你穿着最时髦的衣服，刚刚看完一场最走红的电影，嘴里哼着最流行的音乐，在拿出款式最新颖的手机打了通电话后，在路边的书报亭买了本最近一期的《时尚》……等等！你真的明白时尚是怎么一回事吗？

Fashion is everywhere

Open up most fashion magazines and you will see incredibly thin models with impossible hair and embellished beauty wearing unreasonably expensive, impracticably styled clothes.（注1） Who creates these outfits, and why do so many people think they should aspire to dress this way? Shouldn't clothes be comfortably sturdy and make a principle of being simple for the individual who wears them?（注2） Why are we constantly told that we need to buy new clothes and add fresh pieces to our wardrobes（注3）?

Fashions change year after year so lots of people can make piles of money. If folks are convinced that they need a different look each season, that this year's sweater's length and shoes style are important, they can be persuaded to buy buy buy. The fashion industry would have you ignore your shortcomings and just make you feel beautiful and happy. In fact it is not only a phenomenon we can find in people's dressing.（注4）

So you like fashion ... you wear fashion ... you read fashion ... you watch fashion ... you listen to fashion ... you even EAT fashion! ... but what do you really know about it?

Try to answer the following questions before you claim that you are an expert infashion.
　　1. Why do many women wear red lipstick?
　　2. Why do many men have short hair or shaved heads?
　　3. What are the four fashion capitals of the world?
　　4. Why do models walk up and down in a fashion show?

Fashion controls us

Fashion controls our lives. Fashion controls what we wear, what we eat, what we drink, the way we cut our hair, the makeup we buy and use, the colour of the cars　we drive. Fashion even controls our ideas.

You don't believe me? How many of your friends are vegetarians（注5）?Why are they vegetarians? Because it is fashionable!

Where does fashion come from?

Often the reasons are quite logical. Scientists and historians study the fashions of the past and discover the secrets of each fashion.

When girls see an attractive guy, their blood pressure rises and their lips become redder. That's why guys think that girls wearing lipstick are beautiful.

Why do guys shave their heads? In the past soldiers shaved their heads to kill the insects that lived in their hair.（注6） Now guys shave their heads so that they look strong and masculine（注7）, like soldiers.

Are we victims of fashion?

People spend a lot of time and money on fashion. But are they wasting their money? Changes in fashion help to develop new technologies. Changes in style create work for people all over the world. Fashion is good for the economy. Fashion makes the world go round. Many people work in the fashion industry, particularly in the fashion capitals of London, New York, Paris and Milan.

And finally, fashion makes you feel good, doesn't it? When you are dressed in the latest style, dancing to the most fashionable music, after watching the latest hit film, you feel great, don't you? Perhaps you even feel like a model walking up and down the catwalk!（注8）

1． 翻开大多数时尚杂志，你总能看到瘦得离奇的模特梳着令人难以置信的发型，带着经过修饰的美貌展示着昂贵得令人咋舌、设计得极不实用的服装。

2． 难道衣服不应该是舒服而耐穿的？服装设计的原则不应是简洁而易于穿着吗？

3． 往衣橱里添新衣服。

4． 事实上这种现象并非仅仅出现在人们的着装上面。

5． vegetarian：素食者。

6． 过去士兵们剃头发是为了杀死他们头发里的虫子。

7． masculine/#m*skj%lin/：有男子气概的。

8． 没准儿你甚至会感觉自己像是个在T型舞台上走来走去的的模特呢！catwalk：时装表演时供模特走动展示服饰的T型台。