Fashion is defined as the prevailing style of dress. The Middle English term ‘fashion’ comes from the Old French term facon (in the sense ‘make, shape, appearance,’ also ‘a particular make or style’): from its Latin origin facere (‘do, make’) or factio.
It started when our primitive ancestors started wearing clothes which were typically made from plants, animal skin and bones. The bones were used as needles to sew fibers or hides together. However, given their primitive use of clothing, this style was a far cry from how fashion has come to be defined today. Hence this paradigm can be argued to not have been one where fashion existed.
That is if viewed from how fashion was defined during the renaissance period in Europe. During this period the term fashion became a widely used word, depicting the idea of clothing as a form of fashion. High fashion began to take off when royalties begun setting trends within their kingdom to establish social class to showcase their individuality. Cities such as Paris became the fashion hub of Westerners. During these times new ideas about fashion designs and methods of tailoring were spreading.
Under this definition, the appraisal of fashion and appearance was hierarchical with the tailored and sewn style of clothing from the West at its pinnacle. While on the other hand, the dress of primitive or indigenous people, those that are hand-loomed clothe draped on the body, or garments made from unprocessed fibers and grasses, was considered less valued as it did not fit this definition of fashion.
However, today’s marketing strategies have changed the concept of indigenous fashion. Indigenous fashion products such as woven textiles, Aztec prints, organic dyeing methods, and precious jewelry, are now considered as high-value products as a result of the Sustainable Fashion and Textile movements.
We can derive that the definition of fashion (tailored and sewn) encompasses only the Western, capitalist and socially mobile. This may mean that traditional and non-capitalist societies that still exist today (those that do not meet the definition standards, and therefore do not fit the word fashion) do not take part in its realm. But this does not mean they do not have fashion - in a sense of having a predominant style - within their community. A more appropriate term to use for this case would be ‘clothing’ rather than ‘fashion’. Clothing is a general term that includes fashion in its paradigm and it is not limited to the Westernized idea of a predominant style. Read more about Clothing at Misguided Fashion: The Misconception In Clothing
Source: The Fashion Reader by Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun (eds) (Berg, 2007)
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