When talking about fashion and lifestyle, we must remember that fashion is what reflects the tastes and preferences of people at a given time, their values, attitudes and predominant opinions in relation to existing products on the market, considering that this not only includes clothes or clothing, but any product or service whose consumption is massive related to travel, beauty items, decoration, automobiles, music, among others. Now, if we analyze fashion from the point of view of clothing and/or outfits that are massively used by different social groups in different cultures and/or countries, we must consider that it has a sociocultural dimension and an economic dimension, since the economic profits and business success of a given brand depends largely on social groups, their lifestyles and culture, which in turn influence their tastes and preferences when it comes to clothing. In this context, we should also point out that the terms fashion and style are often confused; but fashion is present when a product becomes popular and is consumed in a certain place and period of time, while style is represented by the characteristics that distinguish a particular product and differentiate it from others. On the other hand, within the same style there may be several designs. This is how fashion becomes present when a certain style becomes very popular and is massively followed by social groups, in a life cycle, which can be predictable over time, going through the following stages: introduction , growth, maturity and decline, knowledge of which is basic for companies dedicated to marketing to design their marketing strategies. Therefore, for fashion companies to be able to design their strategies effectively, they must clearly understand the attitudes and behaviors of potential consumers of their products, in addition to the performance of their brands, due to the fact that the monitoring of preferences The acceptance and sales of the products depend on these, on their purchasing habits according to their lifestyles, which is why they devote much attention to the analysis of these factors within the marketing process. Therefore, fashion specialists are based on market research to determine the areas that produce greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, in order to draw their strategies to impose trends based on the preferences of potential consumers of certain products. according to their lifestyles. Consequently, fashion has become a reflection and aesthetic expression of different societies, and through it it is possible to have access to relevant information on people, their tastes, lifestyles, preferences, attitudes and behaviors, largely conditioned by the values and social attitudes prevailing in the place and time analyzed, observing that people can often be influenced by their admiration for personalities such as artists, athletes, politicians, youtubers, etc., but today individuals have become more independent and self-employed, which means that more and more of their own fashion prevails. This is explained because fashion is an identity communicator, according to which people identify with a certain lifestyle, their clothing will clearly and characteristically reflect their way of thinking, which is in turn conditioned by socio-cultural factors such as religion, educational level, social position, among others. Proof of this is the fact that the movements for or against consumerism present at different times, have found in clothing and personal grooming, fundamental forms of expression to understand the evolution of fashion and its influence on the different societies. This is how, during the 20th century, the world of fashion had a significant boom due to the fact that women achieved social, political and economic freedoms, which required them to change their lifestyle and their clothing habits, requiring the acquisition of a greater variety of clothes, hairstyles and more comfortable accessories, consistent with the various activities carried out, and housewife clothes no longer fit their basic needs. It is evident then, that fashion is determined by changes in the lifestyle of society, which also depends on the historical periods of a certain place, its climate and geographical characteristics, marking the new prevailing trends, such as the greater care of the body and appearance in the 70’s and 80’s, which generated new needs in social groups, which were reflected in clothing. We can give some examples of different trends that marked times around the world, such as: the fashion of the wide skirt and the fitted jacket that accentuated the waist in the 40s; of the comfortable and moving pants in the 50s, the miniskirt that prevailed in the 60s, the imposition of the aesthetic characterized by stylized clothes that softened the designs in the 70s, or the trend shoulder pads and tube skirts in the 1980s. It is important to point out what was expressed by Piñuel Raigada (1992) who stated that «from a sociological point of view, the non-acceptance of the innovations proposed by fashion is considered a sign of marginalization, while participation in them is rewarded with social recognition”. In this way, this author considers social distinction as a factor that has set the pattern to follow in the process of creation and development of fashions over time. This is how the imitation of the styles used by influential and famous personalities that have determined the following of any fashion arises. Based on this perspective, fashion would develop from the top of social status downwards, circulating between the same social group horizontally or transversally between unrelated groups. Today, however, this form of fashion fluidity has been reversed, due to the decline in imitation by classes aspiring to look like others, with fashions beginning to flow from the bottom up. From this perspective, it is generally explained that there are three theories that try to explain how a fashion spreads and imposes. The first is the trickle-down theory, according to which fashion flows from top to bottom. For example, in ancient times the monarchs or kings, as the only power that decided everything in an empire or kingdom, imposed the fashion that was later imitated by the nobles and the wealthy classes, while the lower classes were excluded. Subsequently, the theory of navigation is presented, which began to develop with the socio-economic progress of the 20th century, producing a decrease in the imitation of costumes, imposing functionality on garments in order to represent the role of everyone in society, causing fashion to expand horizontally in each social group and between groups not linked to each other. Finally, the bottom-up fashion fluidity trend is presented, which represents the theory of change, which explains how certain styles, such as the use of jeans, sneakers or safari clothes, went from being garments used by a minority group or lower classes to be used by all social strata with greater purchasing power, becoming mass consumption clothing. Hence, it is considered that almost any creative and innovative individual can create and impose fashion if it adapts or takes into account the prevailing lifestyles in a given place and time. On the other hand, from the sociological point of view, it is argued that fashion is a process of communication of individuals, through which they express their tastes and preferences according to their lifestyle that determines their particular fashion, constituting their shape. of non-verbal communication that expresses their identity and belonging to society.
We can affirm then, that the lifestyle is decisive in the process of imposing a fashion, but in many cases the use of certain clothing can be the reason for a desire to belong to a certain social group, becoming an act of imitation, where the attitude of following the leader to obtain social status is assumed, however, whatever the reason for wearing a garment, this contributes to the expansion of a certain fashion. Hence, it is stated that fashion provides people with status and gives them security within a process of adaptation in the environment in which it operates. Consequently, when it comes to ensuring that designers or fashion houses impose fashions, it must be made clear that they are only one element within the set of factors that determine it and, although their creations can create trends that many people follow, this will depend to a greater degree from other factors such as social changes, lifestyles, changes in attitudes, tastes and preferences, changes in the environment or major world events (wars or economic recession) or technological development, historical time, country or culture of the social group that is involved in that change.