There are an infinite amount of influences that go into choosing what to wear and what to buy. Maybe you want to maintain a certain image, you enjoy buying into trends, your work requires you to dress a certain way, you are dressing with someone in mind, or you really put no thought into it at all. Maybe the price and accessibility comes before personal preference of style. Regardless of whether you are conscious of this or not, your clothes will send a message to the outside world. Philosophers have actually theorized the subliminal messages fashion gives off to the world.
Here are the theories of three notable philosophers.
Roland Barthes, a French theorist, essentially says that when we choose what to wear, a message is sent to others and understood, without having to explicitly say it.
Judith Butler, an American philosopher, theorizes that fashion is performative and used as a means of expression and activism. Especially against gender norms, its impact is more than just performative.
Louis Althusser, a French philosopher, supports the idea that fashion is an ideological state apparatus. The industry controls the way we think we should dress and act, which is problematic.
There’s actually a whole book on this and more called Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion edited by Giovanni Matteucci and Stefano Marino, but I personally get a lot of my information from social media! Thank you to @sublimehysteric on TikTok for giving me exposure to some fashion theorists.
Do you subscribe to any of these takes?