Personal Adornment
I don’t think that I am someone who is overly concerned with style, I tend to dress for comfort and my roommate has told me I “Just put stuff on.” I think that being colorblind has a small part to play in this, the nuances of color variation are unfortunately lost upon me at times and I have been told in the past that I fail to match clothes at times. However, with that being said I still think that I have a certain since of style that would have something to say about my values.
I am a pretty big sports fan, and I also really enjoy playing sports and I think this shows in the way I dress. I was born in Switzerland and spent some time in my childhood watching and playing a lot of soccer. This has translated into wearing a lot of soccer jerseys, from the United States and Swiss national team jerseys, to my favorite clubs and players, some of them very obscure like Grasshopper Club Zurich. This also translates to a value for me because I have been told by friends that I am fiercely loyal to clubs and players that I have any connection to at all. An example of this would be having probably one of the only fan owned Isaiah Burse Denver Broncos jerseys just because of a loose high school and college connection.
I am not somebody who has any form of tattoo, body art, or piercing. However I do like to wear bracelets and other forms of light “jewelry.” I am currently wearing a white bracelet that says “Switzerland” on it, again this probably points to the loyalty I talked about earlier and a pride in my roots and the nation of my birth that was instilled in me by my parents. On my other wrist is a copper bracelet that says “peace” in a bunch of different languages; my mother gave this to me when I was going through a particularly tough time. I think in terms of values this points to a love of family and the bracelet itself may symbolize a love of cultures. When I was I child my family spent some time living in a camper van and traveling around Europe, so I think that travel and experiencing culture is something that I value, this dawned on me after taking a closer look at the bracelet and maybe subconsciously is why I like the bracelet as much as I do.
When I was younger, around middle school and early high school, I think I cared a lot more about what was fashionable. I had some sweatshirts with crazy patterns and my shirts were mostly name brand and I would buy shirts that had some crazy design. I think this is part of the need as a person that age to fit into social norms and be part of a crowd. I think this is put on children of that age socially and because of social pressures they put pressure on their peers to do the same. As I grew older I cared less about this and more about what made me comfortable not just physically but in a since of style that I guess represented myself. I like to wear shirts from places I have been, I think this goes back to my love of traveling and my childhood in which I spent a lot of time traveling and moved several times in my life. Most of my favorite shirts have some memory of a place I have been or an experience I had. Furthermore I think this is also something that was given to me by my parents, they love to travel and took risks when my sister and I were young. They decided to give up a comfortable life and accepted being poor for the opportunity to see the world.
I have a bit of a hard time describing myself in terms of style and how I express myself, I also had a hard time writing about others and what values they may have based on style. I think this must say something about y values as my parents have taught me that being humble, meek, and non-judgmental are positive qualities. So to talk about others and myself on a bases of style and adornment seems a bit forced to me. It seems a bit out of character and I feel myself cringing internally talking about myself and others in this way. I understand that outward appearances are a choice and therefore must reflect something internal, however I find it difficult.
Filed under Unit 05 | Comment (0)People Watching
Today I spent some time people watching on campus while walking to class and these are the three people I decided to write about.
I saw a guy who was wearing a black jacket, I did not notice if there was any logos on the jacket but there was some white writing on the front that I was unable to make out. He was wearing an nba logo cap that was backwards and to the side. This told me that this person enjoys sports, and was rooting for the Portland Trail Blazers in the playoffs. The fact that it was meticulously in the back and to the side position told me something about his age, and that he valued a certain since of style and wanted to appear to the outside world in a certain youthful way. He also wore sweatpants, but they were the type of sweatpants that seem to be part of popular culture today and are worn by celebrities, this again pointed to youth and a value to be “in style” with popular culture.
I saw another person, this time a girl, who was dressed in leggings with wild patterns. They had bright colored stripes that went all the way down the legs. This told me that this person valued standing out, to dress in a way that would be a bit outside the norm. This was accentuated by the fact that she had gage style earrings, which I think certainly make a statement about style in the since of going against the grain or willingness to modify appearance to create a certain look. She also had a flower tattoo that running down her right arm. This told me that she values art, maybe even that she was an artist. For her to have art physically put a permanent form of art onto her body must say something about her opinions on art, specifically the type of art she likes, there is also the possibility that this had a deeper meaning to her.
The third person I decided to write about was a bit more unassuming than the first two. While the first two people seemed to have some value in standing out and wanted to make a statement of some kind in terms of style, this person seemed to care a bit less about outward appearance. This person was wearing shorts that were gray, and a plane t-shirt that was white with bear company logo on it. While the first two seemed to be a bit more effortful in what they wanted to represent with there clothing and style options, this person clearly valued comfort, telling me he may be bit more pragmatic than the first two. The fact that he was wearing sunglasses on a sunny day that were not necessarily any recognizable name brand only furthers this assumption. I will say that making all these judgments based on clothing and appearance seemed a bit odd, I understand that this happens constantly on a subconscious level, but to actively notice these judgments and to try and make assumptions about values without any further knowledge seemed a bit off-putting. I suppose this says something about my values.
Filed under Unit 05 | Comments (3)