Shirt Speak

Stumble through a local shopping center and an onslaught of symbolic theater takes place. Every article is a statement: why did the person wear that? Why that item, why that color? We work to make sense of these other people as a way to establish a reality. Our world is merely a construction of our imagination: far too much remains unknown and we’ve little to control. How does one perceive malevolence? Does the baddy always wear the black hat? Though our methods of detecting danger are varied, we often seek an outlier in behavior.

Despite our limited abilities, we still strive to find hidden intentions revealed by fashion. Though we cannot know the inner workings of another we seem confident in thinking their choice of clothing has some power. Is the key to their inner psyche in the selection of their t-shirt? How much is revealed in choice of color? Do the baggy pants mean she’s upset? What about his length of hair- does that mean that he’s angry? Silly as these connection seem they remain common and profound. No matter their lack of depth, evaluations and judgements have power and many have been falsely summarized by others on the basis of silly, minor features.

Certainly our clothing says a lot about who we are but how should another perceive what we wear as us? How much of our inner world is expressed in our clothing? How would our world be different if we all wore the outfit? Would we gradually develop other means of expression and evaluation?