DRESSING SENSE| PHOTOESSAY

Clothing has come a long way over time. From being a basic necessity to help protect our bodies from the weather, we have arrived at such an era in time where it would very easily be assumed as the definition of personality. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first encounter with someone or if you meet the person on a regular basis, our human minds have been programmed in such a way that we subconsciously make an assumption of several characteristics by just taking one look at the kind of clothing one is wearing.

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Over time, we have also realized that clothing differs geographically, demographically, culturally, economically. It has been well said that clothing is a feeling. In simple words, it means that it is something that you should do if you feel like it. The choice is up to you when it comes to what kind of clothing should you be putting on and the larger truth lies in the part where a man should wear something only if he feels like wearing it.

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After looking at both sides of it, it is naturally expected that we as intellectual beings should pick the correct theory, and maybe we do. But do we adhere to the same or do we still make judgments about oneself based on what he is wearing and where? Does our subconscious thinking here overshadow the power of a more rational and neutral theory?

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The aim here is not to find out what’s right or wrong but to sensitize ourselves generally about the vulnerability that we impose upon one when we make baseless assumptions taking into consideration one’s clothing or the way he/she is wearing it. Such baseless assumptions might turn into irreversible judgments about anyone. And yes, such things leave a mark. Both the human parties are affected by this way of thinking and create a totally different set of consequences on either end. Ultimately, the human mind gets influenced big time and one small incident of being vulnerable translates itself into a complex.

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Incidents of overdressing or underdressing according to their perceived definitions across have put me in some situations where you know about a certain gaze that lingers around presence and troubles you with the weapon of vulnerability. The set of consequences would differ from person to person, but the impact sure does leave some mark. The culture that we all have developed of not expressing things straight on the face but trying to suppress those into the trenches of our subconscious hasn’t really helped anyone in any case. There are certain indicators that tell you what kind of image is being made of you in an instant through people’s body language, gestures, and gaze. And these things are easily noticeable which makes you more conscious and vulnerable at times. Vulnerability is not be underestimated; It is to be curbed by rational thinking.

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It is time that we put some real sense in the way we think about one’s way of clothing.