"The clothes make the man." We are all very familiar with this quote. What’s more, we might even be living under this motto, consciously or not. Fashion and identity - these two can not be separated. We dress according to what we think we are. And we know that people in the past did that as well. In fact, that practice extends back to prehistory. According to my Archaeology 2 professor just this last semester, when the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens met some time in prehistory, art boomed - not only cave art but also body accessories. Both human species made more art - more accessories of their own - as a way of distinguishing themselves and saying, "You are you; we are us."
"Don't judge the book by its cover", not taken literally, doesn't seem to be applicable to humans after all - when we judge or merely get an idea about a person by his/her “cover”. We humans have always been aware of fashion's vital role in establishing the wearer's identity and place.
But how do "clothes make the man"? I have been finding answers for this and here's what I found out. (Thanks to the help of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s essay *)
Self-expression
People dress because of the need for self-expression.
“Fashion is not about utility. An accessory is merely a piece of iconography used to express individual identity.” from The Devil Wears Prada
We do not merely dress just for the sake of not being naked or just for the sake of the clothes’ functions. Moreover, if one chooses to clothe himself just for survival or utility, then fashion would not be existent for the use of different styles and designs of clothes would be of no purpose. We tend to wear clothes that we think best expresses our personality; this is greatly seen in stereotypes, especially in youth, who Charles Taylor says in his essay "Fashion and Identity" is the group on which expressive individualism has been growing stronger. A youth who identifies himself punk (and therefore acts like one) would wear outlandish fashion which often involves a lot of black and rock culture emblems; while a girly youth would wear cute, feminine clothes usually pink.
Impression
And this brings us then to the other people’s perception or impression of the wearer. People dress because they seek other’s impression and perception of them. Rhian Ramos, a famous actress in the Philippines, once said in a tv program about fashion that a fashionista is someone whose clothing instantly tells people who they really are. That’s what we want. We dress the way we do because we want other people to perceive and view us as what we think we are. In my previous example, the punk youth wants people to characterize him as belonging to the punk group.
Response
And with the looker’s impression of the wearer comes a response. People dress because they expect response from others. Once a person has established his identity (through the clothes he’s wearing) in other people’s perception, people then respond the way they think they should respond to someone in that group or with that personality. In our example, the punk youth would be looked upon by many conservative adults as hardheaded, troublesome, and well… punk. But many who also consider themselves punk would think of him as cool and may want to be friends with him.
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*Part of Charles Taylor’s essay “Fashion and Identity”
“The resulting general structure is not that of common action but rather that of mutual display. It matters to each of us as we act that the others are there, as witnesses of what we are doing, and thus as co-determin¬ers of the meaning of our action.
Spaces of this kind become more and more impor¬tant in modern urban society where large numbers of people rub shoulders, unknown to each other, with¬out dealings with each other, and yet affecting each other, forming the inescapable context of each other’s lives. As against the everyday rush to work on the sub¬way, where the others can sink to the status of obsta¬cles in my way, city life has developed other ways of being-with, for instance, as we each take our Sunday walk in the park; or as we mingle at the summer street-festival, or in the stadium before the playoff game. Here each individual or small group acts on its own, but aware that its display says something to the others, will be responded to by them, will help build a common mood or tone that will color everyone’s actions.”
