Егэ fashion reading

1. Fashion is something we deal with every day. Even people, who say they don’t care what they wear, choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day. What influences our choice of clothes is an interesting question. I believe that most people do not follow the fashion displayed on the catwalk. Those clothes are a product of famous high-class designers’ work, which is often very extravagant and extremely expensive. It is also not designed to be worn every day, but it is suitable for some special occasions.

1. We definitely borrow some ideas about fashion from music clips, videos, books and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear. For example it is known that more sunglasses were sold in America after the movie “Men In Black” came out. Sometimes a trend becomes global. Back in the 50’s teenagers everywhere dressed like Elvis Presley. Musicians and other cultural icons, as well as political and royal figures, have always influenced what we are wearing. Newspapers and magazines reported on what Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama were wearing when they were First Ladies. Princess Diana’s death was a severe blow to the high fashion world, where her clothes were daily news.

1. Depending on their attitude towards clothes and fashion, people can be divided to three groups: 1) fashion slaves, spending all their money on the latest clothes even if they don’t look good in them; 2) fashion fans, who enjoy wearing modern clothes but are not obsessed by them, and 3)people who just don’t care how they look. Personally I place myself between fashion fans and people who don’t care how they look. Although I enjoy shopping very much and like to try things on, especially when I look good in them, I don’t spend much time choosing and buying clothes. And of course I do it only when I really need something new to wear, and not in order to kill time.

1. My style and the range of clothes that I have are defined by the activities I engage in. Work occupies most of my time and therefore most of the clothes that I have correspond with the dress code, registered in the policy of our company. According to the dress code, an employee is not allowed to wear certain items of clothing to work. For example, men are supposed to wear ties and business suits, and nobody is allowed to wear jeans, except on Fridays. Women’s clothes are not supposed to be skintight, too short or too open. All of the shirts are supposed to have collars. Clothes also can’t be too bright, the colors should correspond to the corporate colors – dark blue and white.

1. Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercings as a freak and outsider. But to another person, the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group, the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in. Fashion is a language which tells a story about the person who wears it. “Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand,” according to Katherine Hamnett, a top British fashion designer.

1. Your clothes reflect your social status. It goes without saying that if you are a businesswoman you should be dressed appropriately. To put it in another way, if a person is a head of a company, it is preferable for him to wear well-branded clothes. Psychologically, people spend so much time on fashion and buying clothes to forget about different life problems. That is to say, shopping for clothes can be good therapy when life is troubling. However, it is not worth a sacrifice if you are a shopaholic and buy everything you see. The feeling of style and good taste are surely important, as well.

Choose the best variant for each paragraph.

A. If you can’t help buying everything you see, don’t forget about style and good taste.

B. Everybody deals with fashion every morning when they choose what to wear.

C. The company where a person works defines their style of clothes.

D. Mass media, movies and celebrities have always influenced what the public wears.

E. Your style can tell a lot about you and your attitude toward the society.

F. If you are a head of a company you shouldn’t wear jeans, even on Fridays.

G. I am neither a fashion fan, nor a person who doesn’t care how he looks

Transform the word in capital to complete each sentence.

Teach/learn this language:

1. Fashion victims
2. Family limitations
3. Teens are not to be blamed
4. Ridiculous looks
5. Victims of commercialism
6. Parental Influence
7. Impossible to avoid
8. Teens lack sense of style

A) It is absolutely sickening to see girls with extremely revealing tops, those funny ‘messy buns’ and worst of all, almost see-through gym-legging things, especially when they are not slim enough as some girls in my class. And the boys too, with their nonsense hairstyles, and what are those tight turned up denim shorts supposed to be about? Unlike my brainwashed peers, I don’t care about fitting in. I wish I didn’t care about what other people wore but when it gets to the extent that it makes you feel sick, especially the girls, you simply can’t help it.

B) If you look around at teenagers in today’s society, you will notice that they are all wearing the same trends, the same logos, and same designers. They are truly fashion victims and it is sad that no one is able to think for themselves anymore. If they got in a no name shop where there are no familiar labels or set outfits, what would they do? They won’t be able to make a proper stylish outfit. All they are able to do is to copy looks from fashion magazines.

C) I would hope that those who say children are fashion victims, do not buy any branded clothes at all. They go to a special shop (which I personally never heard of) where they buy plain clothes — without any pictures, any logos, any patterns or style. My family goes shopping to the nearest shopping centre where we normally choose between Top Shop, Zara and H&M where we get a standard set of clothes (t-shirts, jeans, dresses). Everything is just so modernized that wherever you shop, you look pretty the same.

D) Now lots of children and teenagers are into fashion but they didn’t start it. This is our new generation. All the teenagers want is to be liked by other people, by their peers mostly. And if in order to get this they have to wear certain logos or to follow certain fashion styles, they will do it. Today social groups assess new members according to the way they are dressed, and then make a decision if they accept newcomers. So if anyone wants to fit in, basically they have no choice.

E) Teenage fashion never comes out of the blue. Of course they have trendsetters among pop stars like Selena Gomez, but if we take a particular individual there is always a story behind. Take a little girl whose mother has enough money and time to make her look like a princess or a Barby girl or whatever she thinks is suitable. The girl follows her mother’s advice and years later we see a young person with set fashion traditions which are quite difficult to change, no matter how ridiculous or outdated it looks.

F) Teenagers aren’t fashion victims. I guess they don’t even care about styles. Instead, they are moved by commercials, what Hollywood stars wear and by mass media incursions into their consciousness. Teenagers have parents with money, so whatever the kids want, they have it straight away. And that is what commercials are geared toward. When the next hottest trainers, designed by a pop star, come out, teens will line up to get them. Not because they are super stylish, but because they saw them on TV.

G) Parental intervention stops us from becoming fashion victims or just freaks. Though many of us like to imitate the fashions adopted by our favourite stars, we are not allowed to do so. Parents always draw a line and persuade us as to why we should not wear such revealing clothes, zing bang jewelry and so on. At least they try to explain and point out that our family background and traditions always matter. If they don’t, parents can always stop the money flow.

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