Culture Shocks In Fashion: What Travel Teaches Us About Style

With the end of summer being on the horizon, and it almost being the time to bring back layering and plan our Halloween costumes without judgement (yay!), we start to feel the nostalgia towards the fleeting summer creep in. Around this time every year, we kind of become sentient again (after the blurry sun-induced haze) as we realise that the summer is finite. We gain perspective over the summer we’ve had, and begin reflecting on the new memories made whilst trying to keep a tight enough grip on the last little bits of sunshine.

We tend to learn a lot over the summer (this is something I have been reflecting on) – how much water we need to drink in hot weather, and how long you can last in the sun before needing to reapply suncream (for example) – and if you were lucky enough to go on a summer holiday, you probably spent a portion of your time away learning about the cultures and customs of your destination. You learn what time they eat dinner, what they eat for dinner, their walking pace, and you ingest it all in bite-sized chunks before you return home.

This might be my favourite part about travelling, the lessons that come from those little moments of culture shock that keep you humble in remembering that this is a new place. You learn all their quirks, their version of normal, and it feels like you’re experiencing a massive shock to the system - one which takes place when the things that you expected, aren’t right. It’s confusing, and at times a little unnerving, but mostly, it’s really exciting. It kind of causes you to reset, and question. It humbles you, makes you confront that this place is different from what you’re used to, and that you need to adjust to fit in. It gets you out of your comfort zone, in a harmless way, that is actually pretty good for us.

Fashion As Part Of Culture

Beyond the customs and habits of a new place, we can experience culture shocks when it comes to fashion too. You know that moment when you’re walking down the street in a foreign city, and you see someone wearing something completely different to anything you’ve ever seen before. Maybe it’s a completely new style of top, or a novel outfit combination, or they’re wearing something familiar in a unique way. You’re struck with a moment of silent appreciation, and whilst the outfit is logging itself into your mental note of fit inspo, you start to realise that this is what all the locals are wearing. You feel like a genius for second – noticing a pattern/trend that was definitely discovered by only you, and then you have an out-of-body-experience that immediately humbles you as you realise – you look so much like a tourist and you either want to hide or go home.

But beyond the embarrassment of outing yourself as a tourist, being able to expose yourself to a fashion culture that is different from your own, in that you break-away from your standard of normal and see the wider world of fashion, is kind of one of the main points of travelling (maybe not always within the specific doctrine of fashion- but that’s what we’re here for). You go away to see things that you can’t get at home, and experience a new culture, which you can’t do without noticing the clothing of locals. You get to fully immerse yourself in that place, once you start to appreciate the local’s clothing as a part of their identity.

It’s important to not base your understanding of what people wear in a certain place based on stereotypes - a lot of the time, going in with the idea that you know what the locals wear will only leave you feeling more confused when you experience it for yourself. For example, when you go to Paris, you know that the stereotypical beret and striped shirt outfit is wrong, but sometimes we accidentally buy into the stereotype of the polished, neutral outfits that you’ve seen on Pinterest, which is also not wholly true. That’s every bit as much of a stereotype as the first one (even if it’s slightly more accurate, admittedly). The best way to immerse yourself in the culture is to embrace the shock of it. Don’t expect anything, don’t assume that you know a place, or its people before you’ve been. The surprise will allow for a more memorable experience, and will enrich your holiday!

A Universal Fashion

Of course, while we’re talking about culture shocks in fashion, and the things that differentiate different places, it’s important to recognise that there are some universals in fashion. Although it’s good that we have things that are specific to where we live, in terms of fashion, that not only add to the culture of that place and help us to formulate our identity, it’s also a good thing that there are some things that translate between culture and cultivate a feeling of unity on a universal scale. It’s hard to come up with specific examples that are universal, but things like using our hair as a form of expression, or wearing jewellery  are practices in fashion that exist everywhere. And though it’s nice to have moments of culture shock in fashion that help us to understand a new place and appreciate it for its unique fashion, universals can make us feel home in a foreign place, and help us to relate to people who we’ve never met. That’s the beauty of fashion, even though it can drive us apart, there will always be ways to bring us back together.