Fashion Identity
‘‘Fashion provides one of the most ready means through which individuals can make expressive visual statements about their identities’’. Bennet, A. (2005). Culture and Everyday Life. London: Sage. p. 96.
Discuss this statement with reference to individual examples.
As Bennet suggests in the above statement, People use fashion as one of the easiest and realistic ways in which they can express their personality and their true identity to show to others in their everyday life to show their own idealistic attitudes and values and to what kind of person they are. But can we as an audience truly make an assumption as to a person’s character from simply what they wear? Particularly focusing on the male identity and fashion masculinity; this essay will explore the many contradictions of how the twenty first century male has evolved and changed his fashion identity over the years, to become what we perceive as a more fashion conscious man of today. Or is he?
In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (1890), Oscar Wilde speculated that ‘‘With an evening coat and white tie anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation fro being civilized’’. Profoundly suggesting that one merely needs to change his appearance to become someone else; Wilde explores the idea that appearance and not identity is defined by what you wear, dismissing Bennet’s original idea that we form our identity from our choice of fashion. Is it that a man as non-reputable as a stockbroker can simply change his identity with the addition of a white tie to his outfit? Can a man who begs in the street in the morning be given enough money to purchase his own white tie and wear it that same evening ending the day with a different persona to what he started as? Is it that in today’s modern media world that we mentally make the judgement of who the person in front of us is - whether they are on the streets or at a dinner in a white tie - by simply what they are wearing?
Bernard Roetzel says that ‘‘A real
Discuss this statement with reference to individual examples.
As Bennet suggests in the above statement, People use fashion as one of the easiest and realistic ways in which they can express their personality and their true identity to show to others in their everyday life to show their own idealistic attitudes and values and to what kind of person they are. But can we as an audience truly make an assumption as to a person’s character from simply what they wear? Particularly focusing on the male identity and fashion masculinity; this essay will explore the many contradictions of how the twenty first century male has evolved and changed his fashion identity over the years, to become what we perceive as a more fashion conscious man of today. Or is he?
In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (1890), Oscar Wilde speculated that ‘‘With an evening coat and white tie anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation fro being civilized’’. Profoundly suggesting that one merely needs to change his appearance to become someone else; Wilde explores the idea that appearance and not identity is defined by what you wear, dismissing Bennet’s original idea that we form our identity from our choice of fashion. Is it that a man as non-reputable as a stockbroker can simply change his identity with the addition of a white tie to his outfit? Can a man who begs in the street in the morning be given enough money to purchase his own white tie and wear it that same evening ending the day with a different persona to what he started as? Is it that in today’s modern media world that we mentally make the judgement of who the person in front of us is - whether they are on the streets or at a dinner in a white tie - by simply what they are wearing?
Bernard Roetzel says that ‘‘A real
Bibliography: Flocker, M.(2003) The Metrosexual A Guide to Style, Da Capo Press Gibson, P C (2006) The Fashion Handbook, Routledge **http://direct.asda.com/george/mens-shirts/D2M1G10C2,default,sc.html *http://www.mrporter.com/product/181714 [Accessed 15th March 2012] http://www.zimbio.com/Grayson+Perry/articles/1573388/Quote+from+Grayson+Perry [Accessed 15th March 2012] Roetzel, B. (2004) Gentleman, A Timeless Fashion, Tandem Verlag GmbH Sims, J. (2011) Icon’s of Men’s Fashion, Laurence King Publishing Steele (1989), Fashion Masculinity, Dressed for Comfort or Style ISHE Reader Wilde, O. (1890) The Picture of Dorian Gray