Clothes - for Individuality or Conformity's Sake
RESEARCH PAPER:
The reasons why people wear what they wear
Done by: Marcus
Introduction
A walk through any cultural museum gives us glimpses of how our earliest ancestors looked like. We may remember and characterize them by their unkempt hair and exhibition of unruly behaviour. But can any of us remember what they used to wear? If you look closely enough at the exhibits, you will realize that most of our ancestors roamed the earth with nothing but a few pieces of animal skin or leaves on their body. Little did we know, that those few pieces of animal skin are the earliest forms of clothing. Now, let’s fast forward in time and take a look at today’s world. As you turn around the bend to any busy street in the world, endless lines of boutiques will greet you with sophistication and glamour to the tastes of Chanel, Gucci and many more just like these. Waltzing out of their glass doors, you will find shoppers with illuminated faces of indescribable joy laden with huge shopping bags filled with their buys. Comparing the wide array of clothes which vary in colour, texture and material that are available to us now and the limited choices that our ancestors had, it is clear that the look of clothes has evolved tremendously with the passing of time.
Let us now examine whether the purposes clothes have changed. Back then, clothes were made with two simple objectives. Firstly, they were worn to conceal human parts for the purpose of modesty (Harms, 1938). Secondly, they helped to increase survivability (Danesi, 2006, p. 496) and were often “perceived as additions to our protective bodily hair and skin thickness” (Danesi, 2006, p. 496). But today, clothes have become more sophisticated and have changed from mere “objects for the body” to “cultural objects” (Bovone, 2006 p. 377) that can actually “articulate the soul” (Bovone, 2006 p. 377). It is also ironic to see how people today use clothes to accentuate body parts, such that they can act as
The reasons why people wear what they wear
Done by: Marcus
Introduction
A walk through any cultural museum gives us glimpses of how our earliest ancestors looked like. We may remember and characterize them by their unkempt hair and exhibition of unruly behaviour. But can any of us remember what they used to wear? If you look closely enough at the exhibits, you will realize that most of our ancestors roamed the earth with nothing but a few pieces of animal skin or leaves on their body. Little did we know, that those few pieces of animal skin are the earliest forms of clothing. Now, let’s fast forward in time and take a look at today’s world. As you turn around the bend to any busy street in the world, endless lines of boutiques will greet you with sophistication and glamour to the tastes of Chanel, Gucci and many more just like these. Waltzing out of their glass doors, you will find shoppers with illuminated faces of indescribable joy laden with huge shopping bags filled with their buys. Comparing the wide array of clothes which vary in colour, texture and material that are available to us now and the limited choices that our ancestors had, it is clear that the look of clothes has evolved tremendously with the passing of time.
Let us now examine whether the purposes clothes have changed. Back then, clothes were made with two simple objectives. Firstly, they were worn to conceal human parts for the purpose of modesty (Harms, 1938). Secondly, they helped to increase survivability (Danesi, 2006, p. 496) and were often “perceived as additions to our protective bodily hair and skin thickness” (Danesi, 2006, p. 496). But today, clothes have become more sophisticated and have changed from mere “objects for the body” to “cultural objects” (Bovone, 2006 p. 377) that can actually “articulate the soul” (Bovone, 2006 p. 377). It is also ironic to see how people today use clothes to accentuate body parts, such that they can act as