How Ethnic Dress Persists in Globalization

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How Ethnic Dress Persist in Globalization “Fashion is a key resource through which individuals are able to present themselves to others, the relative anonymity and pace of life in the late modern metropole calling for highly visual and relatively instantaneous means of asserting one’s identity.”(Bennett,2005:96). Fashion is becoming more and more important in the way of showing one’s identity in today’s fast developing world. According to Bennett (2005:95), ‘By assembling particular items of fashion in particular ways, and through experimentation with dress and appearance, late modern individuals create personal images, designed both to situate the self and send out culturally-coded messages to others.’ He claimed that:’ Fashion provides one of the most ready means through which individuals can make expressive visual statement about their identities.’ Referring to Barker (2000:381), agency can be explained as the socially determined capability to act and make a difference. Meanwhile, Bennett (2009:99) emphasis that, ‘Fashion serves as a visual symbol in society, one which individuals use in an attempt both to assert their individuality and, at the same time, to align themselves with particular social groupings.’ he argued that fashion as a means of forging new forms of ‘collective’ identity. Thus being increasingly less constrained by the structural experience of class, gender, and ethnicity, individuals create new cultural alliances based around reflexively articulated lifestyle preference. ( Bennet,2005:98) Demanding for fashion is closely related to individual’s identity. Fashion can be the tool to express agency as well as structure at the same time. People can use fashion either to assert or hide their identity. Through fashion, agency can be created among the society. This essay will look at the relationship between world fashion and ethnic dress. It

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