## Task 7 KBL/TL

Instructions

Do task 7.1.

#### Task 7.1

Read the text about clothes and do the exercise.

Urban Fashion

There was a time when urban fashion didn’t exist. Fashion was expensive designer outfits that only very rich people could buy: the catwalks in Paris, Vogue magazine and very uncomfortable shoes by Louboutin. And it was all about women. Even though the outfits were normally designed by men, there was very little interest in menswear. The outfits were very feminine, very expensive and impractical for anything other than sitting or walking in a straight line.

All of this has changed. Young people no longer dress like their parents. They wear comfortable, practical and affordable clothes which have probably been designed by somebody young: urban fashion has taken over the world. It began with the hippies of the 1960s who wanted to be different, so they designed other types of clothes and grew long hair. Next came the punks of the 1970s who went one step further with the shocking, scary outfits which offended ordinary people. Even today, if you go to London’s Camden Town at the weekend, there will be plenty of people with lots of tattoos, piercing and chains hanging out of their trousers. This punk-influenced style is all about looking different from everybody else – but exactly the same as your friends. In the 90s, high street shops like Gap quickly followed trends from the streets, and designers like Stella McCartney began to sell street-influenced clothes such as ripped t-shirts for huge amounts of money.

Music has always played a part in urban fashion. Nu-metal fans, for example, as well as wearing Marilyn Manson t-shirts, tend to look different from people who like chart music, and many of today’s pop stars get their ideas from people on the street rather than the other way round.

In California, surfers needed comfortable clothing to wear on the beach, and the surf look spread throughout America via companies such as Quiksilver, Stussy. O’Neill and similar companies who originally produced clothes for sports. But the boom in extreme sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding has influenced urban fashion. Baggy jeans are better if you are wearing inline skates, for example, and hoodies (large comfortable sweatshirts) are influenced by practical snowboarding outfits. Of course there are plenty of people happy to wear the latest sporty urban fashion who never do any sport at all, just as most people who wear trainers rarely go near a sport center.

#### Exercise 7.1

True or False?

Write your answer down in your notebook.

1. 'Urban fashion' bestaat al heel lang.
2. Vroeger was 'mode' alleen voor rijke en beroemde mensen.
3. De meeste modeontwerpers waren vroeger mannen.
4. Vanaf het ontstaan van 'mode', werden er kleren ontworpen voor mannen én vrouwen.
5. Echte 'mode' is comfortabel en betaalbaar.
6. 'Urban fashion' en muziek zijn met elkaar verbonden.
7. Mensen dragen kleding die bij hun muzieksmaak passen.
8. Sport wordt steeds populairder, daarom wordt er ook steeds meer kleding ontworpen die lekker zit.