Fashion can change on a dime, evolving almost day-to-day. Why does it move so fast?

Curiosity contributor Diana Bocco found that fashion's changing pace has quickened compared to its earliest days.

Fashion wasn’t always the quickly evolving thing it is today. In fact, in ancient times, clothing styles evolved slowly, if at all. Back then, clothes were designed for comfort and to allow daily manual work around the house or in the fields. Even among the affluent, fashion was limited by the few materials and dyes available.

Later on, changes in the preferred style of a nation were often connected to social or political changes. For example, European travelers to the Ottoman Empire brought back luxurious materials -- velvets and silks -- that slowly became part of the region’s fashion and were a way to showcase the opulence of the travelers' kingdoms. Contact with the Ottomans also introduced Europeans to outer garments such as coats, which were worn initially by the educated class (including scholars) and eventually adopted by the masses [source: Jirousek].

Today, fashion changes much more rapidly and is heavily influenced by movies, music and famous people. The emphasis on embracing new trends hasn’t stopped old ideas from coming back, though. The adage “There’s nothing new under the sun” could easily apply to the fashion industry. Fashion is so cyclical there’s even a term for it: Laver’s Law. Fashion historian James Laver created the term in the 1930s to define how fast trends of the past become “beautiful” again. Laver claimed it takes at least half a century for something to become fashionable again [source: Winterman]. Things have accelerated in recent decades, though, and designers now look for inspiration to styles that were fashionable just 20 or 30 years ago.

The West is also experiencing a new phenomenon known as “fast fashion,” a system designed to pick up on trends and create clothing collections based on that. Fast fashion is mass-produced, cheap and quickly evolving [source: Cachon, Swinney]. It makes the most of a trend for as long as it lasts and it has been embraced by companies such as Benetton and H&M.

As our culture and societies evolve, we should expect fashion to keep evolving along with them. After all, fashion is meant to be a sign of the times.