Personally, I believe that the way that we dress shows our character and personal values. When I personally reflect on myself on my appearance, I do believe that I tend to dress like I was raised and the guidance of my parents. For example, I like to dress and look clean cut because it shows class, well mannered, and confident. Growing up my parents would tell me that baggy jeans were bad and expressed that I should never wear jeans like that. I didn’t understand fully on why they were against it so strongly, but now I believe that It gives you a bad look and people can judge you from a small thing like that, either by my peers or by random strangers; possibly someone that would be observing me for an assignment about body adornment…
My parents or others parents seems to be the primary source of our personal choice of dress. At a certain age, some parents will allow their child to pick and choose what they would like to wear, excluding the parents’ preference. Other parents would shape the child and ensure that their closet was filled with clothing that they would approve of, along with purchasing it as well, until the child is conditioned to believe that they wouldn’t want to wear anything else other than what they were used to wearing. As for me, I was that child that I would choose what clothes I would want to wear, but if my parents (mainly just my mom) were opposed, I would have to justify why I personally like the outfit or how it’s fashionable. Omitted variables could be a factor as well, such as the importance of demographics. Depending on the families income, geographic location, age group, etc… all would factor into appearance as well.
In the society we live in today, our peer community is a huge factor in our body adornment and beliefs. I would confidently say that a majority of the people that we are close to dress semi close. I say this, because dress and appearance strongly associate you with what type of people you like to be around. There seems to be big pressure on us today to conform with others and follow fashion trends to feel accepted into social cliques. Although, there is people that are more independent than others and don’t feel the need to care about what’s fashionably accepted and follow their own dress.