The Tribe of One
PART ONE
Have you ever wondered about the power of clothing? What if I told you that clothes can be so much more than just fabric and fabrications? They can define, confine, enlighten, and empower. In the following story, I’ll take you on a journey through my life, exploring how my clothing choices defined me, broke me free from expectations, and eventually, became a beacon of my individuality. My tale may be extreme, but the underlying message is universal: be true to yourself, no matter what it takes.
Clothes maketh the man they say
The clothes that we wear define us. They define so many things that we are probably not consciously aware of. They define your social position. If you wear designer clothes it tells those around you where you shop, what your values are, and how much money you have – or at least are prepared to spend.
You can use clothes to deliberately tell a story. You can create the impression that you are something to are not. You can try to convince people you really do have money by wearing expensive clothes when you actually don’t. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. It usually falls down when the rest of the story fails to follow through after the initial impressions.
It’s a fantasy
Clothes can also inadvertently define you. If you wear a tradesman ‘uniform’ of hi-vis gear, work pants steel cap boots and maybe a hard hat. That tells a story, even before you open your mouth people have pegged you. That may create a story in someone’s mind about who you are and they will make assumptions about you. Maybe, because you look like a ‘tradie’, they assume that you didn’t go to university because you weren’t smart enough and this was all you could do in life. Similarly, if you wear a ‘white collar’ uniform of a collared business shirt and tie and shoes, rather than boots, you tell a different story. It tells the story that maybe, you’ve been to university, that you’re smart, that you’ve got more disposable income, that you are a ‘better’ class of person than say a Tradie. None of this is true. It’s a fantasy based on expectations of the story that clothes tell.
Hippies dress like other hippies
We all make assumptions. It’s inevitable. We almost have no choice but to judge a book by its cover. Clothes are the main means of doing that on meeting someone for the first time.
Another aspect is that people tend to dress to suit their ‘tribe’. Each social tribe has its dress code. Hippies dress like other hippies to tell other hippies that they think like them. That they have the same values and same or similar outlook on life. It lubricates the social wheels. It makes it easier to connect with another human if you dress similarly. It sends social signals that this person is a person whose values might align with yours and are worth spending time getting to know.
Similarly, you don’t get hippies, joining say a far-right neo-nazi skinhead group. They have their uniform that telegraphs their values. Not only are the clothes totally different, but those clothes reflect the values that each subculture aligns itself with. Cast your eye around and you will see that everyone, even nudists is telling a story that reflects their sub-culture and values.
In a sense, we don’t have much choice. Initially, we are dressed by our parents and then as we grow we start to make choices about what we want to wear and often as we grow they reflect our interests. The music we listen to may draw people into for instance punk subculture. The possibilities are endless these days. There are so many subcultures and even micro-subcultures with tiny and subtle differences between them. Each subculture has its own fashion, often its own music and often its own language. Its own patois that other sub-subcultures can either not understand at all, or use it to define whether that person is an ally or enemy of that sub-culture.
Even nudists have to dress to suit their tribe
It often seems we actually don’t have a choice in any of it. No one in their right mind would dress as a hippie or a rapper or a skin-head or a supporter of a different football to what you support if you didn’t hold the values of those groups close to your heart. It just wouldn’t happen. For a start, if your values didn’t align with how you dress it would be soon discovered anyway and you would be ejected from the sub-culture immediately. You are not one of ‘them’ and your welcome would be withdrawn. In effect, for social acceptance, you ‘have to’ dress to suit your tribe if you want acceptance. Even nudists have to dress to suit their tribe and they have no clothes at all, but they do have a dress code to define their acceptance and adherence to the sub-culture values.
What if I were to suggest that it is all a game? A game that you can play purely for the fun of it. It of course means that you will not be accepted by a tribe, but it is a game you can play. Any of us at any time has the choice of what to wear. Today you can be a punk. Tomorrow you can be a hippie and the day after you can be a Barbie girl. It really doesn’t matter what you wear. You get to choose. You can dress to blend in. Today, I want to be invisible, so today I will wear the ‘uniform’ of the group that I will be hanging around with. Say for instance today I want to go and watch the football not stand out. I wear the clothes that suit that occasion. But tomorrow, I REALLY want to stand out and then I will go to watch the football dressed as a 17th-century Cavalier.
play the ‘clothes game’
It’s all a choice. No one forces us to wear anything. If you want to fit in you just do it. But what if you didn’t care? What if you just wanted to play with clothes and looks and impressions? You could do it. Of course, sometimes the reactions of people can be quite intense and unpredictable. Some people find it so confronting to their values to see someone starkly different that they cannot help but react and sometimes become abusive or even violent. As if beating the crap out of the person that doesn’t conform to their worldview will either make them see sense and dress and look like them or will make the problem go away. I’m not sure, but I can assure you it is not an uncommon reaction. Either way, if you are going to play the ‘clothes game’ you have to be prepared for the reaction. Rarely is it positive. Even, apparently normal people can be confronted with looks that are totally different to their own.
But, as I started to realise, these choices were more than just personal preferences; they were a form of self-expression and a way to rebel against societal norms. As I progressed through school and into Art College, my style continued to evolve and became a defining part of who I was. But the real story, the true tale of my transformation into a 17th century Cavalier, was still yet to come. And so, as my journey progressed, so did my understanding of the power of fashion and individuality. READ THE NEXT INSTALMENT