Fashion, Culture, and Personal Identity Formation

Culture, Identity, and the Role of Environment

Culture is a complex phenomenon. Any gathering of human beings develops its own culture given enough time; this can be observed on both macro and micro levels. In the study of history and art, scholars speak of Roman culture or Western culture as a way of referring to the broad, generalized values — both moralistic and aesthetic — that typify a given society in a certain period of history. On a smaller level, different localities have their own cultures that can be markedly different reflections of the dominant super-culture present in society at large. The cultures of both San Diego, California and Bangor, Maine will in some ways reflect the larger United States and Western culture, but they also have many differences. Some of these differences are brought about by things beyond human control. Weather, for instance, can be a major contributing factor to the culture of an area. The mild and consistent weather of San Diego is conducive to a more relaxed attitude and way of life than the harsh and extreme winters of Bangor, and this necessarily has an effect on the culture of the two cities.

Weather is also one of the most important factors in determining the clothing that people wear. Using the same examples, it should be fairly obvious that the bathing suits and sandals that make for standard San Diego attire would hardly be appropriate in Bangor, just as the snow suits and heavy boots of a Bangor resident would be extremely uncomfortable in the standard eighty-degree weather of San Diego. This shows, in one very small yet clear manner, the smaller levels of difference that are used to distinguish smaller groups within a wider culture. Weather is, of course, only one factor — and certainly not the most significant — in shaping a culture. There are many other unpredictable forces that cause a culture to change in both subtle and dramatic ways as history progresses and societies evolve.

These forces are at work in cultures at large, in the smaller sub-cultures that appear in different regions and localities, and even down to smaller sub-groups, families, and individuals — each of whom expresses their culture in their own slightly unique way. In this way, identity is very much linked to culture. It is impossible for one to escape their culture; every individual who lives in a given region or population is by definition a contributing factor in that culture. The many different and subtle influences at work in every individual's life that help to shape their personality, however, make each person express that culture differently. Just as weather influences the type of clothing worn in a given culture, other cultural influences also shape what one wears, and therefore shape the specific constraints and constructs through which individuals express their identity. Just as there is no individual without a culture, there is no identity for that individual that does not find its expression through the elements of culture.

Fashion as Identity Statement

Clothing is certainly not the only means by which one can shape and express their identity; there are many other cultural artifacts that an individual uses or interacts with that can help to both shape and reflect their individual personality. Yet fashion — the clothing one wears and other conscious aspects of their general physical appearance — is the most immediate and forthright statement one makes about themselves, whether or not they would like this to be true. Regardless of whether the emphasis placed on fashion is perceived positively or negatively, this fact is unequivocally true.

The vast majority of the information human beings receive and process from the world around them occurs visually. Judging someone based on their appearance is not shallow (unless taken to certain extremes), but instead is perfectly natural and even purposeful. This can be observed especially clearly in high schools and other places where large groups of adolescents gather — the many different styles of dress reflect the different social groups to which each individual belongs, or to which they are trying to belong. Sometimes this dress varies in an extreme way from the standard or "normal" style of a given culture, making a more obvious statement about one's identity. As Wilson (1992) puts it, "counter-cultural dress forces us to recognize that individuals and groups use dress in subtle ways to create meaning, to locate themselves in society in a variety of ways." One might take slight exception to his use of the term "counter-culture" — subculture is perhaps more appropriate — but his basic meaning is clear: dress is used as a way to identify and to be identified.

At first glance, fashion and an individual's own proclivities in the field might seem to be purely an issue of aesthetics. A deeper examination of the phenomenon, however, reveals how essential the concept of clothing and appearance are in the formation of social identities. Presumably, one likes the aesthetics of most of the clothes one owns, yet each time an individual gets dressed they must choose which of their clothes to wear that day. Essentially, getting dressed is a conscious or semi-conscious preparation and construction of identity. Zelinsky (2004) notes that "the only other set of cultural choices confronted with such regularity or complexity has to do with what we eat and drink," which are also, it should be noted, matters of survival. Fashion, then, represents the only set of complex cultural decisions we face on a daily basis that are purely related to our sense of identity rather than our survival.

Cultural Constraints and Postmodern Identity

It should seem fairly clear that fashion is perhaps the primary method individuals use to create their sense of social identity within the broader context of cultural constraints. This was not always the prevailing view, however: "In the last two decades the postmodernist (POMO) scholars have popularized the concepts of subjectivity, authenticity, modernity, and nativity in academia while rejecting the role of larger structural, institutional, and historical forces (referred to as meta-narrative) in understanding social and cultural issues" (Bahl 2005). The emphasis on how individuals define their identity is not incorrect in and of itself, but the failure to recognize that individuals do so within and in reaction to meta-institutions like culture — perhaps the most all-encompassing of these — has misconstrued the postmodern sense of identity as an inherently personal, rather than collective, phenomenon.

It must be understood, then, that culture and its constituent parts — namely fashion — play a vital role not only in how we are able to represent ourselves, but also in who we are and what our identity is able to consist of. An option that is not culturally available — one that is not simply frowned upon, but truly not represented — is simply not an option for an individual's identity. Fashion, then, plays a vital role in shaping that identity. How fashion shapes identity, however, can vary greatly from individual to individual and from demographic to demographic.

Conclusion: Fashion as a Mirror of Cultural Change

The role of women in our culture, and the changing identities to which they have been allowed to ascribe, has changed drastically over the course of the twentieth century. Perhaps nowhere is this change more visible than in the pages of fashion magazines, which not only reflect but continue to inform our sense of identity today.