Social Role of Fashion
As a representation of identity…
Historically, clothing has been an indication of how people perceive their roles in social structures and of status (Crane 2009). In other words, clothing has and continues to serve as a visual representation of identity. Various aspects on identity can be expressed through clothing—occupation, regional identity, religion, social class, etc. (Crane 2009). Uniforms have been used and continue to be used to represent one’s occupation. Uniforms, in fact, have played a large social role in the clothing industry. Historically, social class differences were made explicit by the use of uniforms and dress codes (Crane 2009). Clothing was also commonly used to showcase gender in that different clothes are designated to males versus females. In the same way, clothing has been used a differentiator of age as well.
Contemporary fashion varies from the fashion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries because it is now much more ambiguous and multifaceted (Crane 2009). In the nineteenth century, there was a well-defined and widely-adopted standard of appearance, but this does not seem to be the case for the current society. This transition may contribute to using fashion as an identifier of oneself. Specifically, fashion in the twenty-first century helps express conflicts between social identities like youth versus age, masculinity versus femininity, work versus leisure, etc. (Crane 2009).
As a representation of society…
Clothing has also served as a representation of society and societal changes throughout the years. Changes in clothing can and have indicates shifts in social relationships and tensions between social groups (Crane 2009) The clothing differences between the wealthy and the peasants in the nineteenth century exemplifies this idea. In some countries, laws specified the types of material and accessories that could be worn by member of different social classes (Crane 2009).
Specific types of clothing are also used to express societal values in specific eras. In the nineteenth century, fashionable clothes expressed the gender roles of the time. Women were not expected, at that time, to work either inside or outside of the home, and this was reflected in the ornamental and impractical nature of fashionable clothing styles (Crane 2009). As Crane writes in her book, “fashion has always had a social agenda for women, and clothing behavior is always socially motivated” (Crane 2009).
Crane also notes that “in any period, the set of clothing discourses always includes those that support conformity to dominant conceptions of social roles and those that express social tensions that are pushing widely accepted conceptions of social roles in new directions” (Crane 2009). With regards to the gendered clothing mentioned earlier, there were women who submitted to the gendered trends and wore the inconvenient clothing, and there were women who pushed those social boundaries by wearing “unacceptable” clothing. When women began wearing pants for the first time, there was lots of outrage because those clothing choices opposed the socially defined clothing requirements.
