Commentary: Fashion as a Social Identifier

Exploring Fashion as a Social Identifier

Cover Photo by Harper Sunday on Unsplash

Fashion in our society can have multiple meanings and understandings depending on who you are and your own unique perception of fashion. For some, fashion is for pure self-expression regardless of what their style is. For others, it can be as simple as making sure one has a good amount of clothes to cover their body and go about their day. Regardless of who you are, fashion is a powerful tool for social identification and is often not as simple as being “just clothes”. 

Fashion refers to the self-expression one undergoes in terms of their physical choices  in clothing and accessories, while social identity is how a person places themselves in the different parts of society based on the groups they perceive themselves to be a part of. 

Among the many factors of one’s social identity, fashion is crucial to not only identify someone’s social background, but also to change it. For instance, a girl in a school uniform would be a student- nothing more, nothing less. When she’s out of her uniform  and in luxury brand clothes you can identify her as a part of the upper-class, whereas previously one would have had no basis to start on to identify her class.. Nonetheless, the extent of social identification through fashion reaches beyond uniforms and branded clothing. 

Some of the ways fashion acts as a social identifier include providing hints into cultural context, group identity and social class and status. 

Cultural Context

The link between fashion and social identification extends into  everybody’s cultural background. Having moved to a more liberal minded locality from a stricter, rule enforcing culture, the differences in cultural influence is apparent to writer Nandini Sood. Through her  experience living in India and Canada,  and by studying cultural psychology, she’s found that in eastern cultures fashion tends to be more important in changing how others identify you socially. In the east more predominantly, clothing changes how a person is viewed, such as newlywed brides wearing a set of red bangles in Punjabi culture to highlight this shift in their life, prompting changed views from others. In western cultures, on the other hand, fashion relates more so to identifying social backgrounds and organizations such as sorority merchandise or rainbow clothing to show allyship to pride. 

Photo by Alexi Romano on Unsplash

A phenomenon known as face, seen to be heightened in Chinese social interactions, was identified and explored by cultural psychologists in China. Face is defined as behaviors and customs from different cultures associated with an individual's level of honor in society, and the level of respect an individual garners in society which can be lost, maintained, or enhanced. Having lived in the east, fashion and social identification are definitely seen as working together to improve how one is viewed in society with one example being a greater emphasis on wearing branded clothes. Cultural context remains an asset in further understanding the link between fashion and social identification.

Group Identity

Certain clothing items can be associated with specific groups and are worn by all members of the given group. This item of clothing can’t signify inclusion, opposition, or even rejection. In doing so, the clothing becomes a lifestyle that the members of the group share and see one another within this style. A prominent example of this can be sports- the well-known blue, white, and green Vancouver Canucks jerseys are often seen worn in solidarity in the city whenever the team has a game on and signals the wearer that the other is also a fan of the team. In a more common example, traditionally feminine clothing items such as dresses can depict a common shared lifestyle in its wearers that they may be female-presenting or feminine. 

Photo by Vladimir Yelizarov on Unsplash

Wearing clothes that are understood to be an aspect of a certain group can create a sense of belonging for group members. These cultural group-belonging identifiers can serve to create both inclusivity or alienation- sometimes even both. For example, transgender people often find it harder to feel belonging under the heightened pressures for gender conformity in clothing. In a different context, individuals may choose to further contradict existing social fashion norms to create new fashion subcultures, such as the rise of the anti-conformist Punk fashion in England in the 1970s which emerged as a movement of rebellion towards upper-class attitudes and became a separate group identification overtime. 

Social Class and Status

Throughout history, clothes have been used to differentiate the socially powerful and weak, such as the stark differences in the clothing styles of Pharaohs and commoners in Ancient Egypt. Many of these differences persist today. In certain cultures, certain colors, gold, and other prestigious jewelry have been symbols of status. In Ancient Rome, togas tended to have a purple border for more influential men due to the color being a harder dye to obtain. Fabrics were a crucial indicator of social class, with silk and fur being more expensive fabrics that would be viewed more highly when worn. 

Fashion scholars believe upper-class members of society introduce fashion change which then  trickles into the lower echelons of society. Throughout history this has occurred as people attempt to mimic the clothing of the higher classes to appear to be like them. This summer’s hard-to-miss increase in hot pink colored-outfits throughout much of the fashion industry, including mainstream giants like Zara, is likely a trickle-effect of luxury fashion brand Valentino’s hot-pink only 2022-2023 fashion collection. Today, as more and more of “upper-class” clothing become almost instantaneously accessible and affordable to people from other classes due to fast fashion retailers, clothing as depiction of social class is more about well-made garments and better quality of materials. Beyond clothing, one’s class affiliation is associated with accessories such as watches, eyeglasses, bags and shoes. 

Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash

Exploring the several social groups that a person can belong to is important to begin understanding how fashion is used to identify people socially. Stay tuned for our upcoming articles as we begin exploring how we can use this knowledge to further social images of ourselves, something that can be imperative to unlocking a career promotion or even improving our own confidence. Until then, keep reading our various articles that outline several ways of dressing better, and even how to be sustainable while doing so! 

What do you think about fashion as a social identifier? Was there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!