Many people like to follow fashion. But what is fashion? The Macmillan English Dictionary defines it as follows: 

1.the activity  or business  that involves  styles of clothes and people’s appearance   

2.1a. a style of dress that is popular at a particular time 

 Notice that in the first meaning  we hear of the business of fashion, whereas the second meaning  talks about what is popular. These two meanings are related, of course. It is the fashion business world that drives fashion and not simply people copying what other people wear, or deciding that something looks nice or is comfortable. The fashion houses —  those famous brand  names such as Dior, Gucci, Versace and so on —  are big businesses that have enormous  power 

Key words:

Upset: To make someone feel sad, worried, or angry

Funeral: a ceremony that takes place after someone dies 

Symbol: Someone or something that represents a particular idea or quality

Relationship: The way in which two or more people or groups behave towards each other and are involved with each other 

Pick up a fashion magazine from a newsstand — there are many

to choose from, mostly for women and a few for men. In the magazine you will find page after page of young and beautiful models wearing outrageous clothes. These magazines will tell you what is “in” and what is “out”; what is “hot” and what is not. These terms for what is trendy and what is not trendy can change what people choose to wear almost overnight. If a famous fashion magazine says women should wear short skirts and high heels then you can be sure many young women will go out and buy these things — and stop wearing the long trousers and flat shoes that they happily wore last month. Many other young women will then follow the lead of these first women and soon most of the women you see on the street are wearing high heels and short skirts. And so a new fashion is born.

Key Words:

Outrageous: very shocking or unreasonable 

The young women who buy the magazines and then buy the clothes — and the host of other women who copy them — could be called fashion victims . They wear whatever they are told is fashionable even if it doesn’t suit them. 

By changing their clothes every year or every season these fashion victims not only spend a small fortune  on clothes but also acquire a fashion-victim  mentality. They consider last year’s  clothes to be out of fashion or even “old-fashioned” and would not want to be seen wearing them. How many beautiful, barely worn clothes must rest  undisturbed in a fashion victim’s closet?

Key Words:

Victim: a person  who  has  been  harmed,  injured,  or killed  as the  result  of a crime

Closet: a small room or space built into a wall for storing  things such as clothes or sheets 

But why do fashion victims do what they do? Why do they copy famous actresses and models, artists and sporting heroes? Is it just because they want others to say, “You’re looking good today”? 

There is a real psychological need behind the outward show of fashion. It seems that the people who dress fashionably want to be recognized by others as fashionable people, beautiful people. They might want to draw attention  to themselves by the clothes they wear. They might be making a statement that, “I am an important  and worthwhile person — look how trendy I am!” 

Key Words:

Psychological: involving or affecting your mind

Trendy: extremely fashionable, but often silly or annoying

But perhaps by dressing in the latest styles and forever changing

their image to suit this year’s model, these fashion victims are really making an altogether different statement: “Look at me. I have no confidence in my own taste. I have no sense of my own individuality. I

want to follow fashion so that other people will not look down on me. I 

don’t want to be different from anyone else.”

So, being fashionable and wearing the latest trends with confidence and even a sense of daring may well hide a sense of uneasy about oneself. Here the clothes are literally covering up the person’s sense of insecurity.                    . 

Key Words:

Individuality: the things that make someone or something different from all others

Uneasy: a feeling of being nervous, uncomfortable, or unhappy  about  a situation

Insecurity: no confidence in yourself

Is it no surprise, then, that most fashion victims are young? These are the very people most vulnerable to a sense of inferiority and who feel the need to have their egos boosted by others telling them they look “cool”. It is the youth in every country that follow the fashions most closely and who spend the most money on achieving just the  right look. The middle-aged and elderly generations are no longer such slaves to fashion. They have established their style and they no longer care so much what other people think of how they dress (although they probably still care what others think of them!).

Key Words:

Vulnerable: weak or easy to hurt physically or mentally

Inferiority: the fact that someone or something is not as good,  important, intelligent, etc. as someone or something else

So the fashion business continues to tell the bright young things of today what to wear tomorrow and continues to make money out of the people who feel they need to look “in”. These people are the willing victims of a multi-billion dollar business which employs hundreds  of thousands of workers around the world.

It is these garment makers who are the real fashion victims. In tiny sweatshops in South Asia, on Pacific islands and in South American countries, workers spin cotton and sew shirts for a few dollars a day. The  conditions are often appalling —  with poor lighting, poor equipment and few rest breaks. Workers in sports shoe factories may work up to 12 hours a day and produce 200 shoes and get paid less for the day’s work than the price of a single pair of fashion shoes in an American shopping mall.

Key Words:

Garment: a piece of clothing, used especially when talking about  the production and sale of clothes

Spin: to twist fibres of a material such as cotton or wool into thread  to make cloth

Sew: to make or repair clothes using a needle and thread

Appalling: very unpleasant and shocking

The fashion houses claim they are paying fair wages for the workers’ labour and providing jobs in poor countries but most are really protecting their huge profits. The fashion houses know the price of fashion change and so every year they must come up with new goods to sell. No one will buy last year’s coat, so they have to control their stocks carefully. To protect themselves against the very changes in taste that they help to promote they have to seek out ever cheaper places of production.

Key words:

Stock: an amount of something that you keep so that you can use it when you need it

The companies that create the clothes, the workers that they employ, the people that buy the clothes and the media that publicizes the new fashion are all involved in a vicious circle. In the end, perhaps, we are all victims of fashion.

Key words:

Vicious circle: a process in which the existence of a problem causes other  problems, and this makes the original problem worse

很多人喜欢追赶时尚。但什么是时尚呢？麦克米伦英语词典将时尚定义成：

1. 涉及人们的衣着和行为的活动或商业

1a.在某一特定时间里流行的一种时装款式

注意在第一层意思里，我们听到了时尚是商业这一说法，而第二层意思谈到了流行。这两个意思当然是相互联系的。推动时尚的是时尚商业，而不单单是人们仿效其他人的穿着，或判断什么好看，什么舒适。时装公司——如Dior、Gucci、Versace等名牌——都是大企业，它们利用媒体从而拥有强大的力量。 

在杂志摊挑一本时装杂志——上面提供了很多选择，大多数是女士的，小部分是男士的。在杂志上你会看到一页页都是年轻漂亮的模特穿着令人无法容忍的衣服。这些杂志将告诉你什么是“流行的”，什么是“过时的”；什么是“热门的”，什么是“冷门的”。这些代表流行趋势和非流行趋势的术语能在几乎一夜之间改变人们对于穿着的选择。如果一本著名的时装杂志 说女人应该穿短裙高跟鞋，那你一定会看到很多年轻女性上街购买这些东西——并且把她们上个月还穿得挺高兴的长裤和平底鞋甩在一边。很多其他的年轻女性将跟随这些走在前列的女性的引导，很快，你就会看到街上大多数女人都穿着高跟鞋和短裙。新的时尚就这样诞生了。 

购买杂志并随后购买那些衣服的年轻女性——其他女人模仿的对象——都是时尚的牺牲品。她们穿着别人告诉她们是时髦的衣服，即使那并不适合她们。

由于每年每季都在更换服装，这些时尚的牺牲品们不但在穿着上开销巨大，而且养成了作为时尚牺牲品的心理。她们认为上一年的衣服已不再流行，甚至已成“老式”，不想穿了被人看见。在一个时尚牺牲品的衣橱里有多少漂亮的，没穿过几次就无人问津的衣服？

可是，时尚的牺牲品们为什么这么做呢？她们为什么要模仿著名演员和模特、艺术家和体坛精英呢？仅仅是想听别人说“你今天看上去很棒”吗？

在时尚的外在表现背后有着真正的心理需求。穿着时髦的人似乎希望别人承认她们时尚、漂亮。她们想通过自己的穿着吸引注意。她们是在宣称：“我是个重要而有价值的人——看我多时髦！”

然而，通过穿着最新款式、不断变换自己的形象来顺应今年的模式，这些时尚的牺牲品实际上是在发表完全不同的宣言：“看，我对自己的品位没有信心，对自己的个性完全不了解。我想随大流，以免别人看不起我。我不想和其他任何人不同。”

 因此，赶时髦、充满自信甚至勇气地穿着最新的流行款式也许足以掩饰自身的不安。此时的衣着确确实实是遮住了一个人的不安全感。 

那么，大多数时尚的牺牲品是年轻人也就不足为怪了。他们是最容易产生自卑感的人，也最需要别人说他们看上去“酷”以增强自尊。在每个国家，年轻人都是最紧跟潮流、花最多钱获得时尚造型的人。中老年人已不再做这样的时尚俘虏了。他们已形成自己的风格，不那么在乎别人对自己的穿着作何感想(虽然他们可能仍然在乎别人对他们的看法！)。

因此，时尚业继续影响着今天快乐的年轻人明天穿什么，并继续从这些感到自己需要打扮入时的人身上赚钱。这些人是那些有着几十亿美元身家、在全世界雇用成千上万工人的商家心甘情愿的牺牲品。

另外那些时尚的牺牲品则是服装厂工人。在南亚、太平洋诸岛和南美各国狭小的血汗工厂里，工人们纺棉、制衣，挣取每天几美元的工资。工作条件往往是骇人听闻的——光线暗淡、设备简陋，几乎没有工间休息。运动鞋厂的工人可能每天工作12个小时，生产200双鞋，而一天工作所得报酬还不够在美国一家购物中心买一双鞋。

时装公司声称他们向工人支付了合理的劳动报酬，并为贫困国家提供了就业机会，但他们真正保护的是他们的巨额利润。时装公司知道时尚风向变化的代价，因此每年都必须推出新的货物销售。没人愿意买去年的衣服，因此他们必须要小心地控制存货。品位的变化是他们一手促成的，为了立于不败之地，他们必须不断寻找更廉价的产地。

生产时装的公司、他们所雇用的员工、购买时装的人和宣传新时尚的媒体都被卷入了恶性循环。结果，也许我们都是时尚的牺牲品。