Fashion and Society Reading Answers

The fashion and society reading answers are provided in the table below. Before evaluating your performance, review your answers.

14. adornments	15. 14th century	16. loose robes	17. Rapidly changing styles
18. tailored and fitted/tailored, fitted clothing	19. Discarding unfashionable clothing	20. C	21. G
22. J	23. D	24. tattoos	25. cloth
26. hippies

IELTS reading is one of the harder modules, so you'll have to work a lot into your training if you want to do well. You have a 60-minute deadline with 20 minutes for each portion, so you must strategically manage your time or create a strategy to complete the exam swiftly. To make it easier for you to identify and correct your errors, we have included Fashion and society reading answers with locations.

The fashion and society reading answers describe the ancient fashion trends. It gives the description about the clothes earlier and how the society reacted towards these trends. In this article, you can practise solving three IELTS Reading question types, that are, Table completion, Matching sentence endings and short answer questions.

• IELTS Reading Table Completion
• IELTS Reading Matching Sentence Endings
• IELTS Reading Short Question Answers

Check Out our YouTube Channel to Practice Full-Length IELTS Reading Tests Daily

Thoughts on “Fashion and Society”

Refer to the following points regarding Fashion and society IELTS reading answers, before you attempt the passage.

• Fashion and society reading answers with locations is provided below to assist you in situating the right answers.
• This reading passage gives an insight on the fashion styles of ancient civilization. How evolved and what were the community’s reactions.
• Fashion and society reading answers with explanations will help you in recognising and rectifying your mistakes.
• This passage and practice test which includes three distinctive question types will help you in improving your vocabulary, grammar, as well as reading abilities.
• Carefully read the question head before solving them and ensure that you do not exceed the words or numbers limit.
• While reading, highlight the keywords, names, years, centuries and so on, to minimise your  time usage while solving the questions.
• In table completion, the questions will be in chronological order and they will follow the order they are present in the passage as.
• This article also includes Fashion and society reading pdf for practice in future.

Please refer to the IELTS reading tips before attempting Fashion and society IELTS reading answers.

IELTS reading passage - Fashion and society

Out of the total 60 minutes, 20 minutes should be dedicated to this passage. It includes Questions 1-13, read the passage properly before solving the questions. You are given Fashion and society IELTS reading answers, measure your performance using it.

Fashion and Society : A Historical Perspective

1. Every society "dresses" the human body, and the wardrobe plays significant and aesthetic roles everywhere. The colour scheme of clothes often has a special meaning. For instance, a white wedding dress represents purity, while a black wardrobe symbolises mourning for a deceased relative. Uniforms represent affiliation with a specific profession. Purple, the colour associated with monarchies for centuries, was forbidden for everyone else to wear. Of course, clothing has always been used to emphasise an individual's elegance, even if various societies have varied conceptions of beauty. For instance, Flemish artists in the 16th century in Europe praised ladies with long faces, bulging tummies, and bony shoulders, while women plucked or clipped their hairlines to achieve the trendy egg-domed forehead. The fashion industry nowadays views these features as very repulsive.
2. It seems that adornments such as body painting, jewellery, scarifications (scarring), tattoos, masks, and often restrictive neck and waist bands were the first types of human "clothing." The body was altered in several of these ways, including deformation and reformation. Men's and children's bodies were also changed, not only women's, since there appears to be a general human urge to exceed the restrictions of the body and alter it into something it is not by nature.
3. Dress in general appears to perform a range of social purposes. This pertains to both modern and historical clothes. Fashion, whose main attribute is a quick and continuous change of trends, is what has been added to clothing as we recognise it in the west. In the 14th century, as European cities developed, fashion began to emerge. Earlier, both genders wore loose robes, and the fashions were basic and consistent. Clothes differentiated the affluent from the poor and the monarchs from the ruled, with the exception that working class people wore mostly woollen and no silk, coarser fabrics, and far fewer ornaments than their superiors.
4. Furthermore, as world trade expanded, cities grew, and royal and noble courts became more sophisticated by the 14th century, rapidly changing styles began to appear in western Europe. These were connected to improvements in tailored and fitted clothes; once garments were fitted, there was virtually no limit to the number of unique ways they could be styled. By the 15th and 16th centuries, it began to be viewed as shameful to dress out of fashion. Consequently, people who could afford to do so started getting rid of outdated stuff since it was simply out of style. In mediaeval times, cloth, which was very costly, actually represented and symbolised wealth.
5. Every kind of clothing in mainstream western countries has been influenced by fashion, which dictates how individuals should dress. Even workplace dress codes have shifted from formal, business attire to a more relaxed, smart casual look. Even the less privileged love haute couture; they wear less expensive replicas of the top designs and top brands. Uniforms have even been produced by a few of the top fashion brands.
6. Even some unfashionable clothing is a reaction to current fashion trends. Being unfashionable is a revolt against the societal principles of the fashionable, not a choice to disregard fashion. The hippies of the 1960s established a distinctive look using a variety of secondhand clothing, handmade crafts, and army surplus items as a method of rebellion against the squandering of the consumerist society. They objected to the wastefulness of wealth as well as the way mass manufacturing neglected individuality.
7. When viewed historically, fashion trends show a crazed relativism. At one point, beige cashmere and grey suits were the fashionable clothing of the affluent, with gold garments adorned with pearls. In one era, males parade with beautifully curled hair, stiletto heels, and rouge; in another, doing so invites physical assault and social exclusion. In some ways, it is innately paradoxical that the beginning of a new trend is the rejection of the old and sometimes an enthusiastic adoption of what was once deemed hideous. A prime example is the outrageous fashion statement that today's non-conforming, rebellious adolescents who have tattoos, metal studs, and body piercings make. They violated the rules of modern fashion, only to have their disobedience become the current trend in broader society. Furthermore, having formerly defined style decades earlier, these ornaments have already come full circle.
8. Despite seeming irrational, fashion enforces societal standards and solidifies group integration. It compels us to acknowledge that the human body is an organism in society as well as a biological entity. We can convey how we share the majority of their ideals and beliefs by dressing in a similar manner. Contrarily, alterations in clothing are often seen as startling and upsetting. In western democracies, a man attending a job interview in a pink suit will not be taken into account for a job at a bank. He wouldn't be taken seriously. Similarly, even in these "liberated" times, seeing a guy in a skirt in many Western countries still elicits a great deal of uneasiness, hatred, or amusement.
9. While fashion is prevalent among all ages, there is still scope for clothes to show distinctive taste. In any time period, fashionable clothes come in a variety of colours, fabrics, and styles. This was especially true in the 20th century, when fashion was mass-produced without losing its fixation with the new and unique. Initially, fashion was mostly reserved for the affluent, but since the industrial era, the mass manufacturing process of fashionable clothing has made it feasible for the majority to embrace fashion as a way of self-expression and self-enhancement.

Fashion And Society IELTS Reading Questions

Questions 1-3

Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in the boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1. During the mediaeval times, what was the symbol of wealth?
2. A group of individuals protested against the social values of the fashionable. Who were they?
3. A type of decoration worn by rebellious young people nowadays, apart from body piercings and metal studs.

Click here to know more about IELTS Reading short answer questions.

Questions 4-9

Complete the table below.
NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 4-9 on your answer sheet

Period	Clothing Behaviour	Types of Clothing
Earliest Times	wearing 4. ________	body painting, tattooing, masks
Pre 5. ________	simple, unchanging styles	6. ________
14th century	7. _________	8. __________
15th-16th century	9. _________	use of doth

Click here to know more about IELTS Reading table completion.

Questions 10-13

Complete each sentence with the appropriate ending, A-J below.
Write the appropriate letter A-J in the boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

A.	had little effect on non-conforming youth.
B.	was made possible with the development of tailored and fitted clothing.
C.	was felt in the workforce with the change to informal wear.
D.	allowed the less affluent to buy styled clothes.
E.	was made possible with the increase in sophistication of the royal courts.
F.	distinguished the rich from the poor in earlier times.
G.	was fell by top designers seeing fake, less expensive designer clothing on the market.
H.	caused anxiety and hostility in western clothes.
I.	gave the individual a means of self-expression.
J.	was seen as something shameful in earlier times.

10. The impact of fashion
11. Mass production of fashionable clothing
12. Wearing outdated clothing
13. The styling of apparel

Click here to know more about IELTS Reading matching sentence endings.

Fashion and society IELTS Reading answers with explanations

Fashion and society Reading answers with explanations are provided to make it feasible for you to find the correct answers with their locations and clarifications.

(Note: The text in italics is from the reading passage and shows the location from where the answer is taken or inferred. The text in the regular font explains the answer in detail.)

1. Cloth 

Key Location: 4th Paragraph, 8th line.

Explanation: In mediaeval times, cloth, which was very costly, actually represented and symbolised wealth. It is stated that cloth was considered the symbol of wealth in the mediaeval times.

2. Hippies

Key Location: 6th Paragraph, 3rd line.

Explanation: It is mentioned that this group of people that is the “Hippies” created a look from the secondhand clothes, craft works and the army supplies to protest and rebel against the consumerist society. They rebelled against the fashion industry’s social values and ideals.

3. Tattoos

Key Location: 7th Paragraph, 9th line.

Explanation: It is stated that rebellious young people have tattoos, body piercings and studs. Hence, the answer is tattoos, since the other two are mentioned already.

4. adornment

Key Location: 2nd Paragraph, 1st line.

Explanation: The first line tells that initially “adornments” were considered to be clothes for the human beings.

5. 14th century

Key Location: 3rd Paragraph, 4th line.

Explanation: It is mentioned in the passage that in the 14th century fashion began to grow, and before that the people irrespective of their gender wore basic and constant styles of clothes.

6. loose robes

Key Location: 3rd Paragraph, 5th line.

Explanation: After explaining how fashion grew in the 14th century with the expansion of European cities. It is said that before this period the individuals from either group of sex wore the same kind of clothing that is “loose robes” which were simple and consistent throughout.

7. rapidly changing styles

Key Location: 4th Paragraph, 2nd line.

Explanation: It is mentioned that “by the 14th century, rapidly changing styles began to appear in western Europe”, hence the answer is rapidly changing styles.

8. tailored and fitted/ tailored, fitting clothing

Key Location: 4th Paragraph, 3rd line.

Explanation: In the 14th century, the clothing were improved to be tailored and fitted which enabled endless options to style them. Hence, the answer is tailored and fitted.

9. discarding unfashionable clothing

Key Location: 4th Paragraph, 4th line.

Explanation: By the 15th and 16th centuries, it began to be viewed as shameful to dress out of fashion. Consequently, people who could afford to do so started getting rid of outdated stuff since it was simply out of style.

10. C

Key Location: 5th Paragraph, 3rd line.

Explanation: It is mentioned that the fashion in western countries was influenced by every kind of clothing. It also played a role in changing the workplace dress code from formal wear to relaxed casual wear.

11. I

Key Location: 9th Paragraph, 5th line.

Explanation: It is explained in the passage that in the beginning, fashion was only for the wealthy people. However due to industrialisation, clothes began to be produced in bulk, which gave people an opportunity to express themselves.

12. J

Key Location: 4th Paragraph, 5th line.

Explanation: The end of 5th line, mentions that by 15th-16th century, people dressing out of fashion or wearing outdated clothes was considered to be shameful and disgraceful.

13. B 

Key Location: 4th Paragraph, 4th line.

Explanation: These were connected to improvements in tailored and fitted clothes; once garments were fitted, there was virtually no limit to the number of unique ways they could be styled.

Check the other reading passages

Check the links to the other important reading passages listed below.

• The culture of chimpanzee reading answers
• An earth shaking discovery reading answers
• Reducing the effects of climate change reading answers 

Conclusion

“Fashion and Society Reading Answers” article is inclusive of the reading passage, three types of questions asked in the IELTS reading exam and the correct answers with their explanations and locations. This will help you in measuring your performance and understanding your errors. The links provided will assist you in improving your skills.