Clothing is more than simply the outer shell with which we keep the outside world at bay. A classy shirt, pants or jacket is a form of self-expression, a part of your personality that’s shown to others in the form of coded material. The material, color, length, and style of your clothes say more about you than any other feature of your body and they’re very important to how you look.
Social class
Since humans decided to cover their genitals, clothes have different roles and functions. Among the first is determining social class. With the newly acquired power and wealth a different wardrobe is available to the individual. Coarse mundane clothing was replaced with attractive silks and cottons, not to mention the explosion of color that came with it. The differences between the ranks were thus easily recognized through clothing alone.
While clothes no longer indicate social class or even wealth to the extent that they do, we still think of them as having meaning. For example, white lab coats are closely associated by our brains with doctors and the sense of responsibility and security they provide us. From the muddy green, sturdy pants we associate with the armed forces to quality turkish cotton towels which makes us think of comfort, it can be said that the history that people wear is human history.
As such, you may not bear in mind of your status as a heir of old-fashioned feelings every time you linger in front of the mirror, deciding what to wear. That same feeling is possibly known to every man, woman, or youth who has ever lived, despite their limited options.
Self Expression
It is the modern fashion industry that professionalizes style preferences with regards to clothing. Nowadays, trend organized by industry experts according to a set of factors we do not even consider every time we take an outfit from the closet. Designing clothes has easily reached the status of art, with amazing and extraordinary additions that challenge the imagination.
As well as providing guidance to the general public, the fashion industry is taking on a life of its own, reaching new heights in terms of self-expression.
Setting Pattern
However, your own preferences in terms of clothing can be studied and well documented from a behavior angle. Spending patterns are specially relevant when looking at people’s clothing preferences. Bright colours, for example, can be related to outgoing and extroverted personalities. On the other hand, a teen’s darker clothing can be related to a rebellious attitude or a particular taste in music.
The problem gets more complicated by adding roles and settings to the mix. As we all know, some clothes are appropriate for some occasions while others aren’t. This fact goes beyond the practical reasons that, for example, suggest against wearing a suit to a baseball game. Simply put, one can “dress to impress” or dress to relax.
Daily Roles
We also change our clothes according to the roles we perform each day. For example, a doctor can even be a mother, so lab coats give off warm colours and softer fabrics. In the same way, a construction worker may additionally take evening classes to further his career, dress young and exude a special curiosity for students.
Therefore, one could say that displaying status was still the main function of clothing. Except these days you can easily swap between different roles and statuses they assume, changing your wardrobe accordingly.
Clothes have meaning, whether we realize it when we grab it from the back of our wardrobe or not. Moods can even overwhelm our usual styles. Gloomy, rainy autumn days, for example, can hardly be matched with a flashy bright red dress or a fancy yellow scarf. However, the same outfit is ideal for warm summer nights.
Every time you choose a piece of clothing, you do so based on a series of personal and contextual factors. The process has become so commonplace in your brain that you hardly stop to consider it thoroughly. However, it is clear that clothes say so much more about you than you really know.
