Lotte Hardlitschke
Y2K, casual, boho-chic, street style or goth. The options of clothing styles out there are endless. But why do we choose to dress a certain way anyway? Do we do it for ourselves, for others, for neither or both?
The clothes we wear, of course, depend on the context – you probably wouldn’t show up to a job interview wearing a bathing suit (well, I guess it depends on the job you applied for…). But even in similar contexts, for example a lecture on campus, we see people wearing all different kinds of styles and clothes. Over the past few days, I have tried to take a look at all the different clothing styles I see people wearing around campus. I’ve seen people wearing comfy joggers, others all in black and some people with perfectly curated outfits you just know they spent hours thinking about. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that there is a right answer to what to wear to which occasion. On the contrary, I feel it’s the plurality of clothing that makes fashion so interesting. My question is: why do we dress up in general?
FASHION IS NOT JUST WEARING CLOTHES – IT CAN BE CONSIDERED A FORM OF ART. A WAY OF EXPRESSING ON THE OUTSIDE WHAT WE FEEL ON THE INSIDE.
Clothes = Identity
The first years of our life we don’t really get to decide what to wear. Our parents pick out our clothes (and sometimes they’re trying to set us up, I swear!), then school dress codes limit our options or we wear certain clothes just to fit in. But sooner or later we finally get to decide what we want to wear. And this decision is not as easy as it sounds. Fashion is not just wearing clothes – it can be considered a form of art. A way of expressing on the outside what we feel on the inside. Showing others what we want them to see. Our clothes can be used to curate our identity. 
Identity in itself is made up of so many different parts that it’s almost impossible to grasp: class, religion, gender, nationality. And even philosophers still can’t decide what identity really is! Of course, it’d be way too high a goal to define identity, but to get to the base, research shows that by dressing up we want to address certain parts of our identity. We systematically exclude ourselves from certain groups while desperately trying to conform to others.
To give an example: maybe you think wearing skinny jeans is so outdated and something only millennials do. Therefore, you choose to not wear them. Of course, cultural expectations of clothing are subject to change (who knows, some people already think skinny jeans are back on the rise) and simply wearing things because they are trendy right now is arguably not the right solution. But it still influences our decision-making process. Okay, now that we have established the importance of identity in the clothes we choose, let’s talk about how societal norms play into this!
Society is in our minds (always)
I think most people would agree that as soon as they get home, no matter what they were wearing outside, they switch into comfy clothing. And on a day we don’t leave the house, most people probably just keep on wearing their pyjamas for the entire day. So, if we decide to dress up only when we’re leaving the house, that must mean we only dress up to impress other people, right?
In my opinion, that’s only part of the answer. Of course society (as always) has something to do with how we dress. Societal norms define our understanding of clothes in general, even if we decide not to adhere to them. If you do decide to wear that bathing suit to a job interview as an act of defiance, that still means you have societal norms in the back of your mind influencing your actions.
SO, EVEN IF I DECIDE TO DRESS UP TO EXPRESS MYSELF AND MY FEELINGS, I STILL OPERATE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIETAL NORMS
Most of the time, society is so deeply integrated in our minds that it is hard to decide why we choose to act. Even if I feel like I’m shaving my legs because I just like the feeling of freshly shaven legs, it is most definitely societal standards that influence me subconsciously. So, even if I decide to dress up to express myself and my feelings, I still operate within the framework of societal norms.
So we only dress up to impress?
But does that mean that everything we do is meaningless and only an act for other people? Definitely not! We can still decide to do things that we like and we can still decide to wear the neon pink scarf with orange flowers on it because it makes us feel like us. And even if we still haven’t found our perfect style that reflects our personality in every way, each style we try out helps us on the way of finding the best way to express ourselves.
Here I want to give a shoutout to all the people out there who sometimes do decide to dress up alone in their room, even when they have nowhere to go. Sometimes we just feel creative, maybe want to try out something new. And I think that’s amazing! Even if we don’t yet feel comfortable enough to wear those clothes outside, it is important to try out new things and leave our comfort zone. And if you don’t care about clothes at all and just want to be comfy all day long, that is also more than fine – it doesn’t have to be that deep. The most important thing to remember is always to do the things that make you happy, no matter what other people think of you. And that’s all that counts.
Lotte Hardlitschke
Feature image courtesy of Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of Kate Bezzubets on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of Katsiaryna Endruszkiewicz on Unsplash Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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