Reflecting on my dress and customization, I feel that I have evolved my fashion throughout the years. Just last year I felt comfortable going to class in athletic shorts and a sweatshirt and not fixing up my hair at all, but this year I have felt the need to look good for myself and that it is a lot of fun to customize and mix my dress and hair. I like to be current with my fashion and wear things from flannels to nice shirts everyday using different colors. One thing that I have always customized with and been expressive with have been my shoes. Ever since middle school I have worn that I see as unique and different because that’s how I express myself and feel that my shoes sometimes show my values and emotions. I value being a unique individual and believe that it is important to be yourself and express who you are. With my clothing, I believe that I express it is important to do what you enjoy and that I value making yourself feel good with how you look. One thing that has specifically changed for me over the years has been my hair. I haven’t grown my hair out long until recently and have found joy in styling and making it look different with headbands or hats to accessorize and express myself because I think it looks good. What I did not realize until recently was what my hair shows about myself, in C.R. Sanders book “Customizing the Body” he shows what hair has been known to express, “For both males and females hair style consistently has been a semi-permanent way to demonstrate opinion of and connection to current popular taste, established authority, and mainstream values” (Sanders 5). I guess that what I have come to realize is that my hair has given me some authority as I have been told that it makes me look older, and that I like to demonstrate my liking to the current popular taste that so many celebrity males have gone to long hair now as well. The reason why I choose the clothes that I do is because I do not want to be looked down upon because of my appearance and I now realize that I want people to have a good impression of me and see what I value based on my appearance and customization.

Some of the core beliefs from my family include being loving and open to others, working hard, and expressing our true selves no matter how different we may be. Loving and open to others is a value that resonates strongly with me as it is something that I value immensely and carry with me in my everyday life. One way that I express this value is often dressing invitingly like using soft colors and not using piercings or tattoos that may scare people away from your initial impressions. One way that I express my hard working belief in my outfits is when I dress professional to show that I am driven and focused. Finally, I really enjoy expressing myself through my dress and feel that this is very important and can often be seen as an art form. Doing something that you enjoy and can be seen as beautiful by a number of different people is something that should be encouraged and is something that can be a learning experience.

My peer community or friends has a separate core belief and value system that includes having fun, building relationships, and being unique. While being unique was a similar value that I shared with my family, my friends are very unique in how they dress but more specifically in body adornment with tattoos, different hats, watches, and even unique ways of hair styling. The value of having fun is often expressed in my peer community by wearing comical shirts and other clothes that most college kids wear when going out because it is fashionable. Also, we express our belief in building relationships by often dressing similar, on purpose or on accident, and also documenting our appearances with each other. Fashion in college is very unique because of how universal it is but also by how expressive many people can be with how they accessorize. I believe that being able to express oneself with clothing or body adornment is a very unique art form and is very expressive of how people feel and value. From head to toe, people can be seen differently by one subtle difference and the interpretations are vast on the different ways people express themselves.

The first person that I saw was a female who was wearing a heavy rain jacket with bright yoga pants and running shoes. She had brown hair with blonde highlights and had her hair in a pony tail in a hairband. The way that she was dressed made me feel like she was going to work out and that I believe she valued her personal health and fitness. I also felt that she liked to be fashionable with her bright colors and dyed hair. The assumptions that I made based on her dress was that she was a white, college aged female who was very healthy and the look on her face made her appear to me as if she was emotionally worried about something or about working out. These assumptions I made may say similar things about me because I dress in a similar way when I go to work out at the gym and feel that I am constantly worried and thinking about things when I am walking by myself to get somewhere, I value thinking deeply and this reflects in my facial expressions when I am walking around.

The second person I saw was a man in a grey sweatshirt, jeans, and an Oregon stocking cap and was wearing a black backpack. One belief I feel he expresses with his backpack was that he believed in a good education. One value I believe he expressed with his stocking cap was that he values his comfort and wanted to stay warm. Overall, I assumed, based on his attire, that he was a college aged white male that was from Oregon. This says about my values that I assume that most people that look and dress like the people I know from a place are immediately believed by me to be from that place. This is an unfair assumption and shows how I do not look deeply into a person until I get to know them better but also that I like to associate people with familiar faces because it makes me more comfortable.

The third person I saw appeared to me to be an older gentleman with glasses and a polo and jeans. His hair looked a little sporadic to me as well as his facial hair and it appeared that he had a concerned look on his face while looking at his computer. I believe that he expressed a knowledgeable value as he was looking onto his computer screen intently and it appears to me that he cares about school more than appearance because his hair was messy and had longer facial hair. Based on his appearance, I would say that he is a mid to late twenties white male who appears to be emotionally stable but very stressed. This says a lot about my values as I often find myself being stressed often but value my time to myself and believe that it is important to take time off and enjoy things. I also believe it is important to take care of yourself and look nice at times.