Adorning Myself
We all participate in the act of creating assumptions about someone by their appearance, whether we create them subconsciously or not, whether we are open minded, or non-judgmental people. Often the assumptions we create are the mere opposite of what that person you are assuming about really is. We wonder is that person dressing, adorning their body that way for a reason, do they want to display a message, to attract attention, or are the simply just wearing what the are wearing for no reason at all? I think to myself if someone was watching me, what would their assumptions be? Is the way I dress creating a false perception, or a true one?
When I think about how I dress and adorn myself I don’t often believe I put much thought into it. I don’t dress to display a message, or to attract attention. Then when I really think about it, the way one dresses, adorns oneself is a form of self expression, contributes to the person you are. I realize that I do consciously choose to dress one way and not another. For example not a single thing I own displays a brand, and I am not exactly sure why that is. I suppose for the reasoning of not wanting to be viewed a certain way because of a brand of clothing. That rationale is peculiar to me because it seems it would come from my own thoughts when I see one dressed in a certain brand, yet I don’t often see my self making to many assumptions based solely on the label ones shirt displays. I choose to try and stay away from certain things that have become fads many times because I simply don’t like the product and other times because I don’t want to conform into a society where you must wear one thing in order to be viewed a certain way, also because I value uniqueness. I wear a cross around my neck while I am not the most religious person, it shows that religion is an important value of mine. I have a facial person yet I don’t think that reflects any of my values of beliefs merely something I just did because I was akin to. I realize that many of my beliefs are reflected and expressed with what I wear; yet thinking about it changes the way I will create assumptions about another. Though you can predict certain things about an individual based on there clothing and body adornment, it does not make up the whole of that individual and there is much more to a person then what you can assume based solely on their style. Though my personal style had changed over the years it has never changed for any particular reason, but changed because what I could choose from had changed.
I try to think of how my family’s core beliefs and values are reflected through there clothing, and not much comes to mind. My family always had a large emphasis on religion throughout my childhood, thus going to a catholic school, uniforms were required. Maybe not necessarily a direct example of how my families’ beliefs were shown in their appearance, but it shows how with religion often comes conformity expressed through uniforms. My parents own there own business so they always valued success and professionalism. I feel the way they dressed and maintained their personal images was the key to their success, and thus had influenced my perception on distinguishing a motivated, professional individual through they way they dress. Though my family focused on religion, success, professionalism, my three sisters and I were never pushed to dress a certain way. My family also valued expression thus we were allowed to dress and choose how we adorned ourselves, which in essence was influenced by how we were raised. I believe that ones a attire in influenced by their values, and many of those values are influenced by how one was raised.
I don’t think that it is simple to pinpoint the values of my peers and my community. Each of my peer’s values differs greatly, though there are some similarities there seems to be more differences. Yet there is the underlying similarity of values and personality being expressed through dress and body adornment. Many of my peers value morals, which is shown through their more modest form of dressing. I sit here and try to think of other values and beliefs that are expressed through clothing and I draw a blank. Though I do believe that dress does in some senses express who you are, I believe that with such vast differences in values, morals, and beliefs of each individual you cannot pinpoint the core values and depict how their dress and body adornment express that. Each person within a community is unique thus each will express those values in different ways whether it be the clothes they wear, they makeup they put on, the hairstyle they choose, or the tattoos and piercing they get.
