Transcript Chapter 1: The Why of Clothes

Mrs. Millard
Intro To Fashion
• Clothing does more than just covering your body!
• Influence you as a consumer:
• Someone who buys and uses goods and services
• Throughout history clothing has had great meaning:
• Indicated people’s rituals, artistic imagination,
handicraft skills
• Cultures: customs and beliefs of certain groups of
people
• Also reflects advances in technology? How?
• Frist clothing: made from animal skins
• Today: Different textiles, finishes, manufacturing
processes
• Physical needs
•Protection
• Psychological Needs
•Adornment
•Identification
• Social Needs
•Modesty
•Status
• Protective clothing: gives physical protection to
the body
• Weather
•Sunglasses and Hats: protection from sun
•Sweaters, coats, long underwear, gloves:
protection from wind/cold
• Environment
•Shoes: protect feet from soil, hard objects,
hot/cold surfaces
•Sterile gloves, face masks, gowns, scrubs:
protection in medical field
• Occupational Hazard
• Hard hats, steel toed boots, safety goggles:
construction sites
• Specialized clothing to protect from chemicals,
radiation, fire
• Athletes: special shoes, helmets, pads to protect
• Enemies
• Protection from attackers
• Centuries ago: body shields and suits of armor
• Camouflage fabric: helps the wearer hide by
blending in
• Come cultures believe certain clothing can give
protection from evil spirits illness or bad harvest
• Good luck charms make people feel luckier,
healthier, safer, braver
• Adornment: Decoration that gives psychological feeling
of well-being through beauty
• Differs over time and between cultures
• Beauty: quality that gives pleasure to the senses and
creates a positive emotional reaction in the viewer
• People have a need to make themselves more attractive
• Ex: Cold weather hats would be just as efficient in all
black but pretty colors add beauty to it
• Large sums of money spent on makeup, hair, nails,
jewelry etc. attest to emphasis on personal beauty
• Different cultures find different
decorations beautiful because of their
values, traditions and beliefs
• Some use vegetable dyes colored clay
to decorate body
• Use animal teeth, horns etc for jewelry
• Some use intentional scarring and
bounding for adornment
• Individuals have different beliefs within
a culture too
• Professional athlete may consider
casual attire more beautiful than formal
wear
• Clothing worn for adornment allows:
•Positive way to express themselves
•Express creativity and individuality
•Contribute to increased self respect, self
acceptance and self esteem
•Improve looks and than favorable attention
•Ways to be different then usual style
•Relief from boredom
•Psychological zest to life
• Identification: process of establishing or describing who someone is
or what someone does
• Identify with a profession:
• Group identity is shown when all dress alike
• Signals roles people play or belonging to a group
• Uniforms: outfits or articles of clothing that are alike and specific to
everyone in a certain group of people;
• Can decrease racial, religious and other perceived barriers
• Psychological uniform: regular clothing of many people who dress
similarly: you want to “look” like a high school student or a teacher
or a mom
• Examples: class rings, badges, religious symbols
• Dress codes: written or unwritten rules of what should or should not
be worn by a group of people
• Modesty: covering of a person’s body according
to the code of decency of that person’s society
• Differ among cultures and over time
• 1800s: Immodest for American women to show ankles
• 1900s: Body mostly all covered even for sports
• !920s: people were appalled by young women
wearing short skirts but soon became acceptable
• Standards of modesty have greatly changed
over time
• Status: his or her position or rank compared with
that of others
• Clothing used to gain higher rank in society along
with achievement and peer approval
• This is why people pay more for designer labels!
• Some items have social meanings, show others what
they have achieved (ex: school letter on athletic
jacket)
• Ancient times: hunters wore pelts of their prey to
impress others
• Because of their mental image of themselves:
1. Values
2. Attitudes
3. Conformity vs. Individuality
4. Personality
• You can tell a lot about a time period just from
the clothing that was worn, it is a mirror of times
• Ideals and beliefs based on what is important to individuals
• Underlying motivation for a person’s actions
• Basis of a person’s decisions, lifestyle, and personal code of
ethics
• Some people value their own comfort
• Some always bargain shop because they value economy
• Some want newest nicest things because they value prestige
• Marketers and designers have to make/sell things that will be
valuable to their intended customer
• What people do with their money shows their values!
• Values changes with age: conformity with middle school, prestige
with middle age, comfort with old age
• Advertising influences people’s values , attitude, and purchase
decisions
• Formed from values
• Individual’s feelings about, reaction to,
other people, their ideas or things
• Learned over a lifetime
• Influenced by social and economic
conditions
• Passed down from generation to
generation
• Family, friends, community are
important in forming them
• Conformity: obeying, or agreeing with, some given standard or
authority
• You learn early what is expected of them with the rules of dress
• Peer pressure: influence exerted from peer group plays a large role
in what you wear
• Those who do not “conform” risk rejection by the group
• Individuality : self expression that distinguishes one person to
another; unique
• Choosing styles and colors totally different from friends
• Satisfying for own need and adornment while rejecting peer
pressure
• Most balance between the two, dressing upon their mood
• Personality: total unique characteristics that distinguish an
individual, especially his or her behavior and emotional
tendencies
• Influenced by in born characteristics as well as life
experiences
• Studies show certain ways people dress give clues to their
personality
• Very decorative wearing apparel: social
• Mainly like comfort: have self control and confidence
• People who prefer economy over spending lots of money:
responsible, alert, efficient and precise
• People wear clothes today for the same reasons
they have worn clothing through history!
• Determine reason people would wear the following
• Designer clothes
• swimsuit
• space suit
• colorful necklace
• hard hat
• Uniform
• True/False: Peer pressure encourages individuality
• True/False: All societies of the world have the same standards of
modesty
• True/False: Uniforms help with group identity and contribute to
feelings like they belong
Directions: Category of why and related statement to the present
1. Fur pelts were worn around the body for protection.
2. Body shields and suits of armor protected the body from
enemies.
3. Decorations of animal bones, horns, teeth, shells, seeds, or
feathers made the body more beautiful
4. All members of a specific tribe wore something particular on
their skin or body to identify themselves in a group
5. A loincloth was worn below the waist, even though the weather
was warm enough to go without clothes
6. Hunters wore the pelts of their prey to show others the number
and different types of animals they had killed.
• Predict 3 types of clothing that might evolve to meet the needs
of people in the future