Does fashion contribute anything to society?

Arguments

1. A good appearance may help people make a better impression in social contacts.
2. When people are getting old, they should pay more attention to their appearance.
3. The way people are dressed helps them to preserve a sense of their own value and personality.
4. Fashion adds spice to life with its rich colour, variety, and beauty.
5. Men and women follow fashions in order to please each other and themselves.
6. The world will be a dull place to live in if people always wear clothes of the same style and colour.
7. Mass production makes well-designed clothes cheap and available to everyone.
8. The fashion industry is an enormous one. It provides employment for people like textile workers, designers, shopkeepers, etc.
9. The fashion industry has helped industrial research in the sense that a lot of new materials, like nylon, rayon, etc. have been made to meet the demand of the consumers.
10. Being well dressed is of psychological importance because confidence in one's appearance leads to confidence in one's success in life.

Counter-arguments

1. People sometimes look odd with the so-called fashionable hairstyles, make-up, and dresses.
2. Top designers in Paris and London are dictatorial¹, for they lay down the law and the whole world rushes to obey.
3. Fashion goes like this: one year, one thing; the next year, the reverse.
4. People are so vain that they are afraid of being seen in old-fashioned clothes.
5. People, especially the fashionmongers, are blackmailed² by fashion designers and stores.
6. Changing fashions is a deliberate creation of waste because one will have to discard a lot of new clothes in order to follow fashions.
7. Fashion designers are not interested in important things like warmth, comfort, and durability³ of the clothes. They are only interested in outward appearance and profits.
8. The odder the clothes, the more expensive they are, and the more fashionable they become. It's a great pity that people have lost their appreciation⁴ of real beauty.
9. In order to follow fashions, people have to put up with great discomfort⁵, such as suffering from cold in winter.
10. One's confidence does not grow from the way one is dressed, but from the inner qualities one possesses.