Analysis of Prescriptive Dress

Fashion Culture About Prescriptive Dress
Dressing is considered as one of the major symbols or indicators of an individual’s culture, socio-economic status, moral standards, and social power. Throughout the history of mankind, particularly in the 21st Century, dressing has been utilized as a symbol of enforcing class differences in terms of socio-economic status. In some cases, dressing or dress code is utilized as a powerful tool to negotiate and organize social relations. Dressing acts as a powerful social tool since clothing is a cultural process that materializes social value. Through this process, clothing is the culmination of a procedure that merges the production of fashion and culture. Clothing is not only considered as a second skin, but a tool that alters the body and gives people social value.
One of the forms of dressing that has dominated fashion in today’s society is prescriptive dress, which is also known as prescription clothing. While prescriptive dress has existed for a long period of time, it became prominent from the 1960s when the fashion industry started to create and distribute more than adequate fashion items for everyone to be fashionable.[footnoteRef:1] The proliferation of numerous fashion items implied that by the 21st Century, everyone across the globe could imitate new styles immediately. The imitation of fashion products in turn provided the premise for prescription clothing to help guide people on what to wear and what not to depending on the environment or occasion. [1: Katalin Medvedev, “Social Class and Clothing,” Fashion History, accessed October 26, 2017, http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-history-eras/social-class-clothing]

Prescriptive clothing has become a controversial issue that has attracted arguments and counterarguments to an extent that it’s been the topic of numerous research and surveys in the fashion industry. The controversy surrounding this issue is attributable to the fact that through prescriptive clothing, people wear what they are told to wear rather than simply choosing to wear what they want to. Prescriptive dressing has permeated today’s society and culture as people seek to fashionable. The significance of prescriptive dress in today’s society is attributable to the fact that people have become more impressionable and want to fit in. In light of this Emily Gould and Rumaan Alam recently published an article on prescriptive dress given the proliferation of lifestyle-touting subscription clothing services.[footnoteRef:2] Subscription clothing services and other clothing delivery services have become tools for enforcing a form of totalitarian conformity. Even though these clothing services were designed to help people feel great, they have become avenues for prescription clothing through enforcing some form of conformity in how people dress. The article seemingly suggests that clothing delivery services only provide people with convenience at the expense of self-expression because of their focus on enforcing conformity in fashion. [2: Emily Gould & Rumaan, Alam, “You’ll Wear What They Tell You to Wear,” The New York Times, last modified October 24, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/style/bombfell-stitch-fix-litotes-clothing-subscription-boxes.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ffashion&action=click&contentCollection=fashion®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront]

One argument that is used to support prescriptive dress is that it serves as a guideline for people who do not care to know what and how to wear as well as what not to wear. As shown in the article by Emily Gould and Rumaan Alam, some people are not fashion-conscious and need guidance on what to wear, which makes prescriptive dress necessary in today’s culture. Secondly, prescriptive dress is supported on the premise that helps people to save time, particularly through subscriptions to clothing delivery services. Shopping for clothes can be an extremely tiresome and confusing process, especially during certain times of the year like autumn. Therefore, prescriptive dress provides an avenue for people to save time and avoid the confusion associated with shopping for clothes.
On the contrary prescriptive dress is regarded as a limiting avenue for self-expression because of enforcement of a form of fashion conformity. Based on Gould and Alam’s experience, prescriptive dress limits people’s ability to express themselves as they would like to because of conformity and imitation of fashion styles. Secondly, prescriptive iteration is simply another iteration of guiding hand telling people what to wear. People who are opposed to it argue that the repetitive aspect of prescriptive clothing is boring and makes it unsuitable for innovation in fashion. Since fashion is about fantasy, prescriptive dress not only limits self-expression, but also hinders exploration, which in turn makes it boring.
In conclusion, prescriptive dress is one of the forms of fashion that has become common in today’s society and can be traced back to the 1960s though it has relatively existed for a long time in history. As the name suggests, prescriptive clothing entails dictating to people what to wear and what not to wear. Following the fashion’s industry development to create numerous fashion products by the 1960s, it became easier for people to imitate fashion styles instantly, which acts as the foundation for prescriptive dress. This form of clothing has attracted significant controversy in terms of its advantages and disadvantages. Some people support prescriptive dress on the premise that it helps those who do not care to become fashionable and save time and confusion associated with shopping for clothes. However, those against it argue that it limits self-expression and is a repetitive and boring guideline.


Bibliography
Gould, Emily & Alam, Rumaan. “You’ll Wear What They Tell You to Wear.” The New York Times. last modified October 24, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/style/bombfell-stitch-fix-litotes-clothing-subscription-boxes.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ffashion&action=click&contentCollection=fashion®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
Medvedev, Katalin. “Social Class and Clothing.” Fashion History. accessed October 26, 2017, http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-history-eras/social-class-clothing