I interviewed three fashion graduates；one of them is a fashion textile major from Chelsea, a Chinese queer, aged 24. He mentioned that when he wears clothes that are not part of his usual wardrobe, he felt that he was living another life. He gave an example — in the movie “Danish Girl”, the protagonist is a man who wants to be a woman, but he was unaware of it at the beginning. His desire was to wear feminine clothing. When he wears men’s cloth, he can normally talk to his wife, drink, smoke and so on. But when he incidentally put on women’s cloth, he projects a feminine attitude unconsciously, as if living someone else’s life. But for the interviewee himself, he doesn’t think he exaggerates to that extent. He remembers that he once bought a very masculine leather jacket. When he put it on, he would feel that everything he did today would be a little more rigid and decisive, and he would no longer be like a queer. Because if you want to become that kind of person, you should dress accordingly. In fact, dressing is a hint to people. In short, wearing clothes that do not belong to his usual style gives him a sense of euphoria and novelty.
Another interviewee, who is a fashion design major from Westminster, is a male from the UK, aged 29. He thinks that when he occasionally puts on clothes that do not belong to his own style brings a sense of novelty. But if he often wears them, he will feel uncomfortable and unhappy when he goes out, because he thinks that when others see him, they will think that his clothes are disharmonious and strange. He thinks that wearing clothes is a pleasure for him, so why should he put on clothes that are not his own to make himself unhappy and make others feel strange? So he thinks it doesn’t make sense to wear clothes that are not his own style.
The third interviewee is a 22 year-old finance graduate from Dubai. When he wears business attire, it immediately transforms his mindset into one of a successful office worker. It brings about not only a sense of power, but also of responsibility. This is in contrast to his normal self, which is a more casual and naive individual. When inquired about his normal attire, which constitutes mainly of jeans and hoodies, he mentioned that the contrast between the two attires can be jarring at times, and that he often feels like he is living a double life.
Roletization and identity expression of clothing
Human society is a complex structure complex, people unconsciously participate in social activities. Clothing shortens the communication distance between people, because it has the symbolic function of conveying personal social status, career, self-confidence and other personality characteristics to others.
Key words: Clothing; Role; Identity expression
- Evolution of costume role shaping forms
Clothing, as a special culture, reflects the characteristics of The Times and witnesses the changes of history. In contemporary society, human beings, as the main body of society, have autonomy in the choice of clothing. Besides, clothing also dominates the thinking of dressing and image building of human beings just like symbols. Especially in the ancient slave society and feudal society, clothing is a symbol of status, is a surface symbol of life, is a symbol of personal status, and everyone should strictly observe their own dress duty, can not go beyond. Entering the modern society, people’s choice of clothing has broken away from the bondage of tradition and the strict class difference under the feudal system, showing diversification and individuation. Although the strict class symbol on clothing has disappeared, but clothing still has the role of a symbol of status, plays an extremely important role in social life. - Role shaping in the context of modern development
Business attire is also a powerful tool for marking the wearer’s social status. In modern society, people try their best to create a classless society, but the hierarchical system still has a certain expression in professional dress, such as the advantages and disadvantages of the fabric, the change of style, color and decorative details, which has a strong identification role. This kind of identification provides the guarantee of order for the modern society with fine division of labor. We can identify the group organization that a member belongs to within a short period of time based on the clothing style and logo of the person, identify the specific service scope of the person, and also find out the clothing details of the distinguishing level. In addition to shortening people’s communication time, professional clothing also has a certain binding force on the wearer, which can encourage team members to quickly adjust and adapt to their positions, and at the same time find a sense of belonging. - Effective interpretation of personalization
Different from other people’s personalized clothing reflects a person’s personality, and contains a person’s special quality of thoughts, feelings, behavior and self-awareness, reflects the taste and various characteristics of the wearer. The wearer also hopes to stand out from the crowd. This is the function of clothing language, which conveys the wearer’s personal characteristics, and even reflects interest, ability, temperament, character and other contents. It beautifies the human body, distinguishes each other, symbolizes the human life, interprets the wearer’s personal information, and shapes the social role of people’s personality. - Psychological appeal expressed by clothing identity
In the process of interpersonal communication, everyone longs for affirmation and respect from others, and modifies himself comprehensively from inside to outside in order to achieve the expected social recognition. As a dominant symbolic language, clothing is the external form that can best reflect individual identity. Like a prince who dresses like a beggar and walks among the crowd only to be piqued and shunned; And a well-dressed beggar in and out of the palace, in return for a different treatment. Therefore, in a modern society without class inequality, people are quite happy to invest in this visual currency, packaging it as much as possible, and earning respect from others. Therefore, the role shaping of clothing is the most effective means for people to reveal their identity, and it complies with people’s psychological demands for social identity.
Reading list:
Barari, A., (2013). Reasons Why Men Envy Women. Bold Sky. [online] available at:
Chang, S. M., Hsieh, G. M., & Lin, S. S. (2018). The mediation effects of gaming motives between game involvement and problematic Internet use: Escapism, advancement, and socializing. Computers & Education, 122, 43-53.
Gibbons, A., & Kupferman, D. W. (2019). Flow my tears, the teacher said: Science fiction as method. In Innovations in Narrative and Metaphor (pp. 167-181). Springer, Singapore.
Winchester III, W. W. (2018). Afrofuturism, inclusion, and the design imagination. interactions, 25(2), 41-45.
Shane-Nichols, A., McCrohan, D., & Chung, T. L. (2016). NFL Fanatics Communication of Identity through Apparel and Merchandise: A Gender Comparison. Iowa State University ITAA Annual Conference. [online] available at: https:// lib.dr.iastate.edu/itaa_proceedings/ 2016/presentations/71/
Kim, S. S., & Kim, Y. S. (2015, June). Androgyny in deconstructive fashion. In 2015 Global Fashion Management Conference at Florence. 610-611.
Díaz-Soloaga, P. (2016). Fashion films as a new communication format to build fashion brands. University of Navarra. [online] available at: https://dadun.unav.edu/ handle/ 10171/41897
Edwards, T. (2016). Men in the Mirror: Men’s Fashion, Masculinity, and Consumer Society. Bloomsbury Publishing.