"Six Social Functions of Dress"

Environmental Protection
The Lapps or Lapplanders are a group of indigenous people in Norway. Their traditional clothing reflects the arctic environment. The 19th century styles are made of heavy wool and dyes.




This modern day caftan is inspired by the Moroccan djellaba which was a key garment to surviving in the desert.









Decoration

The Kayan women located in the border mountains between Burma & Thailand wear brass coils around their necks starting at age 5. The brass coil is lengthened as they age. The brass coils confer them a tribal identity, associated with beauty. This form of decoration can also be seen as group membership.





This gown from 1775 is very decorative with embellishments including bows, lace ruffles, and embroidery. Back in the 18th century women were seen as highly ornamental objects in their husband's possession.








Gender Differentiation

This black & white photo from early 1950. Women wore dresses and were expected to stay home while the men always wore the pants/uniform in the family and were the providers.







This photo was taken in France and published in the Daily Mirror on January 24th 1969. This shows the start of unisex clothing. This man and woman have similar hairstyle lengths as well as coordinating form fitting body suits.

Group Membership

On November 18th, 1942 the 1st uniforms for the women employees of the Redstone Ordinance Plant arrived. This was a way of showing their group membership.


These Harajuku girls in Japan show their membership to the famous fashionable group of this highly known fashion district with their over the top colorful, miss matched sense of style.







Ceremonialism

Actress Vilma Banky is shown here in the in a wedding scene from the 1935 film The Dark Angel. American weddings are well known for the bride to wear white and this gown is made of orchid lace over satin, with a complementary corsage of orange blossoms.



This gypsy style shown here is popular amongst tribal bellydance troupes of today. This Bollywood star, Aruna Irani, is wearing typical gypsy dress as Nisha, a gypsy dancer, in a movie from the Sixties about a a band of gypsies moving and living in a caravan. This is a scene depicting a traditional dance at a village festival.











Sexual Enhancement

This image shows a woman from the Victorian era in a corset which creates an overt sexuality by creating the hourglass figure out of the female form. Bustles were also an ornamental way of enhancing the derriere .




Henry VIII is shown in this portrait wearing a codpiece. Which at first was seen as modesty since pants back then were just two separate legs which were tied together at the top and no crotch. This was a way of covering and offering protection to the exposed genitalia. Though gradually the codpieces grew more bulbous and exaggerated. Henry VIII was thought to have enlarged his codpieces to make up for lack of being able to produce male heirs