Culture Expressed Through Fashion

Culture shapes everything around us. Whether it’s politics, media, or fashion, there is no denying that it shapes how we act as a society.

Fashion is one of the few ways we express ourselves and our culture on a day-to-day basis. It can be simple and functional, or complex and outlandish. 

Ariana Njoroge, a junior international student from Nairobi, Kenya, expresses her experience around fashion in both Africa and the United States. Njoroge says that while popular styles here like streetwear and alternative wear are generally accepted in society, in Africa it can be looked at as a form of Satanism. 

“In different parts of the world, it is viewed very differently. Like where I come from you don’t really see people dressing very alternatively because it’s viewed as like ‘Oh that’s demonic, that’s like of the devil, you’re not supposed to dress that way.’”

Rynn Hurley, a junior microbiology student, thinks that as some trends come up that are based in other cultures, it becomes more normalized to dress that way than it was before. Hurley believes that it is specifically when white people start to wear those clothes that it begins to become normalized and feel as though it isn’t a problem anymore.

“Usually the styles of certain cultures that used to be looked down upon, it gets taken by other people and when those people make it popular now it’s a trend and now people say ‘Oh, now this is okay and now this is acceptable,’ but the people who started it are still looked at as, like in streetwear, are looked at as thugs and untrustworthy.”

Rynn believes culture is a stepping-stone for many trends in popular fashion throughout history, like streetwear and alternative wear. However, the originators of these looks are still looked at in a negative light, while other people who popularize it are looked at as just following the trend. 

Culture throughout history has and will continue to influence society. Fashion is often the biggest way culture shapes society, with many people’s fashion being an expression of their culture in some way, shape or form.