Notes on Psychology of Dress

Psychology of Dress, Hurlock, 1984, 2nd edition, AYER company, publishers inc.

• Interest in fashion is not of recent origin. Ever since pre-historic man began to adorn his naked body with coloured clays, clothing has been one of the absorbing and all-important problems of life. But never in history has fashion held such power as it does today.
• Fashion can thrive only in a social environment.
• “Both he and his people were black as sloes,

For the region they lived in was torrid;

And their principal clothes were a ring through the nose

And a patch of red paint on the forehead.” – Thomas Hood the Younger.

• Modesty, covering the body (create illusion as underneath is hidden)
• Modesty theory, popular opinion would have it that clothing was first worn as a result of the sense of modesty which is supposed to be an inborn characteristic of the human species. Human trait as no other animal shows any signs of embarrassment, though totally unclothed. Differs from time to time and country to country, depending on ideals of that country.
• Herbert Spencer says “the dress, like the badge was first worn from the wish for admiration.”
• One of the chief values in clothing is that is enables people to advertise themselves in way that will win the attention and admiration of others.
• Many who lack any ability and could not hope to rise above the “average” on their merits alone, find a satisfactory outlet for this desire for recognition through the medium of dress.
• Competitive imitation, previously clothing was used as a means to display wealth, but the style of dress worn by leaders of society is soon imitated by those of lower classes, thanks to commercial manufacturers.
• Primitive peoples have not been free from this form of self-display. In some of the African tribes, people wind around their bodies all the cloth they possess. If they are wealthy, they are so enveloped that their arms stand out almost straight and they nearly suffocate under the rays of the tropical sun. But to compensate for this discomfort is the pleasure which they derive from knowing that they are greatly envied by those who are more comfortable.
• “The extreme importance of clothes would disappear at once if the two sexes were to dress alike” – Havelock Ellis.
• It is a common belief that women alone are worshippers of fashion. Men laugh at them for their interest in dress and point it out as one of the weaknesses responsible for the title of ‘weaker sex’.
• Fashions for women have lagged behind those of men in brilliancy and elaborateness until very recent times. Usually there was a close parallel to be found in the general lines of the clothing for the two sexes, with a tendency for the lines for women to be slightly less elaborate than those for men.
• When women emerged from the home, feminine dress took on the elaborate form which characterised the clothing of men.