S U R R O U N D I N G S A S G A R M E N T S

‘ Fashion is the social by-product of the opposition of processes of conformity and individualism, or unity and differentiation, in society.’ Simmel (1904)

‘Clothing comes to share in the work or ambivalence management as much as does any other self-communicative device at our disposal: our voices, body postures, and facial expressions and the material objects we surround ourselves with (Goffman 1959)

‘ That clothes we wear make a statement is itself a statement that in this age of heightened self-consciousness has virtually become a cliché. But what is the nature of the statements we make with our clothes, cosmetics, perfumes and coiffures, not to mention the other material artefacts with which we surround ourselves? Are such statements analogous to those we make when we speak or write, when we talk to our fellows? In short, as the novelist Alison Lurie (1981) has recently claimed, is clothing not virtually a visible language, with it’s own distinctive grammar, syntax, and vocabulary?’