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SOCIAL USES OF CLOTHING
c. If you see clothing for what it really is; social
communication, then clothing can reflect the social progress of
humans and nations.
For instance in those countries were men and woman are equally
respected there is no division into gender clothing or basic
style. Where the men are not worried about their sexuality or
position they have no need to distinguish their maleness from the
womens role. The Eskimo fights for survival in a harsh land which
makes male and female equal partners. So both wear the same basic
style. There is no need to distinguish male or female form from a
distance in a storm. If it’s human it’s welcome. All life was
important to them in the lonely wastes.
In Java or Bali the sarong was worn by all. Before the colonial
British came along it was worn by all wherever it felt
comfortable; from the waist or under the armpits and over the
breast. The breast was never seen as a sexual taboo but as its
functional reality ; a source of food for survival of infants.
That a man could enjoy them also was beside the point.
The social statements made depend on the following factors;
1. The role women played in the social order.
2. The sexual use or abuse of the breast.
3. The division of labour.
4. The ratio of men to women.
Its not hard to define the role women held in the lower classes
around the world. The coolie, the slave, the tribe, woman labours
beside men. She is neither below him nor above and so she usually
wears almost the same clothes as the man in the field.
As she rises in class the money structure allows her to become an
adornment for the male. Her clothes must reflect his wealth and
her beauty. She has become literaly a commodity. Her saleable
points are her purity and beauty. Clothing either reflects her
value or her scarcity. On the street she is hidden by covers or
viels. In private she wears fine fabrics.
The more equal in status to the male in a community the less
worry there is about covering the breast. Sexual equality
delegates the breast to its natural function. Since it is not a
source of male privilage it need not be covered. As a part of the
bargaining power for a commodity it is not revealed except to the
future buyer. When it is used as a sexual inticement that brings
monetary rewards it is cunningly displayed or outlined.
It is harder to see the sexual control in clothing as easily as
the others. It occurs when jobs are defined as male or female
jobs. Coveralls belonged in male oriented labour, so when women
entered these fields they were required to wear the clothes
belonging to the job. If you are a female pilot you wear the pant
suit uniform.
NATIONAL CLOTHING.
d. Every country has developed its own unique style of clothing
that reflects its available material, its weather, its artistic
skills, its religion and its social progress.
In North America this was the variety of weather across the
continent that dictated anything from breach clouts to full parka
and pants and rain gear. The fact was that animal skins and bark
were plentiful while sheep were non existant,as well as cotton or
flax. Quills and feathers and bones and metal adorned the
clothes. Its religion was equality of sexes and its social
development was equality for both sexes.
In south America the extremes of very hot to very cold prevailed.
The animals were not so easy to kill in great numbers so plants
and feathers become the common clothing. Woven fibers and
plaiting were developed in some area’s and at the extreme tip the
body was acclimated to the cold without any clothing. Feathers,
bones,and metal and stones become the adornment. Class structures
prevailed in the upper S. American area and with it the division
of sexes. Cotton must have been available in South America as
some of the finest woven cottens have been found in anciant
graves.
The Pacific Islands had the temperate climate that was only
broken by storms that come fast and left fast and rain. Clothing
was non existant or consisted of grass or tapa cloth and was more
for adornment or the few times it rained or grew cold. Capes were
a common garment. Feathers were plentiful.
Japan and China must have had a neanderthal time and yet our
knowledge of this is scanty. When we discovered Japan they wore
the clothing of a highly evolved culture. The women were already
into the Kimono and the men wore a combination of pant for war
and kimono for peacefull purposes. The culture was already
technically advanced. So was China with its silk and cotton
industries. Both cultures had learned so much about the Arts of
weaving and embroidery and styling.
Moving west from China to India, Persia and to the middle east we
encounter the same knowledge. Only changes in climate and social
demands limit the style and fabric used. Since trade routes from
ancient times had opened up the easten world to the uses of all
materials available and styles.
It isn’t until we come further west and north and reach down
through Africa that we encounter a visible change.
In the northern area’s of Europe within the memory of man we
again see the use of skins as clothing for the cold. While down
in Africa we encounter everything from a penis guard to leaves,
straw, skin, cloth robes, etc. depending on culture, climate and
contact with other cultures.
The first synthetic made was rayon. This developed into the use
of polymers to form nylon. The names used confuse us as we now
have nylon, dacron, orlon, polyesters, etc. It is the process
used to make them that gives them their names as well as the
base product used. And it doesn’t stop there because each product
from the chemical or the polymer bonding process can be handled
or spun out in different methods to achieve new forms of the
fibres. These in turn can be spun together to form different
wieghts of the fibre. These in turn can be woven in many forms or
knit to form a variety of cloths and these in turn can be treated
in many ways by bonding, spraying, or backing.
The use of unwoven plastics in weaving is done by shredding the
plastic and using it as an adjunct to the other fibres in order
to give shine or a tweed effect.
Metals are used today very finely linked in chain mail and
fabrics created from it for purses, show business and fashion
clothes. Or fashioned into plates of light metal and corded or
linked together into tops.
ARCHEOLOGY
h. We are always being told of the methods archeology uses in
tracing peoples and development via the pottery they use, however
another method is the clothing styles on wall art, and border
patterns on fabric as well as weaves of cloth. All of these can
tell us a lot about the early development of a people and their
technology and trade development, who they have had contact with
and at what stage. Social, economic, religious,military knowledge
can all be gained by clothing.
The social uses of clothing apart from military and religion
subdivide into three classes at the tribal level; working,
leasure, nobility, and subdivide again as the civilizations
progress upward and increases in size and compexity.
The more you have in personal wealth the better adorned you are
in clothing. This means that the nobility or ruling group will
have every opportunity to seek out the finest and best clothing.
The fact that the poorest in the community may be the one who
creates the cloth or finds the dye or snares the animal skin
doesn’t change that. These people long ago found that they cannot
afford to use it for their own but for barter for food and
shelter. I have mentioned the nobility at the top of this list of
classifications, even though the leasure or wealthy traders may
have the money or ability to dress better, but because of a
little thing called ‘Royal Prerogative’ which was a restriction
on certain colors or cloth or furs that could only be worn by
Royalty. These restrictions no longer apply.
The leasure classes come next. And to this class we owe so much
of our progress. Maybe most of our progress, for they are the
bored ones, and bored seeks change at all times. And with change
comes progress. Even the smallest change in the clothing trade
can have far reaching consequenses. For instance the desire for
color leads to the art of dying = chemistry. The need for dye
stuffs = trade, exploration, industry. The desire for new
materials = farming of flax, cotton, sheep ranching, rabbit and
other animal trade or farming, textile industry, weaving.etc.
The first industrial factories were in the weaving trades. The
first plastics were for the clothing trade. The need to satisfy
the demand for style and uniqueness among the leasure class leads
constantly to innovations all down the line. An entire
encyclopedia could be written on the alterations to the world
caused by the clothing industry.It will never be written because the
men are not willing to admit that the major changes to our world
do not come about because of battles fought or politics but the
simple need or desire for better clothes. As the availability of
the product or fashion increases it filters down to the poorer
classes. This increases its production and leads to more and more
leasure class as the money rolls in. People do not get rich from
farming or from land or from wars. People get rich from clothing!
They progress via the clothing industry!
Let me explain that in clearer terms. A rural farming or herding
tribe that wears very little clothing; ie, no clothing industry
or trade, will each have its own food and animals. It sustains
itself from year to year and waxes and wanes by natures kindness.
If it increases its harvest it may trade with the next village
its surplus. But what will it take in trade that it doesn’t have
itself? From a tribe that isn’t too far away? And remember now we
are pretending that no one wears clothes or wants them. New tools
to farm with? You’d only need one and it would last awhile. What
do you trade for next time? Animals or new seed? That is still
the road to a self sustaining and slow growing economy. You have
those -the other tribes have those. At times of disaster the
other tribes will close ranks in self protection but that doesn’t
create growth. Will you trade for baskets, bowls, etc.? How many
can you use? Only a very small amount and you have probably made
them yourself. You are self sustaining, remember? But isn’t this
becoming a familiar picture? Doesn’t it remind you of all the
primative tribes around the world who lived in climates where the
need for clothes was low? Or the culture had not established a
leasure class?
The minute you begin to wear clothing as a neccessity or an
adornment the same thing takes place; it wears out or gets dirty,
or gets boring. It must be replaced all the time. This means a
constant source of new supplies whether its skin, grass or cloth.
Now as you will quickly notice, you will run out of skins in your
area if you hunt it too much, and the use of grass by itself will
be the same as the old tribal system. It will replenish itself
where you live and so it produces no culture of exchange.
But cloth now! That’s a different matter. That takes an industry
to produce. Many of them. And skill, artestry, craftsmanship,
individuality in its production and its wearing becomes a growing
factor.
Excessive growth becomes the catalyst for more subdivisions of
clothing. Clothing becomes a language of identification for a new
nation where writing and reading were unknown. The uniforn was
the clue to the trade or the position.
We can now subdivide the social strata into classes, ie,
specialized trades, professions, social positions.
Of the trades you can subdivide into novice, journyman, master.
The professions subdivide into students, graduate and
professor. Social position subdivides into worker, boss, owner,
leasure, young, infant, old, poor, rich.
NECCESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.
b. Lets start at the beginning; the infant stage of life.
A baby needs very little except warmth and protection from the
elements and dirt and its own soil. But from that beginning has
resulted the huge Diaper business. When a baby first emerges it
is placed in a recieving blanket or cloth. In many societies that
is not even available. The hot climates need no blanket for
warmth except the mothers arms. In a very primative society it
voids onto the ground. If it is carried in a cradle it becomes
pretty messy- so the first form of a diaper was born- or the
basic idea- an absorbent padding. This consisted of dried mosses
that could be easily disposed of and hopefully free of creepy
crawlers. However there is a suspicion in my mind that this form
of diaper made it possible to use a closed in cradle instead of
the other way around. In those countries that don’t use a carry
cradle there is little in the way of absorbant material. Instead
babies were carried in cloth slings around the mothers hip or
waist or back. In many primative situations the problem of toilet
training resembled that of wild animals in that the mother could
stroke the child to create the urge or as is done even today in
some area’s; whistle! By making the appropriate sound for wetting
and by associationg whistling with stools babies were capable of
being trained. But this may have been easier for women who
carried their babies around close to them and could sense by the
childs movements when it was time to hold it over the ground or a
pot.
In primative societies children wore no clothing in warm climates
until about 7-9 or when they went through a puberty ritual that
welcomed them into the adult world at which time they were
allowed to wear adult clothes.
In more complicated societies, (which we usually see as advanced
although I don’t know why) babies were not given clothes that
distinguished sex but wore a form of dress until five or six.
Where there was schooling available for boys they were then put
into special school clothes that defined sex or in the case of
girls small versions of womens clothes. At one time in the
western world children were so swaddled up that it was amazing
they could move at all. What we know of as the baby bonnet was
really a nightcap time had designed to keep the cold off the head
and was worn by old and young alike, men as well as women. It
remained as the traditional baby bonnet after heating improved in
houses.
Soft cotton pads have been used as a form of nappy in Eastern and
European society for ages but the diaper as we know it would have
had to wait for the safety pin to come along. A knit over pant
for absorption has been used for a long time in western society.
Usually made in the shape of a triangle and sewn together at the
points and overlapping enough to leave leg openings.
The romper for baby boys has been used in England, Europe, and
America for three hundred years or more. It consists of a top
that is elongated to form a skirt that is cuffed at the leg
openings and buttons between the legs for access to the diaper.
And it is belted in various styles at the waist. Over the years
this grew to be the jumper for older children and then into the
mailott, the coverall, the jump suit.
Babies and childrens clothing amongst the average classes has
always been of the cotton fabrics because of its easy washing
qualities. Babies clothes need a lot of washing until they are
pottty trained and infants and small tots are still in the
crawling and falling stage. Once they become agile on their feet
and can keep clean they progress to finer fabric. Or in the cas
of todays more freer child into tougher fabrics.
Among some nations and classes there was a tendancy to dress
children as miniature adults. Military styles were favourites,
especially the sailer suit. It wasn’t until American T-shirts and
jeans were developed that childrens wear became so highly
speciallized as clothing. Especially for children as these had all
the attributes needed for childrens wear. Easy care, and strength
and wearability.
The English and Europeans private schools developed another form
of clothing for children; the school uniform. For boys it was
always black or navy, and consisted of short or long pants of
this color depending on the age of the boy. A white shirt, collar
and cuffs and a jacket of the same color and fabric as the pants.
As schools became famous so did their uniforms. Eatons boys
school developed its own distinctive jacket style which with the
schools fame set it apart. Since there are not many ways you can
cut a jacket that left the tie as the means of identifying the
school the boys went to. These ties were woven with a distinctive
color and stripe combinations to allow for identification of the
school. This allowed for a snob system as the schools grew in
fame and the boys became men. It became part of the language of
clothing. And nothing in the clothing business made such a force
to alter a countries life and the lives of its men.
Girls uniforms developed along the same lines only with skirts or
jumpers and middy blouses. The middy blouse was a feminine copy
of the sailor top with its square collar down the back and short
or long sleaves. The jumper was a dark fabric with open square
neck and sleavless, but yoked at the shoulders front and back to
which the pleated skirt hung from. It was then belted at the
waist. The length of the skirt varies over the years. A jacket is
then worn over this of the same fabric and color as the skirt.
There are few distinguishig school styles. The hat and a school
badge being used for this purpose for both boys and girls
schools.
In general color is used in some countries to distinguish sex.
This could have had a number of reasons for its conception. It
depends on a number of factors.
How ignorant we are in the western world! The ancient world may
have had an archaic knowledge handed down to it in the form of
color systems and beliefs that come from a far more developed
knowledge of atomic structure, wave energies and vibrations that
we don’t know about at the present time. We are just now doing
research into this field and yet color has played a very
important part in our social development. If you take what we are
learning now about color vibrations and reach into the past
beliefs of mankind it becomes startling how the knowledge
coincides in far Eastern countries.
For instance the color red. In china baby boys wore red. Red is
the color of blood, Mars, war, anger, therefore the color of male
attributes for a warrior. Today we know that red vibrates at
higher speeds in waves. It excites the senses. In the west we
liken red to the prostitute, the wanton.
The color blue was seen as serene because the sky in good weather
is blue, still lakes are blue. Blue vibrates at a wave length
that induces calmness.
The color yellow or saffron was and is used by holy men in India.
The sun is yellow. Life comes with the sun. Creation is
represented by the sun. Yellow is seen as a holy glow. Of God.
Black is the absence of color, therefore the absence of life. Is
it a coincidence that our Christian religion or the Catholic
faith adopted the color black? That we mourn for our dead with
black clothes?
White is all the colors of the spectrum blended together. It also
reflects light. In countries where the idea of reincarnation
exists, white or colors are used for funerals.
In some countries babies are given color coding in the clothes.
Blue for boys and pink for girls. Or vice versa. The idea for
color coding for children probably stems for the fact that all
babies look alike from the facial features and it becomes
neccessary to distinguish if you have a boy or a girl. It saves
answering that tiring question of,’is it a boy or girl’? It also
depends on whether that society prefers boys or girls. As soon as
the sexes are distinguishable the color is dropped. In countries
where style or cut are sexual, color is not needed and becomes
optional.
SOCIAL NECCESSITIES.
c. What we do is often the reason for what we wear.
A cook is always needing to prevent splashes of food on his
clothing or dry or wipe his/her hands therefore an apron has been
developed. Since it is always in need of washing cotton is the
common fabric that was used as it washes and bleaches easily. It
began as a towel tied around the waist, grew to a permanent shape
of bib, and ties. A full suit of white then became practical also
as well as distinguishing. The chefs hat developed later as a
practical method of keeping hair out of the food or face.
Butchers wore white for the same reasons. Farmers developed
clothes that reflected need and climate as well as crop. Large
hats for shade or rain are common to many lands. Loose cotton
tops and loose short pants for those that plant in water. Or a
form of diaper wrapped around the seat. No shoes or they wore a
form of thong or boot for mud.
In the colder climates a heavier top was needed so the first form
of the poncho was developed. In holland the wooden clog was worn
for loose mud they had to walk on.
Herdsmen wore much the same clothing as the villager until the
development of the huge ranches in America when the men took to
horses. This neccessitated a form of overpant called chaps, which
consisted of leather legs to move through the thorny chapperall
bushes. They also developed the ten gallon hat. A form of bucket
for watering horses and cattle in emergencies that could also be
worn on the head. The cowboy always had the means of filling a
bucket for his horse or to put out his trail fire.
Blacksmiths developed the leather apron as a means of keeping
sparks from the forge off the clothes and to act as protective
cover for the lower body when holding a horses hoof on the lap in
order to shoe it.
It is only recently that the medical proffession has adopted a
specialized uniform. That came about as the discovery of asepsis
grew in the late 19th century. When the notion of germs was
discovered the need for antiseptic clothing became a must. All
white cotton smocks and pants became the uniform for hospitals
and surgical wards as well as in offices. The rubber glove was
developed to prevent more contact with germs. As more combustable
gases and electrical equipment developed together in operating
rooms so the shoes had to be covered with a cloth boot along with
the face mask and the cap for the hair.
With the advent of highly dangerous organisms and radiations a
new uniform or outfit is being used in medicine; the totaly
environment contained suit hooked up to a passage way entry
system.
Women have worked as servants, cleaners and helpers to doctors in
times of war or disaster,but it was not until Miss Florence
Nightingale did her bit in the Crimean war that Nursing became a
proffesion in itself and with it developed a uniform. This worked
up from a white blouse, black skirt, white apron and hat with a
blue cape worn over it when not on duty to the white uniform of
today. This consists of white dress and cap or white slack suit
and cap. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Today we have devided the three classes of workers into; the
laborer who wears work shirts and jeans ( in other words old
cloths), to the blue collar worker who dresses fairly well and
may be iether a worker or job boss, up to the white collar worker
who may be in a proffession, education field or an administration
capacity. The collar reference refers to how much you perspire at
your job and therefore how clean you can keep your neck. Because
the white collar workers didn't sweat they could wear white and
not stain it.