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Fashion takes its influence from many different areas; Museums, costumes collections, libraries, people, places, smells, sounds, colours, the past, crafts, art work, parties, food, industrial aspects, other designers, the theatre, interior design, social events, magazines, fashion forecasts markets, books, Pret-a-Porter and Haute Couture shows.

There are also many more places where fashion takes it's influence from but there are just too many to name as everybody sees inspiration in different things. The trickle down effect shows how fashion is taken from one influence and then made into a mass market production by changing factors such as the material, seams and most importantly, the price.

Designers such as Vivienne Westwood look to the past for their inspirations an then they parade their collections along the catwalks, other fashion companies will then watch the show and note down the key trends which they think will be set to hit the stores the following seasons. They will then work out how to make the garments cheaper and how to put them into production.

A shop like Primark would look at High Street trends in shops such as Topshop and Burton and then create their own remake to sell in their store at a much cheaper price. In the long run, more of the cheaper garments will sell as opposed to the dearer ones but the quality will more than likely be of a much lower standard.

When I look for inspiration for my own personal projects, I get inspired by other designers and things such as music, countries, colours and clothes which the general public are wearing in the streets.

If you look at different subcultures, such as the Harajuku' scene or the Trendies', there are clear dividers in what certain factors influenced the individuals. Trendies' get inspiration from the High Street fashions and catwalks where the Harajuku' scene gets its inspiration from Superlover stores and the Tokyo fashion scene.

There isn't just once deciding factor that you can pinpoint to say where fashion gets it's influence from as each individual has a different way of viewing and drawing inspiration from things in every day life.

The past is probably the best place for fashion to take influence from because, without the past, we wouldn't have the future fashions. If we didn't have such great past designers such as Else Schiaparelli, we wouldn't know the best way to make garments fit nicely by cutting on the bias. Or what about Christian Dior who brought a whole new meaning to woman's fashion

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