Fashion defines the mutations of taste in a given cultural environment. The term has particular reference to prevailing conventions in matters of dress and deportment, but it is broad enough to include also changing modes in literature and the arts, in moral and social attitudes, and even in religion, science, and the market for stocks and bonds.

This article discusses fashion in the general sense; that is, as the prevailing custom or vogue in various areas of human behavior and endeavor. For a discussion of fashions in clothing, see the articles Clothing and Dress; see also such articles as Hairdressing, Interior Design, and Jewelry.

The process through which fashions are established and changed, their causes, motivation, and modality, are extremely complex, and they tend to become even more intricate as fashion becomes more and more the subject of professional manipulation. But while advertising and sales promotion may work...