Many people hit the streets, the office, the world with how they look at the forefront of their psyches. They wake up, look in the mirror and think, damn what can I change about who looks back? The answer they find is usually their clothes.
What makes clothes so important? I have spent many a sleepless night pondering the natural urge that I have that fashion and clothes are important to me. First, I realize that my clothes are truly a means of defining who I am. When people see how I dress, they assume things about me, about how much money I have, many of which are not necessarily true. They give a cloak, behind which I can hind my personal life, the struggles I have, the things I hold dear. The second truth about clothes did not hit me until I read an essay by Frantz Fanon.
The essay was called “Algeria Unveiled” and was about the European fascination with unveiling the Algeria women. Though it was a very interesting piece, most of what was said was not directly related to my love for the fashionable. But, he started off his writing by positing that clothes are what lets you know you are in a foreign land, away from home, in a different culture.
“The way people clothe themselves, together with the traditions of dress and finery that custom implies, constitutes the most distinctive form of a society’s uniqueness, that is to say the one that is the most immediately perceptible. Within the general patter of a given costume, there are of course always modifications of detail, innovations which in highly developed societies are the mark of fashion. But the effect as a whole remains homogeneous, and great areas of civilization, immense cultural regions, can be grouped together on the basis of original, specific techniques of men’s and women’s dress.”
This is where I had the lightbulb moment, if clothes most readily define cultures, then can they not define subcultures as well, and if they define subcultures, then that must be why we dress the way we do. This situation rings home so readily with me because of my sneakerhead affiliation. When one sneakerhead encounters another on the street, there is always a short battle for respect between the two. You look at dude’s kicks, judge them, compare them to ur own, and then feel happy or sad whether you deem yours better or not. Inherent in this situation is the knowledge that the other person is thinking the same thing, the other person, therefore, thinks like you, the other person is part of the sneakerhead subculture.
This theory works across the board, even for the “practical dressers”. When you see the guy in zip-off capris, a hoodie and tevas with socks, you know hes going for comfort. But you know this because his attire indicates that he is a part of that subculture, the pratical or comfort dressers.
The C+ manifesto states that:
America is a consumer society. Today, more than ever, we conspicuously consume to define our identities, to belong to a sense of community. In the United States, fashion becomes an exercise in desire, adorning our bodies with objects to create a more attractive image. Only in such a consumer society does your clothing serve as an extension of identity, as such a focal point of conversation, where your surface image can signify your sensibilities, opinions, and personality traits.
This statement highlights even more so the importance of clothes within American society in particular. We need to define ourselves, to be unique, to be someone, to find comfort in those around you. So next time you see someone with the same shoes on as you, find out y they chose those. If it was a conscious decision, they prolly have more in common with you then you think…. THINK…
Here is the whole essay fanonalgeriaunveiled
