Clothing Issues

This is not about a Clothing Issue in the usual “What do I wear?” way. It is more about the aftermath of the trip to Beito on the weekend – the last discussion we had in the car on the way home was about fashion/style/clothing. It was just about the usual pros and cons of various items of clothing, nothing spectacular or groundbreaking, but for some reason the topic just wouldn’t leave my mind alone. The chain of thought the discussion started has continued going in circles, and I think it is because I don’t know what I think. What should/shouldn’t people wear? And why? And in what situations?

When I tried to look at my own current and past behaviour, as well as other feelings and thoughts, to see if I could from that induce some sort of “Hanne’s answer” to the above question, this is what I came up with:

I don’t like being told what to wear, but I liked having a school uniform because then I didn’t have to think. On the other hand, the reason for school uniforms “so people don’t look different” is utter rubbish. People always manage to “look different” if they want to. I used to want to look like everyone else. Now similarity is hardly ever a goal. There’s only a few people who can say to me “eh, you can’t wear that” with the result that I change. If I’m uncertain about an outfit I will seek opinions from almost anywhere. I like to look nice, but my definition of nice. My wardrobe is unadventurous. If people look at me weird I assume it’s because I look good. If people look at me weird I assume they’re not my kind anyway. I use people’s clothing to stereotype and group them for the purpose of communication, and to make my own life a little easier. Someone who I think looks stupid is going to have to work harder to convince me they’re smart. If you look smart, you may quickly disappoint me. After I’ve gotten to know you you can wear whatever you want. If I lived in Paris I would probably make an effort to dress “nice for the baker”, in Norway, Australia, Uppsala, Bologna, London I don’t.  In a muslim country I would cover up. Anywhere else I have no idea. If I object to someone’s attire it is more likely to be about their reasons for wearing it, rather than the attire itself. If I approve of someone’s attire it is more likely to be about the aesthetics. Sometimes I’m in the mood for shopping, more often clothes stores make me feel slightly queasy. When anyone (myself included) says “I need a new X” my next thought is usually “define need”. I love having a new item of clothing, but I love my old clothes more. I used to not like the look of baggy pants into boots, now I do. I used to like turtleneck jumpers, now I don’t. Beige is boring. I will probably wear the combo tight pants/baggy jumper or baggy pants/tight jumper, but try to avoid tight/tight or baggy/baggy. When I feel dodgy, sometimes I make an effort to dress nice, thinking that it’ll lift my spirits. Other times I deliberately focus on comfort. Both strategies work sometimes.

If you read the above and just got confused, don’t worry – you’re right, it makes no sense. Just one contradiction after another, which perturbs me because I like internal logic in my ideas and opinions. Or at least for me to know where the holes in logic actually are.

However. This is clothing we’re talking about. Not war or poverty or politics or torture or peace. Nor does my opinion on clothing really say anything “about me”, I don’t think. I realise some people use clothing to more or less express their identity, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t apply to me. In fact, if there is one conclusion to be drawn from this, it is this: The correlation between my attire and myself are close to arbitrary. If you still want to judge me by appearances, the only way to get somewhat reliable results would be to wait until I’m naked. And even then you couldn’t be sure of the validity of your measure.