Clothes, a simple physical object that help us to cover the body and protect ourselves from different weathers. However, it can also function as a sign to construct meanings and carry messages in everyday communication. Various clothing combinations produced different fashion codes such as elegance, formality, romance, and casualness, which can then be read as a language- the language of fashion. This kind of language relies on the formation of a set of ideas or concepts of clothing, and thus we would choose the clothing styles precisely when we want to express the accurate identity and convey the exact fashion code to others. The language of fashion can be arranged by certain relations, certain items go together. For instance, a casual sneaker with jeans, high heels with a tight dress, blouse with suit jacket. Of course, not everybody reads fashion in the same way since there have differences produced by gender, age, class, and race. But people who wear the same fashion code will interpret the signs and meanings in roughly the same way.
Most of us may think that jeans do not look right for a formal occasion; it demands something more elegant such as an evening dress or bow tie and tiles. Also, some job positions may require the employee to wear casual wear or a formal dress code for work. How can their meanings be so different despite their nature are both clothing? We gave meaning to a particular textile object, which we recognized it as a dress or trousers, then we linked with other things together in order to produce a border sign and concept such as vintage, romantic, classic, formality, elegance, and casualness. In this way, we can see that fashion does not merely have a physical function, but also constitutes society's cultural perception, allowing us to communicate with others without explicitly talking. Our choices in different fashion styles reflect who we are, or even reveal our personality and preference. So, what does your style say about you?
(Different fashion style of women and men)
The connection between identity and clothing style
The fashion codes not simply serve as a communication channel, but also represents our social status on a macro level because it is the most visible expression of personal identity. After we decide which fashion code we want to convey, we would start to consider the identity we want to express. Under the same type of clothes, is wearing a Gucci dress superior to a Zara dress? Living in a capitalism environment, our priority of buying or following the fashion style is not how comfortable the clothes are, but how the brand and design can demonstrate a high social class preference. Since society did not classify which type of fashion is high class or low class obviously, we tend to consume the products from luxury brands to show off the economic power that we had. Consequently, fashion has become a vital and powerful means to help us satisfy the desire for social status.
A light wool crêpe dress from GUCCI. HK$21,600.
A panelled dress from ZARA. HK$299.
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