Clothing and personality go along together. I believe that what a person looks on the outside resembles how he or she looks on the inside. Upon observation, much speculation about a person based on what he, she wears,
or how he or she dresses is likely. Just like emotions, one can look at a person’s clothing and somewhat foreshadow what that person will be like. Clothing, if read properly, can uncover a wide range of things– inner thoughts, habits, values, personal memories and personality traits. For example, by simply observing a specific article of clothing, such as a t-shirt, I am able to gain a vivid picture of the person who wears it.
An associate once said that her creative aura shines through herself through odd ways. She wears what she wants when she wants to, whether it matches or not. Her taste in clothing matches her personality; it is an eclectic mix of brightly colored vintage pieces and clothing in subdued shades from Old Navy. She is the kind of person who can make dull moments in a situation filled with laughter and joy.
Clothing reflects personality, because people usually wear what they like and what makes them feel good about themselves. In this day and age it is very hard to keep up with each generation’s trend be it on how I carry myself through my clothes or how I represent myself through my personality. Each person or group has his or her own style. The styles reflect their way of life. If one plays sports, he or she tends to be more casual in their choice of clothes. If one socializes with a snobbish crowd, he or she tends to be meticulous in choosing clothing. People have their own preference in attire based on their personality.
Lifestyle Influences on Clothing Needs
The need for clothing is one of life’s bare necessities. How we choose to wear it, defines the kind of person we are or even our status in society. As people develop, the requirements in clothing change in order to meet physical and psychological needs of the specific age group. These requirements of the age group must also take into account the properties and design of the textiles as well as cost, construction and durability.
Clothing is needed for many reasons, but the three main reasons are, for protection against the elements, concealing our body for modesty purposes and lastly as a means of identification and social attraction. Human standards of decency changes along with the fashion and are likely to vary from culture to culture. This is due to the social practices, religion and traditions of the particular culture. The standards of clothing we wear can also change depending on a situation, location or time of day. Clothing in one situation that would be acceptable may not be acceptable in a completely different situation. Our society today is engrossed with body image and is not always pleased with the natural state of their own body and so use clothing as a means of altering the way we look and fashion is how we do that.
The way we dress is an expression of who we are and an insight into our lifestyle and is sometimes represented in the fashions we follow. Fashion is a style of clothing in which society believe is attractive and may change from one season to the next, whether the fashion be practical to why we wear clothing or not. Fashions change because our culture is always moving around and shifting. People are constantly changing physically and mentally and feel the desire for new things and just as we feel the need for new fashions, our individual tastes and requirements change with our age.
As people grow they go through a cycle which is broken up into different life period. As a person goes through these different cycles, there are requirements to be satisfied in order to meet physical and psychological needs. For instance, the needs of a child would be dramatically different to that of an adolescent. Children’s clothing needs to be durable, expressive and colorful, strong easy to wash, is usually cheaper, comfortable and easy to get in and out of, whereas adolescents clothing needs to be similar to that of their friends various colors, texture designs and is usually is a little more expensive. This is also necessary with infants, young adults, and middle-aged adults and elderly. Infants clothing generally needs to be non-irritating, cool in summer, warm in winter, comfortable, safe and simplistic. Young adults need to have versatile clothing that is easy to look after and styled to the individual and middle-aged adults usually do not need to be fashionable, just well-styled with durable fiber and are likely to withstand a lot of wear. Lastly, clothing for the elderly should be cost effective, of good design easy to care for, easy to get in and out of and most importantly comfortable.
In conclusion, clothing says a lot about us, our age, our personality, our status in society and the way we follow fashion trends.