Her character narrative depicts using fashion to express what she is feeling at a particular moment. She was determined to push her dream in style to the highest she could achieve, regardless of taking numerous risks. It was one of the most iconic moments on the runway when she was leaving Celine. It was graced by the presence of her preteen daughter, who was propped against a pole in the center if the runway with two of her friends. Women respond to Philo’s Céline precisely because a woman runs it. Her shows are mostly graced by women models, inspiring the young generation.

Guo Pei is the most well-known designer in China. She is the first Asian designer to be invited to become a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. She has been dressing celebrities, eminent women, royalty, and even members of the political elite for more than 20 years. Guo Pei is a dedicated artist who aims to inspire others by showcasing the best in traditional Chinese artistry while blending modern innovation and a Western flair. Her extraordinary creations are available in the Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy exhibition at the legion of honor museum in San Francisco. One of Guo Pei’s creations includes Rihanna’s famous 2015 Met Gala Yellow Empress gown. The breathtaking yellow cape took 50,000 hours of embroidery and two years to create. Two helpers were used to aid Rihanna in climbing the gala steps because the gown weighed fifty pounds. Guo Pei described her motivation as her desire to convey the “beauty of strength” of building through works that showed a conversation between the human body and space dimension.

Miuccia Prada

Miuccia Prada is an Italian fashion designer best known for serving as the Prada fashion house’s chief designer. She is famous for fusing traditional and modern styles through minimalist designs. She serves as co-CEO and head designer for the Prada handbag and clothing empire. Her company demonstrates its influence in the fashion sector. Prada has been creating and marketing exquisitely produced and creative bags, clothing, shoes, and accessories for men, women, and even kids. Miuccia co-owns most of the world’s luxury brands, including; Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s, and the historic Pasticceria Marchesi. She has won many awards, like the Glamour USA’s Women of the Year award, for her part in fashion, art, and culture in 2016.

Prada’s clothing and accessories have been characterized as traditional and unconventional, frumpy yet relaxed, and distinguished by a hazy techno-retro vibe. She once stated that she made ugly garments from terrible material, but they always looked fine. She might have been referring to looks like a Formica check pattern that looked like polyester from the 1970s.

Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood, a British fashion designer, had no intention of becoming a household name in the industry. Her creations were taken from historical texts, modernized, and changed as she thought fit. She was a significant player in the ’90s fashion movement thanks to her rebellious heart. Westwood still inspires fashion today and has successfully laid out her style visions regardless of time and trends. This has contributed to winning the title of British Designer of the Year three years consecutively. She pioneered the punk movement and the androgynous movement with the Fall/Winter 2015–2016 collection and has influenced and changed fashion for over 50 years. Westwood frequently employs heavy materials like wool, tweed, and tartan and enjoys drawing inspiration from earlier times. She even has a tartan MacAndrews’ of her own. Her gowns were distinguished by their extravagant use of fabric. The distinctive aesthetic of Westwood’s collections is characterized by lush drapery, crazy pattern and color combinations, and unexpected style adaptations.

Rei Kawakubo

Rei Kawakubo is a French and Tokyo-based fashion designer from Japan. She is the founder of Dover Street Market and Comme des Garçons (CDG). Rei Kawakubo is one of the most influential and forward-thinking designers today. For about five decades, she has defied tradition to reinvent fashion. She has twisted the shape and function of clothing and reframed perceptions of beauty through her designs. She has therefore offered a new relationship between the body and dress. Rei has had many successes and styled many celebrities who looked stunning. She styled Rihanna for the 2017 Met Gala. However, she does not believe she has completed her final form yet. She once told Elle that she had not achieved anything because every time before a collection, she expresses her desire for it not to be released, but it does. Rei argues that she designs the company and not the clothing.

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IvyPanda . (2023) 'Fashion Design and Famous Designers'. 21 September.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Fashion Design and Famous Designers." September 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-design-and-famous-designers/.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Fashion Design and Famous Designers." September 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-design-and-famous-designers/.

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(page 124) p. 124 Conclusion

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At the end of the 20th century, did the fashion industry shift from fashion to clothing? Did fashion end in the 1990s? Or has fashion just evolved? The early 21st century witnessed a growing number of ethically inspired labels and websites, focusing on fashion's impact on the planet and workers' rights. Fashion has also grown as a subject of academic study. Fashion has not ended, it has changed. It is on the brink of another major shift. The Western fashion industry hasn't died yet, but it will need to respond effectively to new global challenges.

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Essay on Fashion for Students and Children

500+ words essay on fashion.

Fashion refers to anything that becomes a rage among the masses. Fashion is a popular aesthetic expression. Most Noteworthy, it is something that is in vogue. Fashion appears in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, hairstyles, lifestyle, and body proportions. Furthermore, Fashion is an industry-supported expression. In the contemporary world, people take fashion very seriously. Fashion is something that has permeated every aspect of human culture.

History of Fashion

The origin of Fashion is from the year 1826. Probably everyone believes Charles Frederick to be the first fashion designer of the world. He also established the first Fashion house in Paris. Consequently, he began the tradition of Fashion houses. Furthermore, he gave advice to customers on what clothing would suit them. He was prominent form 1826 to 1895.

During this period, many design houses hired artists. Furthermore, the job of these artists was to develop innovative designs for garments. The clients would examine many different patterns. Then they would pick the one they like. Consequently, a tradition began of presenting patterns to customers and then stitching them.

At the beginning of the 20th century, new developments in Fashion took place. These developments certainly began in Paris first. Then they spread in other parts of the world. Consequently, new designs first came into existence in France. From Paris, they went to other parts of the world. Hence, Paris became the Fashion capital of the world. Also, Fashion in this era was ‘haute couture’. This Fashion design was exclusively for individuals.

In the mid-20th century, a change took place. Now Fashion garments underwent mass production. There was a significant increase in the rate of production of Fashion garments. As a result, more and more people became involved with Fashion garments. By the end of the 20th century, a sense of Fashion awareness was very strong. Now people began to choose clothes based on their own style preference. Hence, people began to create their own trends instead of relying on existing trends.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Fashion Trend

Political influences certainly play a major role in influencing Fashion. Many politicians become fashion symbols. Notable examples are First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana. Also, political revolutions make a huge impact on the Fashion trend. For example, in 1960’s America, liberal clothing styles became popular among the younger generation. This was due to the Liberal revolution.

Another significant factor which influences Fashion trend is technology. There certainly has been a rapid growth of technology in the Fashion industry. For example, wearable technology has become a popular Fashion trend. Furthermore, 3D printing technology and the internet have also made an impact on Fashion.

Social influences are probably the strongest influences on the Fashion trend. Many music stars strongly influence Fashion choice. For example, wearing hoodies became famous due to rap musicians. Furthermore, movie and television actors create a big impact on Fashion. Many youngsters love to emulate the Fashion sense of their favourite celebrity.

To sum it up, Fashion certainly has become a part and parcel of human life. It certainly is a force that is here to stay. Most noteworthy, Fashion has immersed every place on Earth.

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Essays on Fashion Design

Essays About Fashion: Top 5 Examples and 9 Prompts

If you are writing essays about fashion, check out our guide of helpful examples and exciting writing prompts to get started.

Fashion is individuals’ way of expressing their personalities. They do this through clothes and accessories that display their tastes and preferences. There are different fashion styles and trends, and anyone can choose anything they want to follow. Additionally, fashion has various benefits, such as boosting self-confidence, lightening moods, and developing creativity. Our fashion choices also help us send messages and present our beliefs. Thus, fashion can also be political .

Below are five essay examples and nine writing prompts to help you create an eye-catching essay about fashion:

5 Top Essay Examples

1. why fashion is important by george k., 2. fashion: an important part of life by ankita yadav, 3. fashion as communication by eunice summers, 4. fashion 2022 by edudwar, 5. the effect of fashion on teenagers in school by anonymous on newyorkessays.com, 1. fashion trends and women, 2. fashion evolution, 3. fashion and starting a business, 4. effects of fashion on society, 5. the best fashion styles for men, 6. fashion trends in different countries , 7. careers in the fashion industry, 8. cultural fashion vs. modern fashion, 9. the best and worst of fashion trends.

“The clothes we wear has become more than merely a way to cover our nakedness; instead it has also become one of the primary ways in which people express themselves.”

George K explains that fashion separates individuals from the rest. A person can introduce himself to others for who and what he is through style choices. Further, the author expounds on how fashion is a very competitive industry that depends on one’s search for identity. The author also points out that every person is unique and thus needs a distinct style to fit them. However, because of constant peer pressure and criticism, an individual’s fashion picks can’t be entirely their own. Ultimately, George K reminds the reader that it’s not just the clothes but how individuals wear and feel in them.

“…if we can do something then it is choosing the right stuff like entertainment, adventure, fashion, etc. All these things can make us happy and are also an important part of life. Fashion always attracts and it is available for all,”

Yadav considers how fashion originated from people’s traditions and cultures and became what it is today through individuals adopting each style and making it their own. In the following sections of the essay, she defines fashion and lists its importance, including how it developed new employment options and how styles speak for the wearer. 

In her conclusion, she encourages everyone to choose their styles and not to mind their age. Fashion helps everyone live life to the fullest.

“Fashion is an industry based on creating a need where there is none and nowadays, due to the current recession, I can understand that fashion may not be people’s biggest concern. But we cannot qualify it as ‘trivial’ since we are surrounded by it; each new generation of customers is highly exposed to commercial influences.”

Summers gives her opinion about the book “Fashion as Communication” by Malcolm Barnard . She identifies points in the work and shares her thoughts on them. The first point being those working in the fashion industry aren’t smart. As a Fashion Marketing student, Summers vehemently disagrees with this statement and recounts her experiences to counter it. She continues to analyze Barnard’s other arguments and agrees with some of them. Summers ends her essay by highlighting that fashion is too essential in modern culture and economic organization for it to be considered “trivial.”

“…the youth cares more about what they wear and how they look which could affect their status in their peer group and meddle with their mental health. Following trends and doing what everyone is doing like a sheep is never a good idea. Fashion is there to reflect your personal style, not copying what other people think is trendy.”

User Edudwar reminds people that fashion is not simply following what’s currently trendy. Fashion is there to give people the chance to show off their individualism and personalities and not present a fake version of themselves to be accepted by society. Additionally, he mentions that youth nowadays are more sensitive to what people think of them, so some will always do everything to follow trends, even if they’re not presentable or appropriate.

“Youths of the present times have indulged themselves in so much fashion that they do not receive sufficient time for other work… The time spent on studies is being used in watching TV programmes, reading fashion articles, or even finding the recent trendy outfits on the Internet.”

The essay discusses the real effects of fashion on today’s youth. The author focuses on kids zeroing in on finding the latest style instead of caring for their studies that directly affect their future. The essay also delves into how youths of yesterday had ambitions and goals in life compared to today’s youths, who prefer to have fun rather than study hard.

See our best essay writing tips to help you write an attractive, attention-grabbing essay.

9 Writing Prompts For Essays About Fashion

To assist you with your essay, we’ve compiled nine exciting writing prompts you can use:

Some women follow fashion trends religiously. They are also more conscious of their physical appearance. Some even go to the extreme and do plastic surgeries to look better in clothes. In your essay, discuss what you think these trends do to women’s perception of their worth and beauty. Add which trends you believe are unhealthy and why there’s more societal pressure for women to be fashionable.

Each era had its styles that directly resulted from that time’s circumstances. Make a timeline of how fashion evolved and the factors that influenced them. At the end of your essay, pick what you think is the best fashion era and explain why.

For this prompt, include the relevant things a future fashion clothing boutique owner should bear in mind. For instance, they should always be on top of the fashion trends and know how to balance demand and costs. Then, find a boutique owner and interview them about their experience to make your essay more fun to read.

Tackle what makes people choose the clothes they wear daily. Some prefer their fashion to display their personalities while others merely follow what they think is popular. To make your essay more interesting, you can do a simple experiment: Go out in public on two occasions: while wearing your fashion picks and donning the latest fashionable clothes. Then, add your findings and how people reacted to you.

Fashion for men is different from women. Although most brands dedicate their line to women, men also deserve to know what makes them look fashionable; this essay lists styles that are excellent for men depending on the setting and event. 

What could be considered fashionable in one country can be seen as disrespectful in another. For this prompt, compile fashion trends many do but are unacceptable in other places. Reasons why may include religion or tradition. Use research data and cite reliable sourcing for a compelling piece.

In this essay, identify the career opportunities available in the fashion industry, including the steps to get there. Next, list the different job roles within fashion, and describe the responsibilities for each. Then, add tips on succeeding in that job and standing out from the rest. For an intriguing essay, conduct interviews with professionals within the industry and include this in your piece.

Our ancestors’ culture greatly influenced today’s fashion. Meanwhile, modern styles are those that the current generation uses. Write an essay about cultural and contemporary fashion’s differences, similarities, advantages, and disadvantages. 

Fashion trends come and go. However, not all popular fashion is pleasing to the eyes. For this essay, compile a list of what is, in your opinion, the best and worst fashion trends. Then, describe why you have formed these opinions and describe the details of each outfit.

Are you looking for your next essay subject? Check out our list of the best writing topics for students .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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✍️Essay on Fashion: Samples in 100, 150, 200 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 26, 2023

Fashion is a non-verbal form of expression that describes a person’s character and sense of style. Before, it was just the realm of the famous, and aristocracy. However, the average person, particularly young people, can now afford to wear fashionable clothing. Additionally, fashion started out as a trend but through time came to be accepted as a certain way of living, whether it be in terms of behaviour, apparel, or lifestyle. Speaking of which, in this blog, we will talk about how fashion has evolved over time in our sample essays. Let’s dive in. 

This Blog Includes:

History of fashion, essay on fashion in 100 words, essay on fashion in 150 words, essay on fashion in 200 words.

Not just fashion designers but other people are curious to know the history of fashion. According to historians, Charles Frederick Worth was the first fashion designer. When clothing was still created by unidentified seamstresses, he founded the House of Worth, a fashion design studio, in Paris. Contemporary fashion is characterized by a blend of diverse influences, styles, and trends from various cultures and time periods. Fashion has become more accessible and inclusive, with designers experimenting with sustainability, technology, and innovative materials to create unique and socially conscious clothing

Also Read: Essay on Nature: In 100 Words, 200 Words, 300 Words

Fashion encompasses clothing, accessories, and even behaviours, reflecting culture and individuality. Fashion evolves continuously, driven by designers, influencers, and changing norms. It has the power to convey identity, status, and creativity. Whether classic or avant-garde, fashion allows individuals to make statements and connect with others through a shared aesthetic.

It mirrors the zeitgeist, responding to economic, environmental, and social shifts. In a world of fast fashion and sustainability concerns, redefining our approach to style becomes essential. Fashion’s allure lies in its ability to blend art, identity, and innovation, shaping our visual language.

Fashion is a form of self-expression that plays a significant role in our lives. It includes clothing, accessories, and personal style, reflecting one’s personality and cultural influences. Fashion trends constantly evolve, influenced by designers, celebrities, and societal shifts.

The 1920s saw the rise of flapper dresses and a rebellious spirit, while the 1960s embraced mini skirts and the counterculture movement. In recent years, sustainability and ethical fashion have gained prominence, emphasizing the need for eco-friendly choices and responsible consumption.

Fashion is more than just aesthetics; it is an industry that impacts economies, employing millions worldwide. It serves as a medium for creative expression, and social movements often utilize fashion to convey powerful messages.

In conclusion, fashion is a versatile cultural force that goes beyond mere clothing. It reflects our society’s values and artistic expression.

Also Read: Essay on My Favourite Book: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

Fashion is an evolving form of self-expression that has penetrated our daily lives, bringing more clothing choices to become a reflection of culture, identity, and individuality. 

Fashion, throughout history, has mirrored societal norms and values. It has been a canvas for rebellion or conformity. Whether it’s the flapper dresses of the 1920s, the bell-bottoms of the 1970s, or the minimalist styles of the 21st century, fashion has been a powerful communicator.

Moreover, the fashion industry is an economic powerhouse, shaping global trends and contributing significantly to various economies. It influences not only what we wear but also the jobs we create and the environmental impact we have.

Fashion’s role in personal identity is undeniable. People use clothing to express their personalities, tastes, and beliefs. It empowers individuals to feel confident and unique.

However, the fast fashion industry has been criticized for its environmental footprint and labor practices. However, over time calls for sustainable, ethical fashion have gained momentum, emphasizing the need for responsible consumption.

In conclusion, fashion is more than just attire; it’s a reflection of our culture, an economic force, a personal identifier, and a global conversation. As we navigate the complex world of fashion, it’s essential to strike a balance between personal expression, industry responsibility, and environmental sustainability.

Related Articles

The development of clothing, footwear, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery with varied cultural aesthetics and their mixing and matching to create outfits that represent distinct styles of dressing are referred to as fashion. 

Fashion is a form of expression that is not restricted to clothing, this term often refers to designer clothing and accessories.

Dressing up shows how we look at someone. They help create an idea of what we think of someone’s personality. Wearing makes someone comfortable and people will respect your individuality. Therefore, this is an important part of fashion. 

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay-writing page and follow Leverage Edu ! 

Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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• Essay On Fashion

Essay on Fashion

500+ words essay on fashion.

Fashion is one of the most talked-about industries in today’s world. Fashion can be defined as anything that becomes admirable among the masses. It is a popular aesthetic expression. Fashion is related to clothing, hairstyle, makeup, accessories, footwear and lifestyle. People want to distinguish their personalities from others with their style quotient. Like every new year, fashion also comes and goes. The latest fashion will be more fashionable and colourful than last year.

New trends in fashion influence people of all ages. There is a tremendous amount of competition between the industry and consumers. Different cultures and nationalities have different styles of fashion. Due to this reason, it is always fascinating to travel to various parts of the world to observe how people dress in those countries. Now, clothes have become one of the main reasons to express themselves instead of merely covering their body.

Different people need different styles and designs for their uniqueness and personality before wearing that specific fashion design. This essay will talk more about fashion history, importance and trends.

History of Fashion

Fashion is all about the history of people. For thousands of years, people have loved fashionable clothing. Clothes, from the early days of Egypt, have become our expression. We can see fashion worn in various civilisations throughout history, documents, drawings, and other archaeological findings. Eastern neighbours influenced clothes of different styles worn by the Greeks. Both males and females used to wear thick woollen long dresses.

During ancient times, Egyptians used to wear light cotton clothing, and Egyptian women wore long, ready-made clothes. Later on, the Romans dominated the most significant example of fashion and style.

When people started migrating to Europe, accordingly, the style changed. To keep themselves warm, women used to wear warm clothes and men plain and armour clothes.

Since there were not enough raw materials to produce new clothes for people who migrated to America in that era, dresses were ordered and sent to the oceans by ships to cope with the demand. Suits with leggings were men’s attire, and women wore long clothes and hats on their heads. Over time, the form of the dresses transferred from voluminous dresses into soft, frequent, high-waisted skirts.

Women’s skirts were shorter and thinner at the beginning of the century. Trousers of men slowly went from ankle to knee-length. During the World Wars, women’s style transformed into shorter skirts below the knee.

The ‘80s brought significant trends related to fashion and hairstyles for both genders. The transitional fashion period is from the sixties and seventies. During this time, women wearing trousers became acceptable.

From the 20th century to the 21st century, fashion change continued, and still today, it is evolving.

Fashion Trend

When we talk about influencing fashion, political influencers play a vital role. There are a lot of instances where politicians become fashion symbols, like Princess Diana and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Political revolutions also left a significant impact on fashion trends.

Technology is another significant factor that influences fashion. The fashion industry saw rapid growth in technology such as 3D printing technology, wearable technology, etc. The Internet also affects fashion trends.

People are influenced by their favourite stars, influencers, etc. The strongest influencers in the field of fashion are social media influencers. Young stars try to emulate the fashion styles of their loved celebrities. For example, hoodies came into fashion due to rap musicians. Television and movie stars also influence fashion trends.

It’s entirely up to you to be fashionable; it shouldn’t be forceful, and it is your own decision what you want to follow. Our fashion sense also reflects our culture. It makes our life colourful and adds variety to life, providing an opportunity to try out something new. Though this time of the 21st century in India, most people are influenced by the style of fashion, they have not forgotten our traditions and culture, which are the priority and symbol of our country.

From our BYJU’S website, students can also access CBSE Essays related to different topics. It will help students to get good marks in their exams.

Frequently Asked Questions on Fashion Essay

What is fast fashion.

Fast fashion is trending now, and it refers to the rapid designing of outfits using inexpensive clothing.

What subjects are taught in Fashion Technology?

Fashion ornamentation, Fashion management and merchandising and Computer-aided designing are the main subjects taught in the course Fashion Technology.

When was the origin of fashion?

Fashion started when human beings started wearing clothes. But modern-day fashion is said to have its origins back in the year 1826.

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Moscow Is Rich in Ideas for Simonetta; Designer Uses Holiday to Find Inspiration for Her Line

MSCOW, Dec. 18—Simonetta, the Paris couturier, is canvassing Moscow for fashion ideas—and finding them in the most unexpected places.

Ostensibly here for a rest away from the hustle and tension that precede the spring showings, she is spending a good part of her week‐long stay being shoved and elbowed in traditional Moscow fashion in stores thronged with year‐end shoppers.

“The other day I saw the most divine black mouton fur hat at the GUM department store,” she recalled today in a talk at the Ukraina Skyscraper Hotel. Outside the window of her room, timid snow flurries were powdering the Moscow skyline in a delayed onset of winter.

“It was a man's hat,” she continued, “and the salesgirl wouldn't let me have it at first, insisting it was not for me. That afternoon at the Italian Embassy I was asked about my new acquisition. No one believed that I'd bought it at GUM.”

Simonetta keeps her eyes open wherever she goes. She noticed the quilted winter jackets worn by Moscow's women street cleaners, and the idea of adapting them for the haute couture struck her as highly promising.

When not trying on men's hats or admiring roughly sewn quilted jackets, Simonetta browses in bookstores. leafing through illustrated albums of national folk costumes.

She speaks highly of Vyacheslav Zaitsev, the 25‐year‐old “boy wonder” of the Soviet fashion world who also takes his inspiration from folk motifs. Zaitsev is among the small group of designers who work at the Experimental Garment Factory, the Soviet capital's closest equivalent to a salon of haute couture.

Simonetta had a close look a year ago at Zaitsev's establishment, which is supposed to set trends in Soviet styles, and at the Dom Modelei (House of Fashions), which designs clothes for the government‐run garment industry.

This is Simonetta's fifth visit to the Soviet Union in the last seven years. On two occasions she showed off her collections as part of Italian fashion shows held in Kiev, Leningrad and Moscow.

When asked about rumors that she might be interested in opening a boutique in Moscow, she said this was “impractical.”

“The Russians have to meet the demands of the mass market before they can start thinking about the refinements of high fashion,” she added.

Born a Sicilian aristocrat, the Duchessa Colonna di Cesaro, Simonetta, who is now in her middle 40's, has short dark hair, slanting eyes and high cheekbones that are reminders of her Russian grandmother.

She and her husband, Alberto Fabiani, were among the best known couturiers in Italy when they joined the exodus of Italian fashion houses to Paris in 1962.

It was recently announced that Fabiani would rejoin the Italian couture with a separate establishment while she would go on with the Paris house.

A National Journal of Literature & Discussion

The Sad State of Cultural Life In Moscow (Or Peking) As Viewed From Peking (Or Moscow)

By lowell r. tillett.

During the last decade Cold War rhetoric has taken an unexpected turn. The quantity and intensity of angry exchanges between capitalism and Communism have subsided almost everywhere, while the two major practitioners of Communism have been having it out. Moscow and Peking have blasted each other with charges more scurrilous and personal than the wildest anti-Communist might have ventured in the fifties. In May, 1970, the New York Times, reflecting on the fact that Mao had included in his celebration of Lenin’s centennial a comparison of Brezhnev and Hitler, and Moscow had reciprocated with a charge that Mao was a philanderer who had murdered his own son, observed that “even at the height of the Cold War, it is doubtful that any official American pronouncement matched, much less exceeded, the bitterness” of such exchanges.

Lost in the shadoAvs of the more newsworthy arguments about borders, nuclear war, and leadership of world Communism, is another aspect of the unprecedented Sino-Soviet ideological quarrel—a no-holds-barred and below-the-belt brawl on the nature and function of culture in a Communist society. Each of the Communist giants contends that the other is a traitor to Marxism and has done irreparable harm to the cause of proletarian culture.

This enormous, orchestrated propaganda campaign is carried on not only in the press, but especially by round-the-clock broadcasts over the back fence from Radio Moscow and Radio Peking. The Soviet Party journal Kommunist complained in 1969 that two-thirds of some Chinese newspapers were filled with anti-Soviet material and that Radio Peking was broadcasting to the USSR up to fifty hours per day on forty frequencies, including some reserved for distress calls. The Soviet press and radio were answering on the same scale, the latter intensifying its effort beginning in that year through “Radio Peace and Progress,” beaming broadcasts from Tashkent in the languages of the Chinese minority peoples, as well as standard Chinese.

The campaign has had its ups and clowns. It grew more and more intense from 1967, reaching a peak in the summer of 1969. It was then turned off like a faucet for a few months—neither Moscow nor Peking saying a disparaging word about the other—while border talks were being held. It has had periodic outbursts since. The Soviets have recently made occasional references to the relaxation of Mao’s cultural policies, but have not retreated from their basic charges. The Chinese have not retreated one iota, but have observed long periods of silence on the subject.

Each side holds that the other has strayed from the Marxist path and betrayed the proletariat. The method of betrayal is the same in either case: the Communist Party of China (or the Soviet Union) has been “kidnapped” by a small clique, which is building its power and ruling for selfish goals. Each side assigns a definite date to the betrayal. The Chinese claim that Stalin hewed to the Marxist line, but soon after his death that “buffoon,” Khrushchev, and his “renegade revisionist clique” began a clandestine but systematic program for “the all-round restoration of capitalism.” The Soviets hold that at roughly the same time the Chinese Party lost its battle against Mao, who is not a Marxist at all, but an unprincipled opportunist Avho has built a fearful “personality cult” through purge and intimidation.

The cultural policies of each power, as observed by the other, are an important manifestation of the Marxist heresy and a means of realizing the tyrants’ goals. Each side presents a caricature of the other and in the process reveals something about itself. The Chinese have concentrated on detecting and exposing capitalistic characteristics in Soviet culture; the Soviets have dwelt on the wild, romantic, whimsical experimentation of Maoism, which “has nothing in common with Marxism.”

In support of their proposition that the Soviet “renegades” are restoring capitalism, the Chinese point to what they consider scandalous wage differentials and examples of high living, in the worst tradition of bourgeois capitalists, among Soviet leaders. These cases prove to Chinese satisfaction that a new class division is growing in the USSR and that the class struggle—that hallmark of a capitalist society—is not only present, but is intensifying.

The Chinese find many examples of extravagant living among the “high-salaried privileged stratum.” While among Soviet workers “two or three families share a single room,” the tycoons are concerned about luxurious second houses by the sea. One villa on the Black Sea “has two swimming pools, one for fresh water and another for salt water” and another has a special room for the master’s dog. While Soviet workers suffer from periodic food shortages, their leaders enjoy “beef and mutton from Mongolia, champagne from France, onions from Poland, grapes from Bulgaria.” And while the Avorkers complain of shortages of shoes and underwear, the privileged squander hard currency on imported fashions. As evidence, the Chinese once wryly quoted a compliment from the camp of the enemy: Die Welt’s opinion that the Soviet Union “has never seen a Party chief as fashionable as Brezhnev . . ., with a silvery grey necktie and an impeccable, well-tailored black suit, he is so smartly groomed that he gives no thought at all about Lenin’s style of dress.”

It is little wonder that Soviet leaders, seduced by these capitalist comforts, should be diverted from the causes of the people. “When these fat and comfortable Communists . . .tog themselves up in Italian fashion, sip a glass of martini [sic] and bounce to the rhythm of American jazz, how it is possible for them to think of the liberation fighters in the South Vietnamese jungles, the starving peasants in the Indian countryside, and the Afro-Americans in Harlem?”

The evils of the system are not confined to the “upper strata,” but have seeped down to another group which can only be identified by its capitalist nomenclature, the middle class. The Chinese have denounced such capitalist trappings as pawnshops, classified advertising, and the free markets where agricultural products and handicrafts are sold by individuals. When the Moscow Pawnshops Administration tried in 1967 to promote its operations by offering better guarantees, transactions by telephone, and even house calls by the pawnbroker, the Chinese press rose to the occasion, asking rhetorically, “Just what is a pawnshop?. . . Whatever the color of its signboard, and whatever its sidelines, its main business is usury, in other words, sucking the blood out of the poor. It is rather strange that thriving pawnbrokers should be a sign of the transition to Communism and that the workers will enter Communist society with wads of pawn tickets in their pockets.”

The Chinese were also disturbed by the proliferation of classified advertisements in the Moscow evening newspaper. The mere existence of such ads was regarded as prima facie evidence of a capitalist society, since “advertising in the bourgeois press is a medium by which capitalists push sales, carry out cut-throat competition, and grab profits.” But the Chinese turned the knife in the wound by noting the business being transacted: villas and summer cottages wanted, medals wanted, lottery tickets wanted, jobs wanted, and divorce announcements. “Multiplying like fungi , . . .these ads reek with the stink of bourgeois ideology and way of life.”

The Chinese share with the Russians great fears about the profit motive in the private sector of Soviet agriculture. They regard the free markets, where products from the private plots are sold as “a paradise for kulaks and speculators. . . . In the free markets, people rub shoulders in crowds. They push and jostle each other. It is a sickening scene of noise and confusion, with hawkings to attract customers, angry bargaining, etc.”

The Chinese also detect signs of restored capitalism in the trappings of popular culture in the USSR. What could be more symptomatic of decadent bourgeois society than fashion shows, fashion magazines, beauty shops, nude pictures, fancy wedding ceremonies, dog shows, and comic strips?

According to the Chinese, “the Soviet revisionists have discarded the plain working-class clothing of Lenin for the sophisticated styles of the bourgeoisie.” They publish “fashion and hair style magazines to corrupt the Soviet people, particularly the youth,” and have staged fashion shows at home and abroad. At one “Soviet fashion design show” in Washington, the models wore fashions by “the Soviet Union’s best-known avant garde designer, who copied the cowboy pants and mini-skirts of the West.”

The Chinese claim that even the Communist Youth League, the customary apprenticeship to the Communist Party, has entered the race for fashion and beauty. They were alarmed to find out that “there is a Beauty Parlor for Young Communist League Members and Youths” in Leningrad, where discussions on “new hair fashions” and “hair-do contests” are held every Sunday. And “in Moscow, so-called clubs for girls have been set up in some cultural palaces to attract young women workers to study “the secrets of beauty culture” and “problems of love. ” Is this following the behest of Lenin?”

It is only a short step from the fashion show to the even more decadent dog show. “The Soviet revisionists also put on dog shows in Moscow similar to those in New York and London and went so far as to make this thing fashionable. All this is the height of rottenness.”

In popular Soviet wedding ceremonies, Peking detects a throwback to tsarist days. “In Moscow nowadays, one often sees troikas of the type common in the days of old Russia galloping by. They carry no ordinary passengers, but cater to newlyweds,” carrying them to the wedding palace. The hiring of troikas has become a thriving business, for, according to TASS, “wedding vehicles have been booked up for the whole spring season.”

For the younger set, Soviet authorities have tried to make learning about scientific subjects more palatable by using the form of the comic strip. The Chinese reaction was this:

The Soviet revisionists have resorted to new methods of corrupting the young by churning out “science” fiction and comics modeled after “Alley-Oop,” “Blonclie,” “Batman,” etc. Under the pretext of disseminating scientific knowledge, such garbage from the Soviet press fosters venomous fantasy.

Having set the Soviet Union on such a dangerous course, the leaders have accepted the uglier features of bourgeois society—unsavory night life, increasing crime, alcoholism, and prostitution. When the Soviet press called on recreation officials to “brighten up night life,” the Chinese press wondered what the workers, who “toil from dawn to dusk,” could possibly do with a nightclub. They have no time to loaf, and such “decadent and licentious recreation is completely alien” to them. Nightclubs are “the hallmark of the Western way of life” where “bourgeois ladies and gentlemen and their offspring, who fatten on the sweat and blood of the working people . . .squander their ill-gotten gains.” And “since night clubs are being readied, brothels, gambling houses, and other such foul trades will also make their public appearance before long.”

On at least one of these subjects, alcoholism, the Chinese get plenty of ammunition from the Soviet press. But characteristically they accentuate the negative, citing the most glaring cases from Soviet articles, without acknowledging that the whole purpose of the Soviet discussion is remedial. They suggest that Ivan drinks a lot to cover his disillusionment with the régime, his sorrow for a revolution betrayed.

The Soviet counterpart of the Chinese charges of restored capitalism in the USSR is the contention that Mao’s erratic ideas and adventurism have wrecked traditional Chinese culture and have not put anything worthwhile in its place. Maoist thoughts not only drive out the harder currency of creative ideas; they serve as a religious opiate: “Mao Tse-tung’s thoughts do not differ from the religious intoxicants which develop the minds of the people and promise them a better lot—in another world.” Furthermore, Mao has a deep anti-intellectual streak (“the more books you read, the more stupid you become”) and Chinese intellectuals have been the scapegoats for the failure of his many experiments. As a result of all this, the Soviets see China as a cultural wasteland.

According to Marxism cultural life, like almost everything else, is based on economic underpinnings and the Soviets contend that Mao has failed the Chinese people at this basic point. The standard of living in China remains at a very low level, and there is no plan to improve it substantially in the foreseeable future. According to Mao’s doctrine of “primitive asceticism” all incentiA r es to material gain are denounced, and poverty is a virtue. While the Chinese rail against wage differentials in the USSR, the Russians deplore the grinding poverty of the whole Chinese population, a condition which is accepted and lauded by the leadership. One Soviet spokesman cited the chorus from a popular Chinese play:

First you walked barefoot. Then you put on rag slippers, and then—rubber shoes. This time you may wish to sport leather shoes, or even high boots. What will become of you in this process of bourgeois degradation?

Another Soviet position in this quarrel rings strange in the Western ear, for vis-à-vis the Chinese, they are champions of the rights of the individual against the demands of the state. They charge that Mao has so completely subdued, “brainwashed,” and regimented the Chinese people that there are no areas of individual freedom left, and this includes all cultural life at a personal level. The demands for group activity are so great that a Chinese can no longer enjoy the simplest pleasures—taking a walk, going fishing, playing cards, or taking a nap on his day off. Such activities have been condemned as bourgeois. One Soviet broadcast lamented Mao’s purge of billions of goldfish. “The Peking press, . . .calling for greater revolutionary vigilance, urged the people to destroy the fishbowls and to carry out the revolution, because goldfish breeding was an assault by the bourgeoisie on the proletariat.”

The goal of Maoist cultural policy, in the Soviet view, is to reduce the individual to the rôle of an ant in the giant anthill. Several phrases on this theme, which were upheld as ideals in China during the Cultural Revolution, have been quoted in contempt in Soviet propaganda. Workers are asked to become “little stainless screws” in Mao’s machine. According to the diary of a Chinese soldier, “although a cog is small, its rôle is inestimable. I want to be a cog always, . . .cleaned and protected so that it does not rust.” The peasant’s variant has him aspiring to be “an obedient buffalo of the great helmsman,” and children pledge themselves as “red seedlings.”

Chinese culture has been submerged in the morass of Mao worship. Instead of reading traditional Chinese literature (much of which has perished in the flames of the Cultural Revolution) Chinese children memorize twenty quotations per day from Mao’s thought. Mao quotations are chanted at meals and at public rallies. “From the very early morning Peking’s streets are filled with a roar which comes from loudspeakers. . . . It is impossible to collect one’s thoughts and think about what is happening.” There is no escape in visiting the theater or the music hall, in listening to the radio, or reading the popular press, which are all saturated with Mao themes.

The Soviets are also, rather surprisingly, the champions of traditional cultural values and have given much attention to the cultural nihilism of the Cultural Revolution. While the Chinese were citing Marx and Lenin passages calling for the destruction of bourgeois culture and the remolding of intellectuals, the Soviets have cited other passages emphasizing the need for continuity and critical assimilation of the culture of the past.

In the fine arts the Chinese are somewhere to the right of Stalin; they advocate socialist realism with a vengeance. Every work of art is judged strictly on its utility in furthering the revolution, and any work that does not do so in a straightforward way is a “poisonous weed” which must be eradicated. One of the earliest criticisms of Khrushchev’s cultural policy was that he had permitted the rehabilitation of “revisionist royalist writers” who had quite properly been suppressed by Stalin. Among these were Mikhail Zoshchenko and Anna Akhmatova, who shared the heresy of ideological neutrality in some of their works. Like Stalin, the Chinese regard non-conforming literature to be extremely detrimental: “a single bullet can only kill a single person, but the influence of a single reactionary novel can harm ten thousand people.”

The Chinese have attacked more than a dozen Soviet writers, but their main efforts have been made against three. Mikhail Sholokhov has drawn more fire from Chinese critics than all other Soviet writers combined. They regard him as the most dangerous kind of cultural figure, a counter-revolutionary who manages to hoodwink his countrymen, a “termite that sneaked into the revolutionary camp.”

In the Chinese view, Sholokhov’s works are full of counter-revolutionary messages, and his characters are not properly oriented. In “And Quiet Flows the Don” Grigory is an out-and-out white guard, whose tragic experiences are treated sympathetically. Sholokhov weighs the personal sufferings of his characters against the Revolution and questions whether the sacrifice was worth it. Furthermore, the author “exaggerated the counter-revolutionary rebellion,” stated openly that “there were too many bad elements” in the Bolshevik Party, and pointed out the “excessive actions” of the Red Army against the enemy-—all “impermissible” according to Maoist literary standards. In “Virgin Soil Upturned” Sholokhov “maliciously distorted the features of the poor and lower-middle peasants and vilified them as opponents of collectivization.” He “prettifies the class enemy” and “describes collectivization as a series of endless disasters.”

Sholokhov’s Nobel prize confirms Chinese suspicions. “Sholokhov, in a state of awed excitement, accepted the Nobel prize for literature, which even the French bourgeois writer Jean-Paul Sartre would not accept. In Sartre’s words, to accept the prize would be to receive “a distinction reserved for the writers of the West or for the traitors of the East. “”

Konstantin Simonov’s popular war novels, “The Living and the Dead” and “Days and Nights,” have been attacked for their strong condemnation of war. In Mao’s view the violence and destructiveness of wars should not be emphasized to the exclusion of the positive results of just wars, which are the means by which the working class will destroy imperialism. In Mao’s words, “war is politics with bloodshed.” But Simonov’s novels, concerning the German invasion of Russia in 1941 and the battle of Stalingrad, view war in a totally negative way. There is too much gore, not enough glory. The main characters only want to survive—to survive for such selfish reasons as to return to a lover or to school. Simonov would “stamp out the flames of peoples’ revolutionary wars.” Besides, he emphasizes the might of the German army and the weakness of the Red Army. He had the Red Army falling back to Stalingrad because of weakness and not to launch a counter-attack, as the Chinese prefer to have it.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who is always referred to as a “playboy poet,” has committed all the cardinal sins: he has condemned Stalin, China, and written anti-war poetry. Furthermore, he is a writer “who sold his soul” to United States imperialism. He first came to fame for “brutally defaming Stalin after the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU. This clown described himself as “weeping like all others when Stalin died. ” Yet before his tears were dry, he had trod upon Khrushchev’s heels in attacking Stalin.” Yevtushenko’s “mud-slinging” poems against the Cultural Revolution have drawn heavy fire from the Chinese, as have his popular recital trips to the West.

Soviet criticism of the current Chinese literary scene seldom involves specific writers or works, since the main Soviet complaint is that the Cultural Revolution and the Maoist cult have destroyed old literary works and prevented new ones from being written. “In effect, sentence of death has been pronounced on China’s centuries-old culture.” A 1969 broadcast charged that not a single novel had been published in China during the last four years and that the author of the last one was soon in trouble. The fate of foreign literature in China was equally bad. According to Sovetskaya Kultura, “between 1949 and 1956, 2683 works of classical Russian and Soviet literature had been published in the Chinese language in a total of 66,500,000.” But these have all been swept away in “the prairie fire of the Cultural Revolution.” Soviet accounts are full of descriptions of book burning, the destruction of bookshops and libraries, and of trash heaps which serve as collection points for condemned literature. Meanwhile three billion copies of Mao’s works have been turned out in China.

The Russians do single out one Chinese writer for biting criticism, and it cuts to the quick: they have a very low opinion of the literary efforts of Mao Tse-tung. His poems are always vague and sometimes incomprehensible. One of the Russian translators of Mao’s poetry stated in an interview that “these verses are incomprehensible, not merely on first reading; even readers with philological education cannot explain the meaning of some phrases exactly.” Red Guards sing Mao’s words “frequently without understanding their meaning.”

Furthermore, Mao’s poetry is ideologically suspect. The Soviet verdict on one of his poems was that “it is merely an imitation of decadent court poetry, full of embellishing phrases.” Other Soviet critics have noted that “Mao’s imagination has always been captivated by the imagery and personalities of the rulers of old imperial China. Moreover, Mao’s personality has clear traces of the characteristics of the Chinese Emperors.” Radio Moscow has broadcast detailed analyses of “Yellow Stork Flying,” one of Mao’s most popular poems, detecting almost precise figures found in the verse of one of the Tang emperors, “an aesthete, whose life . . .was given over to meditations concerning the apparition of the yellow stork.”

“Counter-revolutionary plays dominate the Soviet stage”—so reads a typical Chinese critique. Popular Soviet plays are condemned for sowing “the virus of pacifism,” “distorting facts about the anti-fascist war” with Hitler, “repudiating the Stalin cult, vilifying the dictatorship of the proletariat,” and for advocating “a life of eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.”

Chinese objections to the Soviet theater center about their attacks on Konstantin Stanislavsky, whose method acting has drawn frequent fire from Peking. The core of the method, as the Chinese see it, is the “self,” the “innermost I.” Such “stinking egoism” is a betrayal of class consciousness. According to the method, the actor who plays a landlord or capitalist must delve into his sub-consciousness and evoke all those hated traits of the class enemy. He “becomes” the landlord or capitalist and presents his new “self” in the best possible light. This is intolerable for current Chinese critics, who argue that all characters, including the darkest villains, must be played from a proletarian viewpoint. There must never be the slightest doubt about the true colors of the actors; the theater must occupy itself with showing the class struggle in action. “If the proletariat does not turn the theater into a red revolutionary crucible, then the bourgeoisie will change it into a black and stinking dyeing vat, disseminating the ideological poison of the bourgeoisie and contaminating the ideology of the masses.”

Soviet films come in for the same treatment. Blunderbuss attacks on Soviet films strongly suggest that the Chinese critics have not had an opportunity to see what they are condemning, the giveaway coming in some variation of the clause: “such titles alone suffice to show what these movies peddle and what sort of creatures their producers are.”

One favorite theme of Chinese critics is the growing popularity of United States films in the USSR. Peking regarded the Moscow Film Festival of 1969 as “a sickening spectacle of dewy-eyed admirers standing spellbound before the altar of Western imperialist films, . . .a disgusting exhibition of the clique’s maneuver to use the junk cranked out by the bourgeois scum . . .to promote the full-scale capitalist restoration.”

Among Soviet film figures the director Grigory Chukrai shares the villainous rôle of Sholokhov among the Chinese, and for some of the same reasons. His pictures are soft on war, and besides he made the tactical error of commenting unfavorably on Chinese films in an article for the British magazine, Films and Filming, observing that “with dogmatism and logic alone the Chinese artist cannot make good films.” Taking on his best known films one by one, a Chinese critic condemned “The Forty-First” as a flimsy love story, in which “human nature overcomes class nature, and the enemies become lovers”; “Ballad of a Soldier” is really a “condemnation of war, [showing] how the anti-fascist patriotic War wrecked people’s happiness”; “The Clear Sky” is an anti-Stalin diatribe: “when Stalin dies, “the ice melts” and “the sky clears. ” ” Chukhari’s films are all revisionist, reeking of the “odor of bourgeois humanism and pacifism.”

The Soviet view of Chinese theater and film is similar to that on literature, emphasizing cultural nihilism and political subservience. By one Soviet account, “of 3,000 theatrical companies which existed until quite recently, less than ten are alive. The silence of the Chinese theater is proof of the crisis in its art, until recently extremely popular and widespread in China.” The “spectacular revolutionary plays” which have replaced the classics are artistically worthless, and are mere propaganda pieces. “The theater in China has become a primitive means of frontal propaganda for the political lines of the present leadership.”

The Soviets also react sharply to the repudiation of Stanislavsky and to the Chinese practice of casting all characters from the proletarian viewpoint. One Soviet visitor reported a shocking experience on a visit backstage in Peking: “I was looking for the actor whom we liked very much and who appeared in the rôle of a Japanese intelligence officer. Finally I discovered him at the end of the line; it turned out that he had no right to stand next to the actors appearing in positive rôles.”

Soviet critics also regret the demise of the popular theater in China.

In the old days Chinese rural areas were blessed with popular forms of art; Chinese theatrical performers would tell stories and give performances and magic shows. . . . Thousands upon thousands of native theatrical groups used to roam from village to village giving performances, but the Maoists today have wiped out the native arts the same way they have wiped out the professional arts.

The Russians have complained about the arid film fare as well. They have from time to time reeled off the titles of films showing in Peking; all feature Chairman Mao in the titles, and most are produced by his wife, Chiang Ching. Chinese documentaries are especially deplored for their anti-Soviet bias.

Impugning the merits of “Swan Lake” is for the Russians as low a blow as discrediting Mao’s poetry for the Chinese. A Red Guard penned the following reaction:

Treasured as a masterpiece by people like you and your kind, the ballet “Swan Lake” has been going on and on for decades but the performances remain the same. What can “Swan Lake” arouse in a revolutionary of this era . . .except disgust for its corrosive rôle in leading people astray into a world far removed from real life?

A presumably more mature critic in Red Flag found it to be “a cacophony of primitive dance melodies [which] can in no way compare with the elevated music being written today in China to the words of Mao Tse-tung.” The plot is as bad as the music: “Evil genius romps about the stage, suppressing everything, while devils have become the main characters! This is indeed a sinister picture of the restoration of capitalism on the stage.”

Soviet music critics weep for the fate of the Peking opera, whose rich repertory of hundreds of masterpieces has been eliminated and replaced by a handful of worthless “revolutionary model operas.” One reason the Peking opera had to go was that Mao’s henchmen felt implied threats from its Aesopian language: “in every character, in every situation, the Maoists’ sick imagination felt an allusion.” The same fate has befallen the ballet, whose ballerinas now carry rifles to attack imaginary bourgeois fortresses.

The Chinese critics are most indignant of all when it comes to popular music—specifically the Soviet surrender to the wishes of young people to hear jazz and other mod music from the West.

Disguised as “cultural co-operation,” degenerate Western music, commercialized jazz, has become the rage in the Soviet revisionist musical, dancing, and theatrical world. . . . As a result, various weird-named American and British jazz bands have performed in the Soviet Union.

The Russians could hardly be expected to defend jazz festivals, but they do counter such charges with their own broadsides against the politicization of popular music. In one commentary they noted that the stirring old songs of the Chinese revolutionary movement had been abandoned, and new words had been set to the tunes. The new lyrics “praise Mao, his current policies, and the threat of war from the Soviet Union” and are “published in all newspapers and endlessly broadcast by the radio.”

The non-Communist bystander can only react to these arguments with a certain amount of amusement, and it is not unlikely that the people on the receiving end regard them the same way. The great majority of the charges go unanswered. Aside from an occasional angry riposte resulting from wounded national pride, there is little evidence that the charges are taken very seriously. Neither government is concerned enough to put up funds for systematic jamming of the broadcasts, and while the USSR tries to prevent Chinese printed matter from coming into the country (as it does for all unfriendly materials), the Chinese have from time to time reprinted the Soviet charges with a brief editorial note asking readers to see how ridiculous they are. While each side claims a large, sympathetic audience in the other country, there is no evidence of a large number of converts.

This propaganda is to some extent intended to persuade the rest of the world (the broadcasts are usually aimed directly at the adversary in his language, but elaborate translation services turn out news releases and magazines in all major languages). Its influence cannot be measured, but the total effect must be negative, judging from the singular lack of success of each side in converting the third world. If there are impressionable Marxist-leaning leaders of the future looking to Moscow and Peking for guidance, their frustration must be equal to that of Christendom five centuries ago when two rival popes demanded allegiance.

Each country reveals something about its view of the world in this propaganda, even through the thick layers of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The Chinese revolutionists are still in the fiery, youthful, idealistic stage, while the Russians have reached middle age and want its comforts. In some respects the Chinese are where the USSR was a quarter-century ago: many of these charges are similar to those Stalin hurled at the West. And unquestionably the USSR has softened somewhat in the last two decades; its lecturing of the Chinese on human rights and tyranny could hardly have been made in Stalin’s day. The big question is whether the Chinese have also begun to move in this direction, and there are indications of such motion in the new diplomacy and the dampening of the fires of the Cultural Revolution.

Above all, these cultural polemics add a new dimension to the proposition that the Sino-Soviet conflict is deep and fundamental. These charges are somehow more drastic and irrevocable than border disputes, which can be settled on a legal basis. The good old days of a mere twenty years ago, when cultural agreements were signed with great fanfare, when cultural troupes of every description traveled between Moscow and Peking, and the press was full of congratulations of the cultural achievements of the other, seem far removed, and not likely to return.

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