speech about clothes define a person

Essay about Clothes and Personality

Introduction.

Does fashion make personality? The way you dress says a lot about the kind of individual you are. The fashion you decide to go with should reveal your desires, interests, ambition, and background. Everyone is unique in terms of personality and interest, and therefore, it is important for a person to wear what emphasizes who they are. There are people who are wild and like to explore, while others prefer styles that add nostalgia and romance (Bell 45).

As clothes define a person, this essay addresses how crucial it is to know who you are so that you can choose a style that fits your personality. In addition, be sure to be consistent with your style to create a signature that describes you as an individual. The fashion we choose to go with should match our personality because people can easily judge us from our dress code (Bell 47). In this essay about clothes and personality, I will discuss how fashion makes an individual’s character.

While most individuals find it easy to conform to other people’s fashion, it is extremely important for people to identify what suits them best and incorporate that in their own style to distinguish their personality. In fashion, being different is an important aspect because it helps individual personality to stand out.

In the movie the “Devil wears Prada”, which is created around fashion, we can easily identify roles of the characters by observing their dress codes. While Anna is dressed in simple clothes that do not have a voice in fashion, Miranda is dressed in timeless fashion that gives her the rich woman’s look ( The devil wears prada ). On the other hand, Andrea was given an over the edge fashion that showed the outgoing and careless look in the movie ( The devil wear prada ).

In addition to this, it is not difficult to notice that Field had a good idea about fashion and personality based on the outfits and make up for her characters. The looks and fashion in this movie was able to give the characters stage personalities that were outstanding from the other. This is a clear indication that what we put on talks much about who we are.

Although, it takes time to develop one’s style and fashion it is important for individuals to be in a position to say who they are through their dressing. Having individual dress code helps in boosting self-confidence and brings comfort (Bell 113). Your image is highly dependent on how you dress on a regular basis because people learn to associate you with the kind of fashion you embrace.

When it comes to fashion and personality, make sure that when people see a certain fashion they can actually identify that look with your personality. Learn to leave a mark in what is in your wardrobe to ensure that your clothes speak loud about the kind of a person you are; let your clothes define you more than words can do.

People who are dramatic and casual like to make strong fashion statements also tend to be stunning and attention seeking (Musselman and DeGregori 47). For this kind of personality, choose bold colors, straight lines, and unique outstanding jewelry to match your outfits (Musselman and DeGregori 47). A dramatic personality seeks attention at all times and wants to make a strong statement (Bell 121).

A dramatic personality goes well with clothes that are fashionable and overshadow other people. Their class of fashion is able to help people notice their personality even for those meeting them for the first time. However, if someone with a dramatic personality decided to dress like a classic personality he or she would look out of place. Therefore, it is advisable to have fashion that clearly highlights who you are from far.

For those people with a serious personality, and mostly like having a classic look, they should have clothes with straight lines, neutral colors such as gray, white and black, flat shoes, and striped tops (Musselman and DeGregori 56). This is what makes them stand out as no nonsense people and enables them to get people’s attention at first glance. In addition, this kind of fashion portrays people with very strong personality, focused and in control (Bell 78).

However, when blending fashion with personality it is wise to choose clothes that match your body shape. Clothes should highlight on your strong points and conceal physical faults (Musselman and DeGregori 94). Women with a classic personality are conservative and prefer simple fashion that is well balanced. In addition, they like simple accessories that stand the test of time such as plain gold chain. This type of fashion screams that “am intelligent, simple, and focused” (Bell 113).

On the other hand, there is ingénue and romantic personality that always appears young and girlish with a small body (Musselman and DeGregori 73). Young girls always look cute and charming because of their small physique. In addition, they have a love for things that are nice and more feminine such as fragile jewelry, ruffles, lace, and soft fabrics (Musselman and DeGregori 77).

Because of their personality, such people are likely to be taken less serious and considered childish by most people. This is the weakness associated with this personality but people can be able to combine their dressing with other aspects to make their personality clearly represented without misjudgment. However, this personality enables women to be more feminine and attractive compared to other personalities hence if it is combined with other types of fashion it creates a balanced style.

The way we dress says so much about our personality especially in instances where we have to make a first impression. Our fashion speaks volumes about the kind of people we are in terms of interests, ambitions, and aspirations. A person in jeans and t-shirt appears to be relaxed while, one in a suit creates the impression of focus, alert and serious.

On the other hand, a person in an inadequate dress creates the impression that she is wild, free spirited and easy to hang around. People can draw assumptions about us or our social preference from the way we dress. Therefore, it is important for people to make independent choices for fashion to ensure that we create the right impression about ourselves. While it may not be possible for one to pick a single style or fashion, it is wise to incorporate some aspects of other fashions to emphasize on their personality.

For instance, if you are dramatic and realize that people brush you off you can add some elements of classic in your style to achieve the desired results. Some classic fashion elements will let people respect and take you a serious individual. However, if you are a classic and people are not able to see your fun and charming side, adding some element of dramatic personality in your fashion is more appropriate.

Works Cited

Bell, Allison. Fearless Fashion (What’s Your Style?). Hempstead: Lobster Press, 2004. Print.

Musselman, Jennifer, and Patty DeGregori. The Hip Girl’s Handbook for the Working World: Work What You Got to Get What You Want. San Francisco: Council Oak Books, 2005. Print.

The devil wears prada, Dir. David Frankel. Perf . Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep. Lauren Weisberger. 2006. Film.

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IvyPanda. (2018, November 30). Essay about Clothes and Personality. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fashion-2/

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Clothes Define a Person: A Guide to Crafting the Perfect Speech for Students

Clothes Define a Person: A Guide to Crafting the Perfect Speech for Students:

Clothes can often be seen as a reflection of one’s personality, social status, and preferences. Some people believe that the way we dress speaks volumes about who we are and what we represent. In this article, we will guide students in crafting an effective speech on the topic “clothes define a person.” Follow these steps to create a compelling speech that will engage your audience and leave a lasting impression.

Clothes Define a Person Speech Guide

Step 1: Research

Begin by conducting thorough research on the subject. Some questions to explore include:

• How do clothes represent one’s personality, culture, or social status?
• What is the history of clothing and its role in society?
• How do dress codes impact individuals and their identity?
• What are the psychological effects of wearing certain types of clothing?

Gather information from reputable sources, such as books, scholarly articles, and news articles, to support your arguments and provide credible evidence.

Step 2: Create an Outline

Once you have collected enough information, create an outline for your speech. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure a smooth flow of ideas. Your outline should include:

Introduction

• Start with a hook to grab your audience’s attention.
• Introduce the topic and its significance.
• State your thesis or main argument.
• Present your main points, supported by evidence and examples.
• Address potential counterarguments and refute them.
• Organize your points logically and coherently.
• Summarize your main points and restate your thesis.
• Provide a call-to-action or a thought-provoking statement to leave a lasting impression.

Step 3: Write the Speech

Using your outline as a guide, begin writing your speech. Keep these tips in mind:

• Use clear and concise language to ensure your audience understands your message.
• Be engaging and passionate about your topic, as this will help your audience connect with you.
• Use stories or anecdotes to illustrate your points and make them more relatable.
• Cite your sources to establish credibility and avoid plagiarism.

Step 4: Practice

Once you have written your speech, practice delivering it in front of a mirror or a small audience. Focus on the following aspects:

• Speak clearly and confidently.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience.
• Use appropriate gestures and body language.
• Time your speech to ensure it fits within the allotted time.

Step 5: Revise and Edit

After practicing your speech, revise and edit as needed. Consider feedback from others, and refine your content, delivery, and timing. This will help you feel more confident and prepared when it’s time to deliver your speech in front of a larger audience.

Clothes Define a Person Speech Example

Title: The Fabric of Our Identity: How Clothes Define Us

Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever considered the impact of the clothes you wear on a daily basis? We often make snap judgments about people based on their appearance, and clothing plays a significant role in forming those impressions. Today, I will discuss how clothes define a person, shaping our identity and influencing how we are perceived by others.

The Power of Clothing

Clothing has been an essential aspect of human culture and society throughout history. From the earliest civilizations to modern-day fashion trends, clothes have always been used as a means to convey messages about one’s social status, cultural affiliations, and personal preferences. For instance, in ancient Egypt, the color of a person’s clothing indicated their position in society, with the Pharaohs adorning themselves in gold and bright hues, while commoners wore simpler, more subdued garments.

Our choice of clothing also reflects our personality and individuality. An artist might express their creativity through unique, colorful outfits, while a business professional may opt for tailored suits to convey a sense of authority and competence. These choices send subtle signals to those around us, shaping their perception of who we are and what we represent.

Psychological Impact of Clothing

Research shows that the clothes we wear can have a profound impact on our emotions, confidence, and behavior. A study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University found that participants who wore lab coats associated with doctors performed better on cognitive tests than those who wore regular clothes. This “enclothed cognition” phenomenon suggests that clothing has the power to influence our psychological state and performance in various situations.

Dress Codes and Individuality

Dress codes, whether in schools or workplaces, can also impact how we perceive ourselves and others. On one hand, dress codes can promote a sense of unity and professionalism. However, they can also stifle individuality and self-expression, particularly among young people who are still exploring their identities. It is crucial to strike a balance between adhering to dress codes and allowing room for personal expression in order to create environments where everyone feels comfortable and respected.

In conclusion, clothes are more than just fabric and thread; they are an extension of who we are as individuals. Our choice of clothing speaks volumes about our personality, culture, and social status. It has the power to influence our emotions, confidence, and even our performance in various aspects of life. As we make decisions about what to wear each day, let us be mindful of the messages we send and the impact of our clothing choices on both ourselves and those around us. After all, as the famous saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Crafting a persuasive speech on how clothes define a person requires research, organization, and practice. By following the steps outlined in this guide, students will be well-prepared to deliver a captivating and thought-provoking speech that will leave their audience reflecting on the power of clothing in shaping one’s identity and perceptions.

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What Your Clothes Might Be Saying About You

First impressions are often more significant than you might think….

Posted April 20, 2013 | Reviewed by Matt Huston

She is not my type. He couldn’t hack it. She looks friendly. He looks efficient. I can tell she is an extrovert .

We make snap judgments about people from the clothes they wear. On what basis?

There is much more to our clothing choices than we might imagine. For many people, what they wear is merely a matter of habit, but when we dress in the morning it might pay us to be a little more careful in the choices we make. Doing something different with your clothes might be a way of changing the impression others have of you.

Two published 1 studies by our team in the U.K. and Turkey show some of the very subtle ways in which clothing influences all kinds of impressions about us. Our clothes make a huge difference to what people think about us—and without us knowing or in ways we couldn’t even imagine. People make their assessments in the first few seconds of seeing another; assessments go way beyond how well you are dressed and how neat and tidy you might look.

We carried out the research with more than 300 adults (men and women). They looked at images of a man and a woman for just three seconds before making 'snap judgments' about them. In some of the pictures, the man wore a made-to-measure suit. In others, he wore a very similar off-the-peg. The differences in the suits were very minor—we controlled for all the big differences such as color and fabric, as well as making sure the face of the model was pixillated so that there could be no hidden messages in the facial expressions.

After just a three-second exposure, people judged the man more favourably in the bespoke suit. And the judgments were not about how well dressed he was.

They rated him as more confident, successful, flexible and a higher earner in a tailor-made suit than when he wore the alternative. Since the model’s face in the pictures was blanked out, these impressions must have been formed after quickly eyeing what he was wearing.

So, our clothes say a great deal about who we are and can signal a great deal of socially important things to others, even if the impression is actually unfounded. Research suggests that these impressions about us can start in childhood —one study found that teachers made assumptions about children's academic ability based on their clothing.

In a second study in the journal Sex Roles (see below, 2) we investigated an issue that women often report encountering in the workplace—differential gender -biased standards and being judged as less competent than men, even by other women. What role does dress play in this?

We made minor manipulations to female office clothing to see how this affected first impressions of them. We also researched whether the occupational role of the woman made any difference to these impressions. We tested this with 129 female participants who rated images of faceless (by pixilation) female models on six competence-based dimensions ( intelligence , confidence , trustworthiness, responsibility, authority, and organisation). In all cases the clothing was conservative but varied slightly by skirt length and an extra button being unfastened on a blouse. The models were described as having different occupational roles, varying by status (high: senior manager, or low: receptionist). The images were only presented for a maximum of five seconds.

The assessment of the competencies we measured should surely not be affected by these minor clothing manipulations? Surely people use proper evidence to make such judgments?

I am afraid we found that the clothing did matter. People rated the senior manager less favourably when her dress style was more ‘provocative’, and more favourably when dressed more conservatively (longer skirt, buttoned-up blouse). I reiterate that the clothing in the ‘provocative’ condition was still very conservative in style and look—it was not a short skirt and a revealing blouse, but a skirt slightly above the knee and one button on the blouse undone.

The rating of the receptionist role was not affected by these clothing manipulations, suggesting that there may be more leeway for some jobs than others.

So even subtle changes to clothing style can contribute toward negative impressions of the competence of women who hold higher status positions. Wearer beware!

It is important to choose our dress style carefully because people will make all sorts of assumptions and decisions about us without proper evidence. We are unlikely to know what these assessments are, so it is quite possible that our clothes reveal more than we thought.

Sartorial laziness is an easy habit to slip into. We may think that fashion is just profligate indulgence and our sunny personality will eclipse our dull attire or detract from the soup stains on our anorak. Untrue. What we wear speaks volumes in just a few seconds. Dressing to impress really is worthwhile and could even be key to success.

1.HOWLETT, N., PINE, K. L. , ORAKÇıOĞLU, I., & FLETCHER B. (C) The influence of clothing on first impressions: Rapid and positive responses to minor changes in male attire. Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management, 2013, 17 (1), 38-48. DOI 10.1108/13612021311305128

2. HOWLETT, N., PINE, K. L., CAHILL, J., ORAKÇıOĞLU, I., & FLETCHER B. (C) Small changes in clothing equal big changes in perception: The interaction between provocativeness and occupational status. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. February 2015, Volume 72, Issue 3-4, pp 105-116, DOI 10.1007/s11199-015-0450-8

Ben C. Fletcher, D.Phil, Oxon, is a professor of psychology, a behavior change expert, and the author of Flex: Do Something Different — How to use the other 9/10ths of your personality.

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Do your Clothes Define you?

Mine was a check grey and white mixed wool and cotton mixed style blouson jacket. It had a collar that stood up with two lapels that added an extra sense of style to the garment. It looked great over skinny jeans covering my long, slender, sixteen year old legs that went on forever. It even made it onto television when I was a guest on a children's show with children's presenter Elvis Payne and a very young Gordon Honeycomb. It showed it’s dexterity when teamed up with a grey and white checked borderline skirt with pleats all the way round.

The blouson jacket was a treat from my Mum from a posh boutique on our local high street in South London called In-Betweens.  At the time of purchasing little did I know that my choice of this particular item of clothing had more to do not with how I looked when wearing it but ultimately how it made me feel.

Clothes that not only look good but also allow you to also feel good are worth their weight in gold.

Sixteen can be an awkward age for most teenagers. You’ve not yet quite reached adulthood but have gone way past childhood. Wearing this top made me feel grown up but not too over the top. It had enough room in its design to be both comfortable and chic in yet still show off parts of the body I felt comfortable displaying.  I loved the softness of the fabric and how the weight of the fabric did not feel skimpy. And most of all I felt really attractive when I wore it as well as the added bonus of feeling comfortable in my own skin.

In her book the Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo offers a fascinating perspective on our relationships with our clothes. In the chapter about sorting out your clothes clutter she suggests the following, "Put all your clothes in one pile, take them in your hand one by one, and ask yourself quietly, 'Does this spark joy?'

This tip really worked for me and recently I let go to my local Mary’s Give and Take charity shop a custom designed dress, hastily commissioned for my big 50, that just didn't cut it. As much as I wanted to keep it, the colours and style just weren’t right and I knew it was time to let it go.

Kondo goes even further and suggests you should have conversations with your clothes and state out loud as you remove your clothes from the days wear, 'Thank you for keeping me warm all day'. Or when removing accessories (I like this one), 'Thank you for making me beautiful'.

I really am all for this as, even though I hadn't bought it fully into my conscious awareness, it does seem to make perfect sense to express our appreciation to our clothes for all that they do. And it's an organic way of ensuring we are in the habit of wearing items of clothing we still enjoy.

Finally Kondo suggests when letting go of clothing you no longer want to keep to say out loud, 'Thank you for giving me joy when I bought you,' 'Thank you for teaching me what doesn't suit me'.  I have to admit that the last comment did bring a smile to my face as I can think of a few more items in my wardrobe that really do need to go.

Clothes - like the Bible scripture suggests - are with us for either, ' ... a time, a reason or a season.' It all points to creating space to cherish and only wear the clothes you really love.

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Do you see what I’m wearing? How clothes reveal who we are

Senior Lecturer, Visual & Creative Arts Education, University of Sydney

Disclosure statement

Robyn Gibson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Remember the social media storm about the colour of [the dress](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress %28viral_phenomenon%29)_? Did you see blue and black or white and gold? It was some harmless fun that drew in millions of online punters.

But clothes are not frivolous, flippant or foolish. In telling and talking about clothes, we reveal much about ourselves, our lives, and the experiences that we drape around our bodies. Whether bought or handmade, passed down or reconstructed, clothes help us to construct meaning as we remember those things in our lives that matter.

Apart from their aesthetic value, clothes have the ability to evoke issues of identity; of the relation of self to body and self to the world. We are able to find ourselves through the experience of delving into our wardrobes and remembering. Clothes are thus layered with meaning since they have the power to act as memory prompts.

So why are clothes often considered trivial, ephemeral and unworthy of serious contemplation?

While male fashion, at least in terms of mainstream trends, has become rigidly uniform, female dress has undergone chronic fluctuations in style. This penchant for change has been interpreted as either evidence of women’s inherent frivolity and flightiness or of their subjection and oppression.

Without losing its obsession with the new and the different, with change and exclusivity, I would argue that dress has become a form of popular aesthetics. Most fashion writers insist on its importance. Cynicism, ambivalence or irony are the typical responses from those outside the discipline.

Fashion’s significance was aptly summarised more than a century ago by Anatole France . The Nobel laureate said if he had a choice of one “book” to leave to future generations, it would be a fashion magazine. France affirms clothes are social barometers.

Crowds that are drawn to fashion exhibitions around the world offer glimpses into the meaning that we attach to such items. Often dress is collected and exhibited by an art gallery in order to give the general public an appreciation of the designer’s creative talent and inspire ways for the viewer to understand the garment’s fabrication, innovation and visual appeal. We are drawn to them as things of beauty we want to gaze upon and touch. Clothes are objects that we covet and desire.

While art may appear much more cloistered, more removed from people’s lives, fashion is clearly in the midst of things; very much a part of our everyday experience.

Once hanging static in a wardrobe or folded away in a trunk, in recent times clothes have found themselves thrown into the spotlight. How can we forget Meryl Streep’s biting explanation of cerulean to a fashionably naïve Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)? Or the artistic integrity of Vogue’s creative director, Grace Coddington, in The September Issue (2009)?

Clothes have, in fact, become an autobiographical tool with which to explore important themes and issues in an author’s life. In Love, Loss and What I Wore (2005), the book behind the Off-Broadway show, Ilene Beckerman tells the story of her life through the clothes she wore. In doing so she reveals that our memories are often stitched into the seams of our favourite dresses.

In The Secret Lives Of Dresses (2011), Erin McKean interweaves a tale of vintage frocks that have their own “secret lives” written on pieces of paper and stashed into their pockets. In Dreaming of Dior (2009), Charlotte Smith shares her godmother Doris Darnelle’s vintage clothing collection that contain a lifetime of memories. Recently, in Dress, Memory (2014), Lorelei Vashti wrote about a decade of dresses she has owned, worn and loved. These narratives have come to be known as “dress stories”.

I have had the privilege of bringing together a highly eclectic group of dress stories ranging from narratives to photo essays to poetic pieces and many creative works in-between in The Memory of Clothes . Each one of these stories details a point in time when “clothes actually did matter” and as such were worth remembering.

Woven into their fabric are traces of past experiences. Stitched into their seams are links to people we have loved and lost. How appropriate that in the technical language of sewing, wrinkles are termed “memory”.

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Fashion Psychology: What clothes say about you

The psychology driving our clothing choices and how fashion affects your dating prospects..

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You needn't be an avid fashionista, nor a London Fashion Week regular, to be aware of how important our dress sense is to our reputations in the 21st Century. The clothes we wear send powerful signals to our peers and strangers, projecting the self image of us that we want to display.

Yet, how many of us truly understand the psychology of how people in the street or office interpret our wardrobe choices , and how this impression might differ to the one that we believe we're conveying to them?

An array of psychological surveys have revealed the true impact of clothing choices on the way in which we perceive and judge each other, with experiments showing some surprising results. They even reveal how subtle varieties in dress sense can affect our ability to attract a partner whilst we are dating.

Defying stereotypes

Against the gender stereotype of females being more fashion-aware and conscious of others' clothes and makeup efforts than males, studies have also lifted the lid on men's insecurities with regards to clothes.

Contrary to commonly held beliefs, men have been shown to be often more self-conscious than females with regards to their personal dress sense and the way in which they are viewed in public ( Solomon and Schopler, 1982 ). 1

Therefore, we need to understand the significance of clothing choices regardless of our gender. Whether you are male or female, your fashion choices can affect both your self image , the impression that you convey to others and in turn, the way in which people behave towards you. They can influence everything from the outcome of a sports match ( Hill and Barton, 2005 ) to an interviewer's impression of your ability to perform effectively in a job position ( Forsythe, 2006 ). 2 3

In this article, we look at the effect that our fashion choices today can have on our lives, and how our unconscious clothing choices are interpreted by those around us.

Why clothes matter: what your wardrobe says about you

Clothes have not always been as influential a 'tell' of our personalities as they are today. Only as a result of technical advancements over centuries have fashion choices become significant.

Where in early civilizations, the key purpose of clothing was to keep us warm and relatively dry, today, central heating warms our homes, reducing our dependence on clothes alone to help us to survive. Clothes have developed from a practical asset to a social marker: they affect the way we see ourselves. They help us to be seen in the light that we wish to be, and also exude our personalities and social status.

In many societies, dress sense embodies personal wealth and taste. For example, Economist George Taylor demonstrated this most vividly with the Hemline Index (Taylor, 1926). 4 Taylor noted that as a country enters recession and adopts austere spending habits, women often show a preference towards longer dresses, whilst during times of prosperity, the opposite result can be seen - hemlines often become shorter.

A second key influence on our dress sense is a result of millions of years of development as a species. As with many animals, the concept of mate selection in evolutionary psychology suggests that our behavior is determined by our efforts to find a mate and to reproduce.

According to signalling theory, a male peacock will display his vibrant fan of covert feathers in a ritual to attract a female with whom to mate. Such rituals vary from species to species, but in humans, our ability to create and wear clothes gives us a equivalent advantage in being able to distinguish ourselves from a crowd and demonstrate our individuality in an effort to find a mate. Conversely, too, we might use clothing to merge into a crowd and hide our individuality by dressing in a uniform.

Dressing to Impress?

Aside from the adage of "dressing to impress" what do we know about the psychology of clothing choices in relation to dating?

Firstly, let's consider the idea of how we seek to 'impress' potential partners. A study by Joseph Benz at the University of Nebraska surveyed more than 90 men and women with regards to the way in which they deceive potential partners whilst on dates. The researchers found that both genders tend to use deception when dating but for different purposes.

Males were found to try to impress their dates by emphasizing the security that they could offer the partner - for example, by exaggerating their financial position or by trying to demonstrate a preparedness to commit. Women, however, were deceptive with regards to their body image , exaggerating physical features in an effort to appear more attractive to their date ( Benz et al, 2005 ). 5

In both cases, clothing may play a part in this dating ritual of deception.

Another factor in our clothing choices is the way in which males and females perceive and interpret different colors .

In one experiment, researchers photographed people in different colored clothes and then asked participants to rate the attractiveness of people in the resulting photos. They found that the color of clothing affects the way in which men rate both males' and females' attractiveness, and how women rate men's attractiveness. Interestingly however, clothing color did not influence women's judgement of other females ( Roberts et al, 2000 ). 6

This brings us to the question: which colors are viewed as attractive?

Roberts and his fellow researchers found that red clothes would tend to lead participants to rate subjects more favorably in terms of attractiveness compared to when they wore clothes of other colors.

This result might explain the findings of a study which found that, when waitresses wore different colored t-shirts whilst serving in a restaurant, men would tend to leave higher tips for those wearing red tops than those with t-shirts of other colors. However, shirt color had no effect on the tips left by female customers ( Guéguen and Jacob, 2010 ). 7

Learn more about the psychology of color here

Of course, the color of garments is far from the only factor used in judging a person based on clothing.

Timothy Brown and his fellow researchers of the Department of Psychology at Old Dominion University looked at the effect of clothing on college students' judgement of both people's attractiveness and masculinity or femininity.

Brown found that in both genders, posture and the way in which people moved influenced perceptions of their masculinity or femininity, which was intrinsically linked to their judgement of their attractiveness.

Specifically in males, tight-fitting clothes as opposed helped lead to perceptions of increased masculinity over those who wore baggy garments ( Brown et al, 1986 ). 8

Naturally, many of the findings from research into the psychology of fashion and clothing choices are subject to the cultural values  of the society in which a person lives. Cultural differences in the interpretation of color, for example, mean that red may be perceived to have different qualities to those valued by participants in Guéguen and Jacob's waitress experiment, depending on the country a restaurant is situated in.

We should also note that the superficiality of clothing choices are rarely the sole determinant of how people are perceived: Brown's study into clothing and attractiveness demonstrated the influence of body language in addition to clothing choices. And for those of us with limited fashion sense, as the English writer William Hazlitt cautioned, "Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress".

• Solomon, M.R. and Schopler, J. (1982). Self-Consciousness and Clothing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin . 8 (3). 508-514.
• Hill, R.A. and Barton, R.A. (2005). Psychology: red enhances human performance in contests. Nature . 435 (7040). 293.
• Forsythe, S.M. (1990). Effect of Applicant's Clothing on Interviews' Decision to Hire. Journal of Applied Psychology . 20 (19). 1579-1595.
• Taylor, G. (1926).
• Benz, J.J., Anderson, M.K., Miller, R.L. (2005). Attributions of Deception in Dating Situations. The Psychological Record . 55 . 305-314.
• Roberts, S.C., Owen, R.C. and Havlicek, J. (2010). Distinguishing between perceiver and wearer effects in clothing color-associated attributions. Evolutionary Psychology . 8 (3). 350-364.
• Guéguen, N and Jacob, C. (2010). Clothing Color and Tipping. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism . 38 (2). 275-280.
• Brown, T.A., Cash, T.F. and Noles, S.W. (1986). Perceptions of Physical Attractiveness Among College Students: Selected Determinants and Methodological Matters. Journal of Social Psychology . 126 (3). 305-316.

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Visual Rhetoric/Semiotics of Fashion

• 1.1 Explaining Fashion Through Semiotics
• 2.1 Clothing for Protection
• 2.2 Modesty
• 2.3 Personal and Cultural Display
• 3.1 Making a Statement...(whether you realize it or not)
• 4 The Language of Jeans
• 5.1 Symbolic Grammar of Fashion
• 5.2 Body Piercing
• 5.3 Tattoos
• 6.1 Jackie Kennedy - A Symbol of Fashion
• 8 Conclusion

Introduction [ edit | edit source ]

Explaining fashion through semiotics [ edit | edit source ].

Semiotics assumes that visual images and their respective signs can be read similar to a text. Fashion and body adornment not only have a language of their own, but can be read as an explanation and text of one’s personality and character. Cultural semiotics is an important part of visual rhetoric because it allows us to take simple signs and codes and turn them into an actual conversation. Often studying visual rhetoric includes studying compositions, art, advertisement, film, and many other objects created. Not only can the things created around us be analyzed in regards to their visual rhetoric, but the things in themselves, and the way they are presented can also present a coded and signified message. Each person has a unique personality, set of beliefs, opinions, and in order to convey that identity we use our body as a canvas to project that identity.

Elizabeth Wilson States: "In all societies the body is 'dressed' and everywhere dress and adornment play symbolic, communicative and aesthetic roles. Dress is always 'unspeakably meaningful.' The earliest forms of 'clothing' seem to have been adornments such as body painting, ornaments, scarifications (scarring), tattooing, masks and often constricting neck and waist bands. Many of these deformed, reformed or otherwise modified the body" (Rampley 68).

The rhetoric of a person, and their appearance, can include many factors. One can represent themselves with their clothes in many ways, with jewelry, adorning themselves with symbols, hairstyles as well as many other rhetorical items. Although many individuals may debate as to whether these past cultural trends can be included as clothing/dress, for the sake of our argument all of these things call into the visual rhetoric of the body and the way a culture or individuals choose to represent themselves. This act of representing, and presenting ones rhetoric through clothes, or other body adornment, Rampley calls self-fashioning; which he believes can articulate subtle and important characteristics of individuals including personality, mood, and even emotions (71).

Codes [ edit | edit source ]

Not only can particular styles of clothes define a person as an individual, but also as a part of a group. According to Pauline Thomas, “Fashion is a language of signs, symbols and iconography that non-verbally communicate meanings about individuals and groups.” Depending on the context clothes and other defining objects can mean very different things, but we plan on showing examples within our culture that effectively communicate a specific notion of identity through specific rhetorical cues. Fred Davis discusses the way that clothes and fashion can represent identity through the semiotic notion of code.

"The chief difficulty of understanding fashion in its apparent vagaries is the lack of exact knowledge of the unconscious symbolisms attaching to forms, colors, textures, postures, and other expressive elements of a given cultures. The difficulty is appreciably increased by the fact that some of the expressive elements tend to have quite different symbolic references in different areas. Gothic type, for instance, is a nationalistic token in Germany while in Anglo-Saxon culture, the practically identical type known as Old English...signifies a wistful look backward at madrigals and pewter" (Davis 50). Although you can give meaning to semiotics signs can change and this applies to trends as well. Fashion design and symbolic adornments can have very definitive symbols, but depending on the time and place those symbols can be constantly shifting and changing. Even though they may change they are still held to their symbolic meaning by the collective culture.

In our chapter we include many different genres in which this rhetoric can be displayed, but we also put a large emphasis on the particular clothes people wear and what they can mean. We do put a large focus on the rhetoric of clothing intentionally because as a largely consumer-based culture, we as a society in general put a lot of value on our appearance and represent our identities largely in our consumption of goods, especially clothing.

Why We Wear Clothes [ edit | edit source ]

What is the function of dress in society? Overall, human beings in most cultures wear clothes for one or more of the following reasons, comfort and protection, modesty and cultural and personal display.

Clothing for Protection [ edit | edit source ]

Considering early human beings, we know that clothing was used as a way to keep warm, to protect the skin and as a mean to comfort the body. As people roamed from region to region, the body continued to prove inadequate for certain environments, thus the need for protective clothing. Even today, we understand that when the weather turns cooler adding layers will keep the body warm. Removing layers keep the body cooler in the summer time, and wearing various other garments protect our body from almost all the natural elements. However, clothing has become much more than a way to protect the body, the fact that we do indulge in clothing beyond mere comfort suggests yet function-- modesty.

Modesty [ edit | edit source ]

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, modesty is a “Reserve or propriety in speech, dress, or behavior.” Many cultures have deemed it necessary to practice a certain amount of modesty in dress by covering up certain body parts. A familiar story in the Christian bible talks about the characters of Adam and Eve wandering through the Garden of Eden completely naked and oblivious prior to gaining knowledge and knowing shame. In most cultures, individuals are expected to keep certain aspects of their body covered up. In certain Eastern cultures, women are supposed to remain in purdha (seclusion) to avoid being seen by men and or even other women outside of the family. To be exposed would constitute a lack of propriety and cause a certain degree of dishonor to the family. While western practices vary in their interpretation of modesty, the same idea goes as why mothers and fathers may feel uncomfortable with their thirteen-year-old daughter leaving the house in a tube top and a mini skirt.

Personal and Cultural Display [ edit | edit source ]

Lastly, and arguably, most importantly, clothing is a way of presenting one’s personal and cultural values; alternatively demonstrating one’s style, or lack thereof. Clothing has become a symbol of an individual’s identity. Society acknowledges and accepts certain forms of dress and attributes them to the characteristics of the individual. For instance, a doctor may wear a clean white lab coat in order to appear sterile and present a professional image to his or her patients. While wearing a white coat makes signs of insanitation obvious, the white coat has come to be more of a cultural badge than anything else is. However, these markers, or familiar icons in dress are not limited to this single white coat. In western society, police officers wear variations of blue uniforms, Basketball players wear sleeveless jerseys and nuns wear black and white dresses that cover their heads. These stereotypes have become useful in our everyday lives as they help simplify things and people into categories. These distinctions are what enable the individuals in the cases listed above to choose their own way of communicating nonverbally to the world.

Clothing as a Form of Non-Verbal Communication [ edit | edit source ]

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. -Oscar Wilde

Making a Statement...(whether you realize it or not) [ edit | edit source ]

At this point, one should understand that non-verbal communication is unavoidable. Regardless of whether or not the message is intentional, we continue to communicate with each other long after our mouths close. “It is impossible to wear clothes without transmitting social signals,” claims human behaviorist Desmond Morris (213). Even choosing not to wear clothes sends a message. The decision each individual makes about his or her appearance sends the viewer a message. This includes people who claim they pay no attention to their clothing with regard to its communicative value.

A guy with long hair and a full beard who insists that he will not shave for anyone may be quick to change his decision if he were to be brought to trial for possession of marijuana. When going into a job interview a candidate may opt for a suit and tie instead of sweatpants and flip-flops. As the weather warms shops fill with pastels and brightly colored clothes. In order to avoid trends, a young woman chooses not to conform by donning jeans and a t-shirt. These situations are examples of how we use clothing to communicate. On a cultural level, the man with the beard understands that maintaining certain hairstyles sends out a certain message through non-verbal communication. Not wanting to be misunderstood or perhaps to send out a different nonverbal message, the importance of nonverbal communication is something acknowledged by all. Not only are these examples of trends, or avoiding trends, they convey a message depending on the culturally accepted codes that they apply to within our culture.

The Language of Jeans [ edit | edit source ]

In the past decade, the price of jeans has skyrocketed, especially among the designer labels such as Seven for All Mankind, Citizens for Humanity, and Diesel, among others. These designer brands have become a mark of status that indicates a sort of identity of the person wearing them. Designer jeans carry an insignia on the back pockets that identify the designer brand and how much money the wearer spent, which communicates information about the person wearing the jeans through understood symbols of our culture. Throughout their history, jeans have represented a casual lifestyle. They have humble origins from the beginning when Levi Strauss designed denim pants that were immediately associated with manual labor. Jeans were and are often still worn by manual laborers, which give them a sense of informality and a laid back attitude. But in fact, recent years have proven that celebrities and even college students are willing to pay lots of money for these “casual” jeans that are a sign of high-fashion and class. Wearers of designer jeans are, in fact, paying for the laid-back vibe that jeans give off. While the wearer attempts to appear laid-back and casual, the stitching on the back pocket communicates symbolic information about the person, and the message is clear: "The wearer is someone with disposable capital, who cares about her image, and who knows that other women will be surreptitiously checking out her butt" (Thomas).

Elaborating on the Fashion 'Conversation' [ edit | edit source ]

Symbolic grammar of fashion [ edit | edit source ].

There exists a “grammar of fashion.” The larger the “vocabulary,” or someone’s closet, the more creative and expressive those wearers can be, which enables them to create more “sentences." As a result, wearers are able to portray information about themselves effectively, more effectively, perhaps, than someone who doesn’t have those same means.

The traditional definition of rhetoric holds that it operates to influence behavior and change attitudes. Fashion, as a form of rhetoric, has the same capacity. Style is included as one of Cicero’s five canons of rhetoric. While the traditional meaning of “style” as a canon of rhetoric includes the way a person speaks or presents their language, the meaning of style in the rhetoric of fashion includes the way a person presents him or her self to the world through the clothing they wear (designer brands or not). Cicero had the idea that “the word choice of the speaker has a direct correlation between the audience’s perception of the speaker and his character.” In the rhetoric of fashion, however, “word choice” is shifted to mean clothing choice, designer choice, style choice, etc. While it is an undeniable fact that a person’s style and fashion choices portray a world of meaning about their personality and character, it is an unfortunate fact that many individuals in our society do not have the financial means necessary to “argue for themselves” in the same way that the elite do.

Not only do clothes represent, and express the style of a person, but so does body art in many different modes. Tattooing and body piercing have been practiced in almost every culture for thousands of years (Greif, Hewitt, Armstrong). The body modification movement did not begin in Western culture. In fact, it can be argued that the kinds of changes one makes to her or his physical body plays a large part in the rhetoric an individual is trying to portray.

Body Piercing [ edit | edit source ]

Culturally, there are different reasons why a person would choose to pierce his body. Consistently throughout history, ear lobe piercing has been seen as a mark of feminine beauty(10). It was not until the 1970s, however, that men began to pierce their bodies as well, as a mark of their occupation or their sexual orientation. Today, Western cultures have seen the art of body piercing explode into the mainstream.

According to Joan Jacobs Brumberg in her book The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, “body piercing, once regarded as characteristic of “primitive” people, has emerged in the 1990s as the latest form of self-expression among American adolescents” (Brumberg 130). Instead of having only the option of piercing one’s ears, women (and men) today now can spend hours deciding which body part they would like pierced (eyebrow, lip, nipple, navel, etc) and which piece of jewelry they would like to wear (hoop or post). Brumberg argues that both the homosexual subculture as well as cultural icons like Madonna introduced piercing into the mainstream culture.

In her book Sex , written in the 1980s, Madonna features photographs of both men and women pierced in multiple places on their bodies. She also showed off her navel ring in public and stated that she adopted the look after she saw some members of her homosexual entourage wearing the same piercing. MTV showed teens wide varieties of piercing: they made popular bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana, as well as their piercings. The 1994 Paris runways showed supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington with pierced navels. Because of the overwhelming popularity of such stars in the 1980s and early 1990s, body piercing became the newest fad. But is it rhetorical?

Brumberg argues that “piercing proves, in a public way, that your body is your own” (134). She argues that piercing in the 1990s represented “provocative symbols of a powerful revolution in sexual mores and behavior” (132). Piercing one’s body signals one’s “personal politics” and it becomes a symbol of both “sexual liberation (because piercing symbolizes opposition to conventional sexual norms) and cultural relativism (because it evokes the primitive and the exotic)” (134). Piercing provides easy ways for young people to differentiate themselves from the mainstream adolescent culture, while still being a part of a mainstream subculture.

Tattoos [ edit | edit source ]

A Tattoo, like an ear piercing, was only acceptable in the Western Culture among subculture groups like sailors, prisoners, bikers, and mobsters. Again, like piercing, the homosexual subculture began the tattoo movement to the mainstream.

According to "The Progression of the Tattoo," tattoos are now considered a "unique decoration" in the world of body art because they stay with the person forever. Many people find this idea appealing, and seek to tattoo on themselves an idea or message that will never leave them.

This idea also follows the idea that because body art is more popular in the mainstream culture of Generation X, it can be seen as a divergence from the culture of the previous generation. In this sense, tattooing, like body piercing, can be seen as liberation from the mainstream culture.

Tattoos can also be considered a sign of conformity. At the beginning of the recent tattooing revolution (about twenty years ago) getting a tattoo was a clear sign of deviation. Today, however, tattoos have made their way into the popular culture of the nation: advertisements even have begun to use tattoos in their marketing to appeal to a younger buying demographic. So while before, tattooing was really a sign of the "other," today, it can be argued that wearing a tattoo is only a more permanent way to conform (Kennedy).

Today, between 7 and 20 million American adults are reported to be tattooed (G, H, L). Out of 766 tattooed college students who participated in the survey conducted by Grief, Hewitt, and Armstrong, 53% of the students said that they got a tattoo for self-expression. 35% "just wanted one," 21% got tattooed to remember an event, 17% wanted to feel independent, and 11% wanted independence. The results of the study suggest that "as with all art forms, the purpose of tattoos seems to be to be means of communicating thoughts, ideas, and feelings" (G, H, L).

Associate Professor of Psychology Christina Frederick-Recascino whose research specializes in why college-aged people get tattoos argues that while the body art movement may seem like a fad or a craze, "the majority said they were not getting tattoos and pierces from peer pressure." She states that "they were choosing it as a way to reflect their identity." For many young adults who decide to permanently change their bodies, tattoos "reflects an aspect of who [they are], represents [their] inner personality, [their] interests, life goals, life philosophy" ("Tattoo. Pierce. How Come?"). In that sense, tattoos should be considered vastly rhetorical, because the person is making the decision to permanently inscribe their body with a personal message.

Tattoos and body piercing works alongside the brands and styles of clothes one chooses to wear to create a rhetorical statement about the kind of person one is. In that sense, if clothing makes up the "sentences" in the grammar of fashion than surely it can be argued that tattoos and body piercing are the "punctuation" in those sentences.

Cultural Applications of Fashion Semiotics [ edit | edit source ]

“The whole world loves American movies, blue jeans, jazz, rock and roll. It is probably a better way to get to know our country than by what politicians or airline commercials represent.” —Billy Joel

“Busted flat in Baton Rouge, Waitin' for a train, When I was feelin' near as faded as my jeans” —Janis Joplin

One common definition of culture is described as the “values, norms, institutions and artifacts” that are “passed on from one generation to another by learning alone” (Hoult 93). Often the interrogation of cultural meaning leads to categorizing and dividing into subsystems such as “sociological” and “technological”. These subsystems address “people and their interactions with each other”, and “material objects and their uses”, respectively (Forsberg). But are there some cases where the social interactions are defined by the objects we use? What about the clothing we wear? When speaking of culture and our clothes—blue jeans in particular—no amount of dividing and categorizing can mitigate the deep and rich cultural milieu surrounding the ‘all American blue jean’. The sentiment often seen or heard in movies and books is the ‘favorite pair’ or ‘perfect pair’ of blue jeans. The symbolic significance of jeans is seen in the intense marketing efforts. There are plenty of images associating a certain brand with the 'ideal'. But this is true for almost any consumer product in our society. So what makes blue jeans so different? Is it their long history? Or is it the constant accessibility to diverse tools of expression that jeans offer? Jeans can be powerful symbols bearing significant meaning; the cut, the brand and also the 'way' jeans are worn. Are they unkempt and worn out? Are they stained and soiled, bearing the oily signs of a gear-head or motorcycle fanatic? Or perhaps you own a bedazzler... enough said. The meaning-rich subtexts from advertising and pop culture offer a variety of identity 'markers' and identity 'tellers'. It's because the identity markers and tellers are widely accepted and understood that makes the symbolic meaning so effective.

How far can we go in discussing the symbolic power of blue jeans in our society? Can a pair of pants really define our values, or norms, play a role in our institutions or be labeled as artifacts? It is very clear that in America (and nearly everywhere else), denim jeans represent behemoths of symbolic culture. From the earliest account of canvas overalls in the mid-nineteenth century California Gold Rush to James Dean and Marlon Brando to the legendary '501 Blues' campaign in the '80s, jeans have been omnipresent in American cultural landscapes. The “501 Blues” campaign was arguably the one move that launched Levi’s to cultural icon status. Those images today are touted as blackmailing material for such 501-era actors like Bruce Willis who may guest-star on late-night television; but in their day, those images really made an impression. There were few things I wanted more than button-fly 501 Levi's (zippers weren’t cool). My Mom tried to pass off ‘Lee’ jeans or ‘Wranglers’ as suitable substitutes but I wouldn’t have it. I had seen the commercials, I knew what was cool and what wasn’t. Plus, I had already endured years of persecution as a kid from having to wear a bullet-proof variety of pants known (appropriately) as ‘Tough Skins’. And to make matters worse, they were hand-me-downs (and olive-green).

Jackie Kennedy - A Symbol of Fashion [ edit | edit source ]

Jackie Kennedy is an important figure in discussing the rhetoric of fashion. As the first lady, she was part of the elite, ruling class. As is normally the case with fashion trends, the ruling class establishes the fashion trends, and lower classes then attempt to emulate those styles. Those who imitated Jackie Kennedy's style did so not only because they liked her sense of style, but they also wanted to identify with those aspects of her life that her style brought with it: wealth, power, and social status. Celebrity figures such as Jackie Kennedy provide us with the most accessible vision of what it means to be wealthy. Their style and their fashion choices become culturally understood symbols that represent wealth and power.

Once the “refined taste” of the elite is adopted by lower classes, (for example imitation Louis Vuitton handbags, fake Chanel sunglasses) the elite then shift gears and establish a new high-fashion trend that places them back at the top of the fashion pyramid. Many times, the trend among the elite is to wear clothing that appears “casual” and “low-maintenance,” (all while costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars) – but as soon as the actual casual and low maintenance wearers adapt those trends, the style changes (Remirez).

This cycle happens for two reasons. First, there is a need for a union. Consumers, high and low classes alike, feel the need to belong to a larger society; they want to be seen as fashionable in the eyes of their audience who maybe their peers, their coworkers, or family members. In order to appear fashionable, consumers wear those pieces of clothing that are socially constructed symbols of fashion. Second, there is a need for isolation. While style-setters and style-emulators both wish to belong to the larger society, there is also the need to be considered apart from the larger whole, to establish themselves as unique individuals with a distinctive taste (Remirez).

Not only do fashion choices and brand names act as symbols that communicate information about the social or economic status of a person, but they also have the capability to communicate an ideology about our society and the power that fashion has within it. An ideology is an accepted pattern or set of ideas, such as what is or is not considered fashionable in a particular culture. For our culture, acceptable fashion trends are typically adopted by celebrities and the elite. An ideology is constructed and consumed through fashion, and this ideology about what is fashionable becomes hegemonic or dominant when it is viewed as the norm.

Although norms are established, there still exists the need for isolation and distinction. This need for individuality from the larger whole of society represents a certain characteristic within our society: we praise uniqueness and individuality; we look highly upon those individuals who have the independence to dress uniquely and who also have the financial means to do so.

The traditional definition of rhetoric holds that it operates to influence behavior and change attitudes. Fashion, as a form of rhetoric, has the same capacity.

Deeper [ edit | edit source ]

On a deeper level of understanding the meanings of fashion, first the designer’s philosophy, history and personal choices, second its idealism of the icons it follows and how it applies it to its designs such as the manner it uses textiles and fabrics. The pattern and how original it is.

Originality and deeper Instance of Redundancy.

Do you personally believe in original idea, Yes, maybe if I were born in the 1700’s or further during the art revolution of the 1800’s where such art movement in fashion has evolved from personal need into personal presentation of statement. So if I were to say that originality is fundamental in fashion design I say it is not because there is no original idea, only modified art, established in new ways of marketing it, and the fashion house machinery that makes the designer fundamentally truthful and has or is proven revenues. So yes, commercialism and originality will never tantamount to purified or purist original idea. Unless everything being known in the world of modern fashion design it basically deleted; then original idea is pure and can be addressed to one claim. But no.

In my world of fashion understandings I have concluded that there is two followings drawn in three shapes.

Square - World Balance, east west south and north. (no religious affiliation, Agnostic.) hedonistic, pleasure driven since at some point it has concluded into the balance, Letting go is an issue if not fully recovered from the in-balance (Id)

Circle - Original instance of redundancy, Faith driven the usual shopping of faith. the basic need to follow if not being followed. Revered. (SuperEgo)

Triangle - Three fundamentalist, formulations of basic structures can be very catholic. Son, Ghost & God (Ego)

To name some of the designers in this category, will take me some research, which I have no time to do so. But at some point in my early years of starting [Keoki Menswear] since 2013 I follow the shapes. irregular manner and depends on the season,

this is my formula of making my designs less obviously functioning as attention seeker but rather modified or better yet advance thought forwarding.

Conclusion [ edit | edit source ]

The fashion of individuals, of a group, of a nation, reads much like a conversation; highlighting certain codes and symbols to represent sentences that are able to explain identity. A person can use their clothes and their overall fashion to represent power, status, differentiation, character, mood, apathy, or rebellion all in many different manifestations. Although a person can change the conversation of their clothes on a daily basis, the origin of what is said comes from the semiotics of the culture that a person comes from. Just as semiotics can change with time, fashion and its meaning changes, at times it seems daily.

Sources [ edit | edit source ]

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. Vintage Books: New York, 1997. 130-137.

Davis, Fred. Fashion, Culture, and Identity. The University of Chicago Press: 1994. Pg. 5.

Greif, Judith, Walter Hewitt, and Myrna L. Armstrong. "Tattooing and Body Piercing: Body Art Practices Among College Students." Clinical Nursing Research, 1999. 15 Apr 2007.

Kennedy, Eric. "The Progression of the Tattoo." Trincoll Journal 1995 15 Apr 2007 < http://www.trincoll.edu/zines/tj/tj12.7.95/articles/tattoo.html >.

Malandro, Loretta A., Larry Barker, and Deborah A. Barker. Nonverbal Communication. 2nd ed. New York: Random House, 1989.

Morris, D. Manwatching: A field guide to human behavior . New York: Harry N. Abrams, pp. 213-217

Rampley, Matthew. Exploring Visual Culture: Definitions, concepts, contexts. Edinburgh University Press. 2005. Pp 67-84.

Remirez, Christine Marie. Fashion as Communication: Jacqueline Kenney's Rhetoric of Style.Diss: Florida Atlantic University, 1999. AAI1395512.

"Tattoo. Pierce. How Come?." The Body as Canvas. 2004. University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. 19 Apr 2007 < http://whyfiles.org/206tattoo/3.html >.

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The Language of Fashion: How Clothing Communicates Cultural Identity

The language of fashion : how clothing communicates cultural identity.

Fashion has always been a powerful tool for self-expression and a reflection of cultural identity. From the traditional clothing of indigenous communities to the avant-garde designs of modern fashion houses, clothing speaks volumes about who we are and where we come from.

Introduction: The Power of Clothing in Communication

Clothing is a universal language that transcends borders, cultures, and languages. It is a form of nonverbal communication that can convey a wide range of emotions, attitudes, and beliefs. Clothing can express our personality, our social status, our gender identity, and our cultural heritage. It can also serve as a form of protest, a statement of solidarity, or a symbol of resistance.

Fashion as a Reflection of Cultural Identity

Fashion is intimately connected to cultural identity. It reflects the values, beliefs, and traditions of a particular community or society. Traditional clothing, for example, is often passed down from generation to generation and is an important part of cultural heritage. It can also serve as a way to preserve and celebrate a community's unique identity.

Fashion designers often draw inspiration from their cultural heritage, incorporating traditional motifs, fabrics, and techniques into their designs. This not only helps to preserve cultural traditions but also promotes cultural exchange and understanding.

Clothing as a Tool for Social and Political Expression

Clothing can also be a powerful tool for social and political expression. Throughout history, people have used clothing to express their political beliefs, protest against injustice, and show solidarity with marginalized communities.

In the 1960s, for example, the civil rights movement in the United States saw activists wearing dashikis and other African-inspired clothing as a way to show pride in their heritage and protest against racial discrimination. Similarly, the punk rock movement in the 1970s saw young people wearing ripped clothing, safety pins, and other DIY fashion as a way to rebel against mainstream culture and express their dissatisfaction with the status quo.

The Future of Fashion and Its Role in Cultural Exchange

As the world becomes more connected, fashion is playing an increasingly important role in cultural exchange. Fashion designers are drawing inspiration from a wide range of cultures and traditions, creating a new fusion of styles that reflects the global nature of our society.

At the same time, fashion is also becoming more inclusive and diverse, with designers and brands embracing models of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. This is helping to break down cultural barriers and promote greater understanding and acceptance of different cultures.

In conclusion, clothing is much more than just a way to cover our bodies. It is a powerful tool for self-expression, cultural preservation, and social and political change. As fashion continues to evolve, it will play an increasingly important role in promoting cultural exchange and understanding, and in shaping the way we express ourselves and our identities.

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Fashion: does it define us.

Sabrina Guilbeault and Keegan Espinola | March 12, 2014

Fashion. It’s how we express ourselves and it’s our way to show the world who we are. People can dress up, dress down, wear jeans, dresses, or any type of clothing that allows them to share their individuality. It’s obvious what things are in and out of style, but the question is: does fashion define who we are as people?

Today’s society is in love with brand names and whether we acknowledge it or not, we let fashion influence us, even at DHS. The North Face, Uggs, Patagonia, Steve Madden, Hunter Boots, and Abercrombie & Fitch are just some of the brands the average DHS student may see when walking down the hallway.

“I try not to let clothes define people,” said history teacher Laurie Chiarito, “but occasionally it does.” We all have beautiful and unique personalities and there is no denying that the outfits and styles we wear reflects these  personalities.

“I think fashion defines a person because it can mainly express an individual’s personality or attitude,” said junior Jordan Pinto. People often wear things based on who they are. For example, a student athlete might wear more athletic gear than a student who’s not interested in sports.

“You don’t have to choose fashion as a way to express yourself,” said freshman Colleen O’Boyle. She explained she loves her four pairs of Converse, but that shouldn’t define her as a person.

However, clothing and accessories can stereotype a person. For example, we both have black rimmed glasses, and we feel much more intelligent when we wear them. Physically putting on glasses doesn’t make us any smarter, but it can give off the illusion that we are.

Either way, do our glasses or anything else we wear define us? “It depends if you’re really in depth with fashion,” said sophomore Alice Goodman who said she does not allow fashion to define her. “I’m a multilayered person, like many Americans.”

“Fashion speaks for itself and defines a person without speaking,” said junior Annie Nguyen. “I feel like more people care about [fashion] at DHS though.”

Nguyen, who once attended New Bedford High, explained how the need to wear similar styles is more prevalent here than at NBHS. “It seems like everyone dresses alike and has the same style instead of being original,” she said.

Not only do certain styles “define” us, but at times we let brand names define us well.

When you walk into Macy’s there are obviously better parts of the store than others. As a society we are more drawn to the “better parts” where the products in style are being sold. An anonymous source said that when shopping at Macy’s, she would not look at any other shoe brand besides Sperrys.

“Brand names are a part of the culture we are growing up through,” said sophomore Lucy Schwartz. “It’s hard to buy a purse or shirt without someone else’s initials stamped onto it.”

Some people love brand names because it makes them feel better about themselves when they’re wearing it. That’s why it’s called retail therapy.

Sometimes, though, it’s not the brands that define us, but the confidence we have when we wear certain styles. “As for brand names, I don’t think they are important,” said Pinto. “Whether you’re wearing clothes from Target or Victoria’s Secret, it all depends on how you put an outfit together, and the confidence you have in a put-together outfit.”

It is true that everyone has different styles, and that is made evident through the choices we make in our outfits for school. However, sometimes people define us based on what we wear, which isn’t always a good thing. “If you dress inappropriately you will be judged for it,” said sophomore Owen Tavares.

We realize that fashion shouldn’t define us, but it does. Fashion is an ever growing industry and it gives us the opportunity to share who we are in a multitude of different ways.

“Fashion is important because it shows a level of self expression that is hard to reach nowadays,” said Schwartz. “The popular thing is to blend into the crowd, and fashion helps break that feeling.”

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Munah Rioh • Jul 19, 2020 at 7:51 am

A good piece to read. I normally dress to the occasions so to blend in the crowd or a smarter way to avoid unnecessary attention. As much as I love fashion, I would rather hunt for practical clothes that have multi-functional, both for office and leisure. In that way, I can save my budget. At time, tailoring clothes are my utmost preference as they really fits and satisfying. Thus, anything comfortable would define me.

Alden Smith • Nov 18, 2019 at 2:54 am

Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, very great post. It is a very informative article for me. I like to live in fashion and bought my fashionable clothes always from hong kong ace tailor L & K Bespoke tailor and that tailor-made clothes always define me as I want.

MarleneWood • Oct 6, 2019 at 9:07 pm

A very useful article, thank you. I’m busy doing some research on ‘How We Express Ourselves’ for my Year 5 & 6 students. One of our Lines of Inquiry is ‘Fashion as a form of expression’.

I love fashion, follow some trends, but I have over the years developed my own style (even this is forever changing).

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What to wear for public speaking (and what absolutely positively not to wear) before your next speech

by Kolarele Sonaike

I wasn’t really naked. I simply didn’t have any clothes on – Josephine Baker

What to wear. What to wear. What to wear for public speaking.

What to wear for public speaking is a much more important question than even I used to think. In my practice as a barrister, the options for clothes were pretty limited. Dark Suit, white shirt, dark tie, dark shoes, dark gown – and on top of it all a funny looking white wig made of horse hair! First impressions matter in all things, and public speaking is no different. Even before you say your first word, the audience will make a silent judgment about you, based largely on the way you look. Make the right impression, and you’ll get the audience on side from the start. Get it wrong, and however strong your speech, your audience will spend the whole time distracted by your clashing colours.

From the jeans and turtleneck of Steve Jobs to the colourful and elegant headscarves of Malala Yousafzai, what you wear can often have as much impact on the message people receive, as what you actually say.

So before you suffer your next wardrobe malfunction, here are some tips to consider on what to wear for public speaking and what you absolutely positively should not wear before your next speech. It’s a long list, but don’t be scared. The one rule to rule them all is… Be Yourself!

The Three Things to Think About

When it comes to choosing what to wear for public speaking, there are basically three things to think about:

• Comfort & Practicality

“Style is whatever you want to do, if you can do it with confidence” George Clinton

S ubstance, of course, is key when it comes to speechmaking. You can’t get away with weak content and cover it up by looking good. But beyond the content of your speech, the style you bring to the stage is still massively important for two big reasons: One – the impression your audience gets of you; Two – the confidence you get from looking good.

Annie Francesca, the Reinvention Stylist recommends that we ask ourselves

“ What clothes can I wear that will make me feel powerful? Look for clothing that makes you feel as if you are literally wearing a superhero cape. When you dress in the way that reflects the person you want to show up on stage, you literally attract that magic”

The things to consider when thinking about the style of what you wear are:

• do you personally feel confident in the outfit?
• can you add a signature piece? Something that uniquely represents you? (I have a thing for yellow socks!)
• choose your primary colour carefully (here’s a good article for the meaning of certain colours)
• think about the backdrop to your speech (if it’s going to be a black backdrop you probably want to avoid black clothes; if you’ve got a white backdrop or screen, avoid white – especially if you’re going to be on video as light levels can play havoc with white clothes)
• hair – if you’re follicly challenged like me, this isn’t so much of a worry. Otherwise, consider things like – will your hair be combed, unkept, tied up, swept back, styled, kept natural etc.
• beards – clean shaven, stubbled, full bearded
• glasses – will you wear glasses or contacts
• culture – consider the culture of the country, region, industry, company, audience and be sure that what you wear comports with the culture
• skirt & blouse, dress or trouser suit
• smart or casual or smart casual or casually smart (is there a difference?) ; street or corporate;
• Ironed or rumpled?
• jewellery & accessories – what will you wear?  what impression will they create?
• the occasion – what is appropriate for the occasion itself
• shoes – colour, style, formality, stilettos vs flats; brogues or trainers; polished
• skin showing – bare or covered arms; high/low neckline; open/closed buttons; cleavage
• skin tone – pale skin often benefits from darker shades, whilst darker skin will often carry off lighter colours well. I love pink shirts for instance!
• makeup – heavy, light, natural, accentuated
• loose or tight fitting clothes
• hat, cap, headscarf or open
• cologne/perfume – will you use any? What scent? How strong?
• breath – your mouth will get very dry, which will probably accentuate your breath. Consider what you eat beforehand. I personally get very conscious of my breath during a speech so I’ll always carry some mentos for emergencies

Chimamanda Ngozie

Don’t try to be anyone else but yourself. It isn’t worth it!

COMFORT & PRACTICALITY

Carl Lewis for Pirelli

No sense looking great if it affects your performance. At the same time you consider style, you’ve got to think about your comfort and the practicalities of giving a presentation. Think about:

• will it allow for movement (of your arms, neck, legs, bending, demonstrating) – I feel really constricted with a buttoned-up shirt so any chance I get I dispense with my tie and undo the top button. So think about the practicality of suits, pencil skirts, tight tops
• sweat patches – some tops don’t handle sweat well at all. So, unless you know you’ll be as cool as a cucumber, plan for the inevitable sweat
• temperature of the venue – will you get too hot/cold
• spare clothes – do you need to bring a spare of something in case of problems?
• Shoes – especially if you are standing
• tears, stains, loose threads, missing buttons etc – check your outfit for defects because they’ll bother you otherwise

You will have 100 other things to worry about when the moment of your speech comes, so don’t make what you wear thing number 101.

You’ve thought about your style and your comfort. But remember, this is ultimately about the impression you make on your audience. So the final and most important thing to consider is what message you want to make with what you wear for public speaking. We saw a classic example of this with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck is normally a T-shirt and hoodie guy because it fits with his non-corporate accessible techie image. But he knew that that wouldn’t cut it for his appearance to answer questions before an angry (non-tech savvy) US Congress.

So we saw him in a sharp tailor-made sober suit and standard blue tie. Message – I’m serious about this. So, think about:

• matching or challenging your audience’s expectations – do you want to blend in or stand out? Are you one of them or apart from them?
• the tone you are giving about yourself – are you serious, funny, professional, relaxed, accessible, austere, affluent, humble
• jewellery and accessories – are they distracting, jangling or noisy?
• Colours – every colour has a meaning so choose carefully .
• will you use a meaningful prop e.g. scientist’s lab coat; yo-yo

Be in control of the message your appearance gives so that there is perfect consistency and symmetry between your look and your message.

And some Dos & Don’ts 

• Do have a dress rehearsal. Practise your presentation in full dress. It will help you decide whether you’ve chosen wisely
• Don’t wear red if you’re a woman.  According to research , red as a primary colour for an outfit apparently signals sexual receptiveness to men, and triggers defensiveness in women
• Do pick two outfits the day before and sleep on it. The right one will pick itself in the morning.
• Don’t wear stripes unless you are a fashion expert and absolutely confident in your choice. Moving stripes play havoc with eyes and cameras
• Do get a friend to give you a 360 check just before you speak. You won’t notice fluff on your back, an open fly, or spinach in your teeth
• Don’t over worry about your look. You have a 99% chance of being absolutely fine. And even if you end up looking a bit odd, your audience won’t hold it against you.

I guess all that remains is to show you my personal go to public speaking costume. Grey suit, pink shirt (though it looks kind of white on camera), no tie open button (cos I hate ties); a single button done up on my jacket so I’m neat but my arms are not restricted. Although you cant see it, my shoes were black and polished and of course, I was wearing yellow socks!

If you’ve got this far, you’ll definitely like my free live webinar: How to become an outstanding public speaker even if you are not a natural performer and without being overwhelmed by fear 

Kolarele sonaike, the great speech consultancy, pin it on pinterest.