Who Benefits?

By Billy Jackson Arellano

If you have read my first article on Fashion: Who Decides What’s Hot and What’s Not, this article is just an epilogue of it. In this article, I will discuss who benefits from the “what is hot” standards in fashion.

Who benefits from these standards are basically the same personas who decide what is hot and what is not in fashion.

Since the elite fashion designers are the primary trend setters in fashion, they are also the primary beneficiary from these standards. Celebrities seek their design to be elegant and be “head-turners” during awards night like The Oscars.

Another beneficiary would be the celebrities who get paid just to endorse a particular clothing line. Magazines and stores would pay a lot of money to celebrities who will endorse their products.

These magazines and stores are beneficiaries as well. The magazines which now have an article about a famous celebrity with their product think that consumers will buy more of their magazine now. The stores with famous clothing lines in their front display will attract more customers than the others. This will make them earn more profit than the rest.

Hence, we can conclude that from the designers, to the celebrities, down to the magazines and stores, they somehow form a cycle of beneficiaries from fashion. Their benefits have one thing in common – “fame and fortune”. Alongside being famous, they all earn a lot of money from setting the standards in fashion

Moving on to specifics like occupational uniforms, the institutions itself benefit by maintaining its image and credibility to the public. With the personnel following the appropriate dress code, hospitals maintain their persona of a caring and hospitable place. The police department maintains authority and earns respect from the public. Schools keep their image of a responsible and neat place to learn. And the bank maintains the trust of its depositors.

With all that being said, we should not forget that we, as consumers, also sometimes benefit from the standards set by these personas. We benefit in the form of happiness and self-confidence.

We all know that these standards of what is “in” in fashion are often too expensive to buy. Hence, as we afford to buy these clothes that are “hot” this season, it gives us an extra boost of satisfaction and self-confidence that we are “in” and socially above other people for this season.