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Philosophy Paper on Fashion 

Candy Morales 

Dress codes, adaptation, functionality and  gender roles in fashion 

Fashion is  a necessity in society,  since we are not walking naked on the street or public places, we need fashion as a part of being involved in society’s design. Fashion can be so many things, like identity, expression, adaptation, appropriateness for occasion,  functionality and necessity, which can lead to a dress code for specific occasions. Fashion involves roles like femininity,  masculinity or an androgynous style. In some aspects fashion would have a culture and law norm. In Philosophy, fashion belongs to the branch of Aesthetics, since fashion involves the value of beauty and art. Fashion also falls under and into the Ethics branch as well  since fashion is attached sometimes to moral norms and cultural appropriateness. Can fashion be contradictory since it is a medium of expression and identity but at the same time as a person that uses fashion as expression  must follow dress codes for appropriateness or cultural norms? These considerations take me to the  main questions of this paper: When is the time to have your own code of clothing or to be authentic?,  Is dressing in certain ways an actual danger or threat to others?  Below, I first consider a social aspect of fashion in its roles of imitation vs. differentiation. Then, I go on to consider the impact of gender on fashion as well as the constraints moral, legal, and other cultural norms place on the “appropriateness” of fashion in a society. Finally, I consider a pragmatic element of fashion due to its functionality before formulating an answer to the main questions I am addressing in this paper.

According to Georg Simmel, in a paper that was published in 1895, “fashion, as a social fact that is, the non-cumulative change of cultural features, derives from a basic tension  specific to the social condition of the human being: on the one hand, the tendency of each of us to imitate somebody else, and on the other hand, the tendency of each of us to distinguish oneself from others”. After I read this part of the  Simmel paper, I would say that Imitation is a characteristic of fashion guided by the trends (e.g if a famous person, an actress,  that I admire uses  a sheer shirt for an event, I would probably tend to copy this way of getting dressed). On the other hand, the designer that created this sheer shirt for this actress might have created it specifically with the intent to differentiate this actress from others and be distinguished as unique for this specific event. So, we can perhaps say that the imitation comes after the desire and action  to be differentiated, distinguished and unique. 

The roles of gender  in fashion—,  feminine, masculine or an androgynous style —that is where the feminine and the masculine collide, and the role is determined by each individual.. Then we should ask the question, How are  the feminine and the masculine garments  defined?  I.e the skirt in some cultures, such as like american culture, the skirt is a feminine item while in other cultures it is masculine as well, e.g., in the scottish culture where men uses  the kilt, which  that is a plaid skirt, and the that is serves as a part of the identity of the culture. This in partand is also due to the functionality and comfort that the kilt/skirt provides., So can we say that the skirt is an  androgynous item?.  What about pants? Pants may be considered androgynous although I guess with pants in actuality is androgynous as well, it came from fashion history to be defined primarily as a man’s garment, but now is often worn by women and men alike. As well often, Maybe the way in fashion the items are defined, like masculine or feminine is determined by each individual and the mood that comes with wearing a specific outfit or item. 

So, there are cultural, moral, legal, and gender-based norms which bear upon fashion. Considering the conflict between cultural/moral/legal fashion norms and an individual’s ability to override said norms for certain reasons (e.g. A terrifying example of how far moral norms can go is the case of Mahsa Amini who died in September 2022 in Iran because she was not properly wearing the hijab which is a mandatory scarf that women should wear to cover their hair in public), in Iran there is  Moral Police who reinforce the use of the Hijab, this is attached to the islamic religion, this police reinforce the women modesty. How far a rule/norm can go until the point to have a woman killed for not covering her hair properly? The dead of Mahsa brought protest in the country and around the world, bringing even more dead afterwards because around the world people realized the injustice of this incident, Also brought a law, (congress.gov) The Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability Act, or the MAHSA Act,” law that consist to impose sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran and the President of Iran and their respective offices for human rights abuses and support for terrorism, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill as amended do pass”, so there are also laws created to regulate and balance out norms, and in this case came from a series of  catastrophic events. Another example 1922, here in the USA, the bathing suit couldn’t be more than 6 inches above the knee; if it were, one could receive a warrant from the police, but in actuality there is no such a law like that for swimsuits. 

In addition to its cultural, moral, legal, and social aspects, fashion also can involve considerations of functionality. For example, certain fashions of clothing functions as an adaptation tool for weather, e.g wearing a coat in very cold weather would be that kind of adaptation, and can provide functionality as in the case of a sport, e.g. In basketball a player should use the appropriate attire in order to be comfortable and the attire should be functional such as wearing proper shoes that allow a person to at the time of run and jump while limiting the risk of injuries from doing said activities to be effective in the practice of the sport.

Following all the premises that I talked about before including differentiation, appropriateness, adaptation, gender roles, social and moral norms, when would be the right  time to be authentic since been  involved in society and cultures, compounds a series of boundaries and moral norms but at the same time as human we are trying to be unique and since fashion define a way to be in society that does not need words but a style, I guess that, that must  be determined by each individual and depending of which this individual wants to express and be differentiate for, and when is the moment to express this unique in the case of the sport or adaptation. Fashion also can lead to law/norms and it may be challenged by people who want to make a difference precisely for the fact that they want to create a statement of how a norm/law can be unfair. In a realistic way, dressing in a certain way is never dangerous for others, there is no harm in a style, way of dressing or an outfit, until this becomes a statement and is conceptualized in other words is only in the spectators mind not in the actual action to express oneself. Maybe fashion should be a way to respect each other’s boundaries of expression no matter which  those are? Or There is a line of how to show ourselves with  fashion when we interact with the world? How can wearing a garment can be dangerous or harmful to other than the person that is wearing it? 

Citations 

1. Sergio Benvenuto. Review of Georg Simmel Fashion.Publish online, Northeast university.com , volume 3, March 2000., https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220327302_Fashion_Georg_Simmel

2. House of Representatives, The Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability Act, or the MAHSA Act, congress.gov. June 22, 2023. https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/118th-congress/house-report/118/1#:~:text=The%20Mahsa%20Amini%20Human%20Rights,rights%20abuses%20and%20support%20of