Clothing: It Does Speak To Us

Have you ever looked at someone or a picture of someone and judged them by what they are wearing? Most likely we are all guilty of this. This has been going on for hundreds probably even thousands of years. We go back to the story of Marx’s Coat by Peter Stallybrass and how in the 1850’s Marx, who had to pawn his overcoat knew that it would affect his status in society and even opportunities. Since it was winter time and the weather was cold, without an overcoat to wear people who did not know Marx would classify him as a poor, unworthy, uneducated man. Although he may have been poor Marx was a writer, which meant he was at least somewhat educated. Marx needed to make money and he needed to go to the British Museum in order to research to help him write.  However without that overcoat he would not be allowed in. This reminds me of certain places we have today. Certain places such as restaurants, dance clubs, country clubs, and lounges have dress codes. If you are not dressed a certain way than you are not allowed in the establishment. Even if you have a ticket you will be denied access and most likely judged by people around you who are going in and out, just as Marx would be without his overcoat.

This brings me to the other reading from this past week and that is the “Clothing as Language: An Object Lesson in the Study of the Expressive Properties of Material Culture” by Grant McCracken. Think about the first three words of this chapter, “Clothing as Language.” Isn’t it true? Clothing is like a language. When you see an article of clothing anywhere, whether in a store or on a person, does it not speak to you in some way? You interpret something from it. In McCracken’s research he surveyed several people by showing them articles of clothing and gave them a list of vocabulary words to choose from to identify what type of person they think would wear it.

The first time I saw the wedding dress assigned to me I thought about who I thought would wear this. Since it is blue and brown and somewhat shiny I thought that probably a middle class woman wore it. That was all just going off what I first saw. When we first see an article of clothing we get a first impression. We need to remember that just like a first impression with a person that after the first impression with an article of clothing there is still so much we do not know. If we take the time to get to know and research the piece we may uncover things that have been waiting to be uncovered for years. This past week I went to the Historical Society in Lancaster, PA where I have uncovered things about the dress that by just looking at it you would never be able to tell.