Definition of Symbolism
Symbolism refers to the use of images or symbols to represent ideas and qualities or to express emotions, affiliation or the state of mind.
Use of Symbolism in Clothing
Clothing is a basic need for the man; worn essentially for the protection and decoration of the wearer. The use of clothes has become so pertinent that they are considered second skin of the man. Besides basic purpose, the clothes are also considered as a media for communication with the observers. Clothing symbolism is thus use of clothes to express person’s character, position and status of life through use of visual or nonverbal symbols. One can have a visual perception of sex, age, size, nationality, profession, social caste, etc. of a person by observing his clothes. The clothes form first impression of the person on the psyche of the observer; produce symbolic affect on the interactions of people such as gestures, motions, and objects and act as significant nonverbal symbols that communicates and defines certain aspects of personality, age, role, status and situation of an individual. Changes in clothing thus alter the impressions formed of an individual’s personality traits. The clothing cues can be related to different aspects as follows:
- Personality: The masculinity and femininity can be expressed through clothing by choosing specific line, colour and texture in a dress. For example, Softly curved silhouette, small patterns in related tones, light colours in limited contrast and soft, pliable and sheer texture express the feminine personality.
- Role and status: An individual’s position in society is reflected mainly by occupational roles (teacher, doctor, and barber), family roles (mother, sister, uncle) and age-sex roles (a young man, a teenage boy and an old woman).Status refers to an individual’s place on a scale of prestige i.e., the degree of social value attached to a person performing specific role. The clothing gives cue of the social role and thus reflects the related status of an individual. For example, work uniforms of manual workers, doctors, advocate, etc.
- Sex and age: The clothing symbols vary widely from culture to culture. There are established symbols of sex in the clothing of all societies. In India, for centuries there is saree-blouse, lehnga-choli or salwar-kameez for women and dhoti, kurta and pyjama for men. Pants have now days become universal for men and are accepted well for women but skirts are not accepted for men. In ancient times, the children and adults were dressed in same costumes but today their dresses vary a lot in terms of design, colour and designs. In specialty stores clothes are available in sizes for infants, toddlers, children, girls and boys, teens and adolescents besides for adults and elders according to their physical and physiological requirements.
- Situation: Clothing is considered as a significant visual cue to define/ relate to significant situations in the life such as birth, janeu ceremony, graduation from school/ college, festivals, marriage, job, parenthood and even death; all require a change of wardrobe or at least special dresses for these occasions. A change of dress indicates mental preparedness of a person to specific situation.
