Hi everyone, Welcome to my new blog. I would like to share something interesting about this very exciting topic today i.e. Fashion Needs and it’s lifestyles.
Have you all heard about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Yeah, most of you might have learned during school and college days especially for Commerce students right. If not, let’s refresh it once again.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security & health issues), love and belonging needs (friendship & relationships), esteem (status & prestige), and self-actualization (seeking of what you desire to be). These needs from lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up.
Does Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Fashion have a similar context to it? Yes, it does. On the basis of a five tier model of human needs in Fashion:
Physiological
Humans have the basic need of not being too cold or too hot. Clothing protects us from the elements. This is clothing’s original purpose. Clothes augment our basic need for shelter. This need is met pretty easily and in an industrialized culture with ubiquitous air conditioning and heating, other needs that are higher up the hierarchy are more important.
Safety
Humans have the need to feel safe. Clothes can protect us from the elements but other humans are generally far more dangerous.
Love/Belonging
Humans have the need to be loved and to belong to a social group. Clothing can be an expression of love and the most obvious expression of love of this sort is jewelry. Uniforms are top down expressions of belonging. Fashion tribes are overtly down top expressions of belongingness.
Esteem
Humans want respect and status. Clothes can become totally removed from their original physiological function and become means of garnering respect. Clothes can become a form of conspicuous consumption that confers respect and status to the wearer. High fashion serves esteem needs and the more expensive and impractical the better!
Self-Actualization
The person is focused on realizing their potential and therefore comes up with a system to spend less time worrying about fashion. Many productive people wear the same set of clothing every day in order to be more productive. The foremost example was Steve Jobs who wore his signature black turtleneck with jeans and sneakers every single day. The outfit formula is one way to spend less time on clothes and more time on more important endeavors.
Similarly in Luxury Fashion Brands, the top five tier model as per the price and quality are:
Mass Market ( GAP, Inditex, H&M, Levi’s & Zara)
Premium ( Guess, Hugo Boss, Michael Kors & Calvin Klein)
Accessible Luxury (Ralph Lauren, Max Mara, Stella McCartney & Dsquared2)
Aspirational ( Prada, Gucci, Dolce Gabbana, Armani Exchange & Fendi)
Absolute/ Supreme ( Hermes, Chanel, Dior, Versace & Bottega Veneta)
For a better understanding, Let’s take a 3 conservative comparison study examples from my personal life, my family and culture, first example is from my wardrobe and my sister’s wardrobe. As you can see in my wardrobe, there are a lot of traditional clothes rather than western clothes from my sister’s wardrobe. This means that I have used these clothes many times for family gatherings and wedding ceremonies but sometimes I do attend birthday parties and hangouts with friends and not very often. On the other hand, my sister used these clothes for parties and hangouts with her friends but she does also attend family gatherings too.
Second example is from the crockeries and the utensils. As you can see that, on the top these crockeries are made up of ceramics and has decorative designs all over the plates, cups, bowls, etc. These ceramic crockeries are usually served for the guests and relatives whenever they come and visit us in my house and sometimes we use crockeries if guests finishes their lunch or dinner. On the other hand at the bottom, there is a utensils that are made up of stainless steel and has no any sorts of decorative designs all over it. These utensils are usually served for my family of 4 as a everyday use and mostly don't serve it for the guests. This example shows that we use less in ceramic plates and more in steel plates.
Third example is the spices, we need spices for our foods in our daily life. Without them, we cannot survive with it and also food will taste like bland & plain. India is known for a spice culture across states. Mostly, we use spices like salt, pepper, chilly powder, turmeric powder for every different kinds of food in our daily life. On the other hand, sometimes we use garam masala, dhaniya powder, jeera powder, coriander powder for some kinds of foods in very rare times. This example shows that we use more spices like salt, chilly & turmeric powder and mostly needed all the time rather than garam masala & coriander powder which we don't need much at all.
Thus, This three examples from my daily life shows that everyone has different kinds of needs and cannot be satisfied until the needs are fulfilled and goes on for other needs like a cycle of life.
Bibliography
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs(2021) Simplypsychology.org. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html (Accessed: 24 September 2021).
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Clothes (2016). Available at: https://foxhugh.com/2016/01/04/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-and-clothes/ (Accessed: 24 September 2021).
The Fashion Retailer Maslow, evolution and Luxury Fashion (2017). Available at: https://fashionretail.blog/2017/05/22/the-pyramid-of-fashion-social-approach/ (Accessed: 24 September 2021).
Novick, N. (2021) Maslow 's Hierarchy for Fashion Retailers , Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/13187845/Maslows_Hierarchy_for_Fashion_Retailers (Accessed: 24 September 2021).
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Sprout (2021) Youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4ithG_07Q (Accessed: 24 September 2021).
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