Fashion Shaming: Evaluating a Costume or Personal Insult?

Fashion-shaming — negative evaluation of someone's costume — is gradually becoming one of few legitimized forms of expressing passive or active aggression towards both acquaintances and strangers in the modern Western society. As the level of acceptability of negative comments towards a private person or public personality is narrowing down, making topics of “non-ideal” body, gender, ethnicity, family status or “romantic” behaviour forbidden or highly controversial, the topic of non-compliance of an ideal costume to requirements of the taste, epoch or social norms becomes a tool for statements far outside of vestimentary area.

This paper suggests to look into the reasons of this phenomenon and principles of fashion-shaming, social discourse that exists in this context, behaviour patterns of the aggressors and coping strategies of the victims.