I must begin by saying that I do not presume to tell anyone how they should dress. When I was in High School I was chosen by my peers for the award, “most uniquely dressed” for wearing leisure suits and tuxedos on every Thursday and for a general flamboyance that I seem to have at least partially lost somewhere along way. I am not sure this qualifies me to talk about fashion, but for some reason I am feeling compelled to do so. I still have my own style, but I suppose that perhaps my creative energies have moved into other arenas. My point in writing this is not to judge anyone or say one thing is better than another, but to simply make note of the fact that clothes do make a statement that for me is more self reflective than it is something to be projected onto others. As with everything for me it comes down to intentionality.
My family was playing the game, “Imagine if…” on Thanksgiving(this is a game where everyone votes for the thing which most fits a person and the majority wins) and one of the cards directed at me was, “imagine if Darryn were an article of clothing, which would he be…” the options included: a tailored suit, a sports jersey, a thong bikini, Carhartts and work gloves, a grungy T-shirt and I think the last one was pajamas. The vote came out in favor of Sports Jersey with tailored suit as a considered second choice. The game is interesting so play with people who know you and sometimes even more interesting to play with people who don’t. This was a question about what type of clothes best express who I am and it made me think about how much your clothes can say about you. I have always been an athlete so I understood my family’s choice. It wasn’t about the things I actually wear, but rather about a personality that is conveyed by the clothes. Jerseys have a purpose and most of the time they are worn by athletes participating in a sport, but it is interesting to note that the sale of sports jerseys to the general public is a billion dollar business. This made me think about other articles of clothing that get worn in general, but which were created for a specific purpose.
The other day my daughter and I saw a woman in full equestrian gear. It made sense, since she was in fact riding a horse (though even in this case I am not sure it’s a look that works for everyone). My daughter liked the boots so later when we saw someone else wearing the same (or very similar) boots she pointed them out as “horse boots.” This second set of boots was being worn by someone who was not riding a horse so naturally my daughter asked, “where’s her horse?” A fair question given the circumstances. The person wearing them actually looked good in them and perhaps she does ride horses or should take up riding them, but the boots did seem out of place at the time. It made me think that, in a way, all clothes are like a uniform, they say something about who we are, what we are doing (or planning on doing), our faith (I don’t wear clergy collars as a fashion statement), formality and informality and all sorts of other things.
People spend a lot of money on clothes so that they can look a certain way. The other day I bought a shirt whose suggested retail price was $185. It’s a nice shirt and I like it a lot, but I wouldn’t even think about paying that much for a shirt, so it makes me curious about the people who do. It’s not about money or the ability to buy certain clothes, it’s about priority and choice. Why do you dress the way you do? What does it say about you? If you don’t care about how you look, do your clothes say that? Again it’s not about judgement for me, it’s about a form of expression. People should wear what they want to wear, what they feel good in and what makes sense to them. I get that we are sometimes limited by circumstance, appropriateness, affordability and other factors, but as someone who believes there is a reason for everything (though we rarely understand those reasons) I do think there is a lot of room for intentionality in what we wear. No matter how much you pay for something or how good it looks on someone else, if it isn’t you it isn’t you. I realize that clothes are superficial and just like you can’t judge a book by it’s cover you can’t judge a person by their clothes, but sometimes the superficial is all we show people, so I think it’s worth considering what image we show and what we want people to see. Like I said before if you want people to know that you don’t care what they think, you can say that by your choices, I just hope it’s what you mean.
Tripping the Light Fantastic 