1790S both in London and Paris.

The word dandy (of unknown origin) was a vogue word during the Napoleonic Wars.

(It did make an early appearance in a Scottish border ballad about 1780, but probably not

with its usual meaning.) The very model of the dandy in British society was George Bryan

"Beau" Brummell (1778-1840), an associate of the Prince Regent: unpowdered,

unperfumed, immaculately bathed and shaved, in a plain dark blue coat, perfectly brushed,

of perfect fit, showing a lot of perfectly starched linens, perfectly freshly laundered, he was

an early celebrity from the mid-1790s, famous chiefly for being a laconic wit and a clothes-

horse. Brummell inherited a fortune of thirty thousand pounds, which he spent mostly on

costume and high living, until he suffered the typical fate of the dandy, and fled from his

creditors to France, and ultimately died in a lunatic asylum.

During his heyday, though, Brummell's dicta on fashion and etiquette reigned supreme.

Bru mmell's habits of dress and fashion were much imitated, especially in France where, in

an unusual mixture, they became especially the rage in bohemian quarters. People of more

notable accomplishments than Brummell adopted the pose as well; George Gordon Byron,

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6th Baron Byron occasionally dressed the part of the fop, and helped reintroduce the frilly,

lace-cuffed and collared "poet shirt," and had his portrait painted in Albanian costume.

A great dandy in the 1840s was Alfred Guillaume Gabriel d'Orsay, the Count d'Orsay,

who had been a friend of Byron and moved in the highest London circles. The great dandy

of literature is the Scarlet Pimpernel, a fiction of 1905 set during the French Revolution.

In France the practice was known by the English word, as dandyisme. The dandy was

self-created. The poet Charles Baudelaire wrote that an aspiring dandy must have "no

profession other than elegance. . . no other status but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in

their own persons. . . . The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must

live and sleep before a mirror." Jules Amйdйe Barbey d'A urevilly wrote an essay on The

Anatomy of Dandyism, which was devoted in large measure to examining the career of Beau

Bru mmell. By their elaborate care as to their costume, French bohemian dandies, like their

less well dressed bohemian brethren, sought to convey their contempt for and superiority to

bourgeois society by their dress and way of life. It is little wonder that the French dandies

acquired a reputation for decadence. Their fancy-dress bohemianism became a major

Influence on the Symbolist movement in French literature during the latter part of the

nineteenth century.

The dandy cultivated a skeptical reserve, to such extremes that the novelist George

Meredith, no dandy himself, was of the opinion that "Cynicism is intellectual dandyism."

The female equivalents of dandies must be looked for in the demi-monde. An

extravagant courtesan like Cora Pearl might be considered a female dandy.

The 1890s provided many suitably sheltered settings for dandyism: the poets Algernon

Swinburne and Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, the American artist James McNeill Whistler,

Joris-Karl Huysmans, Max Beerbohm, Robert de Montesquieu, the dandy who inspired

Marcel Proust's Baron de Charlus. In Italy Gabriele d'Annunzio and Carlo Bugatti

exemplified the artistic bohemian dandyism at the turn of the 20th century. The 20th century

has had less patience with dandyism: the Prince of Wales, briefly Edward VIII was

something of a dandy, and it did not help his public appeal.

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Text 5. Dreadl ocks

Dreadl ocks are long thin mats of hair that has been allowed to grow out over time.

Sometimes if normal hair is left for a long period of time, dreadlocks happen by themselves;

sometimes people start them off artificially by dividing their hair up into sections,

backcombing or plaiting the sections, and leaving them. After a while, tangles will start to

form as the hair starts to bind to its new shape.

The term was first recorded in 1960, so called from the dread they presumably aroused

in beholders, but, for Rastafarians, "dread" (1974) also has a sense of "fear of the Lord,"

expressed in part as alienation from contemporary society. However, the style is not new:

ancient Celts sometimes sported dreadlocks, which they moulded with mud.

There are several methods for keeping dreadlocks neat. As they grow, little wisps of

short hair will appear around them. If you leave them, eventually the dreadlocks will settle

down and form their own natural way of sitting — Black people's hair usually does this, but

Caucasians might like to wax their hair, sew the wispy bits in, or wrap thread or wool round

their dreadlocks, sealing the short hair in. A crochet hook can be a very useful tool in the

creation and tidying up of dreadlocks. Simply twist tufts of hair between your fingers then

hook and pull them through the dreadlock. This technique can also be used at the ends of

dreadlocks to make them more rounded.

As they grow they can be "ripped". Two (or more) dreadlocks fuse at the top as the hair

grows and mats together. They need to be pulled apart (a painful experience) for the

dreadlocks to continue growing separately (although this is down to the individual). Mud

and certain chemicals are sometimes applied to shape the dreadlocks.

There are many reasons for wearing dreadlocks. For some it is a religious issue (such as

the Rastafarians), for others a fashionable thing, for a few they just happen. They are

considered a badge of an "alternative lifestyle" in Europe and America because they are

often perceived as messy and dirty. The "dreadlock" sometimes referred to in certain areas

as "locking", which basically means "not combing or allowing the hair to mat together", has

become increasingly popular. Many African Americans are trading in chemical processes

and other styles for this very low maintenance hairstlye.

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Text 6. Fashion

A fashion consists of a current (constantly changing) trend, favoured for frivolous

rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons.

Fashions are social psychology phenomena common to many fields of human activity

and thinking.

Although that concept frequently applies to clothes and other aspects of appearance, it

can apply also to:

• music, art, politics, philosophy,

• and even to mathematics, the choice of programming techniques,

• and also economic trends, such as those studied in behavioral finance,

and so on.

Fashion exists in the interstices of aesthetics with innovation, coupled with pleasing

details and expense.

Fashion in clothes has allowed wearers to express emotion or solidarity with other

people for millennia. Modern Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of

their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect their personality or likes. When

people who have cultural status start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may

start; people who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar style.

Fashions may vary significantly within a society according to age, social class,

generation, occupation and geography as well as over time. If, for example, an older person

dresses according to the fashion of young people, he or she may look ridiculous in the eyes

of both young and older people. The term "fashion victim" refers to someone who slavishly

follows the current fashions (implementations of fashion).

One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion language

incorporating various fashion statements using a grammar of fashion.

Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. The change may proceed more rapidly than

in most other fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). For some, modern fast-paced

change in fashion embodies many of the negative aspects of capitalism: it results in waste

and encourages people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. Others, especially young

people, enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant

change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience "new" and "interesting" things. Note

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too though that fashion can change to enforce uniformity, as in the case where so-called

Mao suits became the national uniform of Mainland China.

Materially affluent societies can offer a variety of different fashions, in clothes or

accessories, to choose from. At the same time there remains an equal or larger range

designated (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. (These or similar fashions may cyclically

come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.)

Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some

time. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an

impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth

centuries, for example, might favour things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another,

and things Japanese at a third. The global village has reduced the options of exotic novelty

in more recent times.

Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status

consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and

directions of fashion change. Fashion can also suggest or signal status in a social group.

Groups with high cultural status like to keep 'in fashion' to display their position; people

who do not keep 'in fashion' within a so-called "style tribe" can risk shunning. Because

keeping 'in fashion' often requires considerable amounts of money, fashion can be used to

show off wealth. Adherence to fashion trends can thus form an index of social affluence and

an indicator of social mobility.

Fashion can help attract a partner. As well as showing certain features of a person's

personality that appeal to prospective mates, keeping up with fashion can advertise a

person's status to such candidates.

"Fashion sense" consists of the ability to tell what clothing and/or accessories look

good and what doesn't. Since the entire notion of fashion depends on subjectivity, so does

the question of who possesses "fashion sense". Some people style themselves as "fashion

consultants" and charge clients to help the latter choose what to wear. Designers show the

public what is new and in style by using people who do Fashion Modeling to display the

clothing. Image consultants help people revamp or create fashion sense.

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Text 7. Headgear

Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing

which is worn on one's head. Common forms of headgear include hats, caps, bonnets,

hoods, headscarves and helmets. Headgear can have great symbolic significance: in a

monarchy, for example, royalty often have special crowns. Hair accessories and

replacements, such as wigs, may also be included in the category of headgear.

Headgear can serve a variety of purposes:

• protection (against impact, cold, rain and other precipitation, heat, glare, sun burn,

dust, infection, chemicals, noise, insects, etc)

• to keep hair contained or tidy

• decoration or fashion

• religious purposes

• modesty; social convention

• hiding baldness

• distinction; a badge of office

Types of headgear:

Hats

Hats often have a brim all the way around the rim, and may be either placed on the

head, or secured with hat-pins (which are pushed through the hat and the hair). Depending

on the type of hat, they may be worn only by men, women or by either sex.

Caps

Caps are generally soft, and often have no brim, or just a peak (like on a baseball cap).

For many centuries women wore a variety of head-coverings which were called caps. In the

18th and 19th centuries for examp le a cap was a kind of head covering made of a flimsy

fabric such as muslin; they were worn indoors or under bonnets by married wo men, or older

unmarried wo men who were "on the shelf" (e.g. mob-cap).

Bonnets

Bonnets, as worn by women, were generally brimless hats worn outdoors which were

secured by tying under the chin, and which covered no part of the forehead. Some styles of

bonnets had a large peak which effectively prevented women from looking right or left

without turning their heads. Bonnets worn by men and boys are generally distinguished

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from hats by being soft and having no brim - this usage is now rare (they would normally be

called caps today).

Helmets

Helmets are designed to protect the head, and sometimes the neck, from injury. They

are usually rigid, and offer protection from blows. Helmets are commonly worn in battle, on

construction sites and in many contact sports.

Turbans

Turbans are primarily worn for two reasons. Firstly due to religious or cultural beliefs

and secondly for protection from the elements, especially sun. So you will for examp le find

that the Sikhs are required to wear a turban as a religious necessity while Arabs in the

Middle-East wear it for protection and cultural reasons.

Hoods

Hoods today are generally soft headcoverings which form part of a larger garment like

an overcoat, shirt or cloak. Historically, hoods were either similar to modern hoods, often

forming part of a cloak or cape, or a separate form of headgear. Soft hoods were worn by

men under hats. Women's hoods varied from close-fitting, soft headgear to stiffened,

structured hoods (e.g. gable hood) or very large coverings made of material over a frame

which fashionable women wore over towering wigs or hairstyles to protect them fro m the

elements (e.g. calash).

Masks

A mask is worn over part or all of the face, frequently to disguise the wearer, but

sometimes to protect them. Masks are often worn as disguises at fancy dress parties, a

masqued balls or at Hallowe'en, or they may be worn by criminals to prevent people

recognising them as they commit a crime. Masks which physically protect the wearer vary

from bars across the face in the case of ice hockey goalkeepers, to devices which purify or

control the wearer's air supply, as in gas masks.

Wigs

Wigs are synthetic hair which may be worn to disguise baldness or as part of a

costume. In most Commonwealth nations, special wigs are also worn by barristers, judges,

and certain parliamentary officials as a symbol of the office.

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Veils

Today a veil is normally a piece of fabric which covers all or part of the face. For

centuries up until the Tudor period (1485), women wore veils which covered the hair, and

sometimes the neck and chin, but not the face.

Protecti ve hats

The most common use of a hat is as protection for the head and eyes. A baseball cap is

used by sports players to keep the sun out of their eyes, and by some chefs to keep the hair

out of their food. Traditionally, silk chef's hats are used for this purpose. A rain hat has a

wide rim to keep the rain out of the wearer's face. Some traditional types of hat such as the

Mexican sombrero also serve this purpose.

A "chиche" or "tagelmoust" turban, worn by men and women in Saharan Africa as

protection against wind and sand.

There are also the full range of helmets. There are also hats that are worn for protection

from the cold. These include many varieties of fur hats, and also the Canadian tuque.

Tin foil hats are worn by some to protect against mind control rays, although the

existence of any such threat has yet to be substantiated.

Fashionable hats

Hats are also an article of fashion; the formal man's black silk top hat was formerly an