Fashion is a multibillion-dollar global enterprise devoted to the business of making and selling clothing. Every day, millions of people design, sew, glue, dye, and transport clothing from the factory to stores across the world.
In its simplest sense, fashion is the way that a group of people dress at any given time. It can range from the extravagant designer fashions worn by a small number of social elites, to the more mass-produced sportswear and street styles seen in malls around the world.
It is a form of identification and tradition. During the nineteenth century, judges wore robes; people in the military wear uniforms; brides are traditionally dressed in long white dresses.
Moreover, fashion can also be a political weapon. During the nineteenth century, the British government prohibited clothing produced in France to be worn in England. During the twentieth century, communist revolutions used clothing to dismantle class and race distinctions.
The word fashion is sometimes confused with style, mode, vogue, fad, rage, or craze. While style usually denotes conformance to a common standard of appearance, vogue suggests the temporary popularity of certain fashions, and fad is a noun meaning caprice in taking up or dropping a fashion.