“Women, and men, may dress to defy parents, spouse, a whole community; equally they may dress in a way that they hope will mean that no one ever notices them. Women certainly do not always dress ‘for men’. The belief that they do has confirmed many fashion writers in their view of women as essentially silly, since they have seldom questioned the idea that it is every women’s chief preoccupation to arouse male desire. Even, therefore, when women wear status garments, this is interpreted as sexual rivalry—for a woman to dress ‘for other women’ means simply in order to compete. And it is true that triumph and assassination by dress are by no means infrequent.”

- Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams

I found this statement to be extremely interesting about the many reasons that we dress ourselves the way that we do. There is no one right answer as everyday becomes a whole new set of options, possibilities, situations and reasons that we dress ourselves in certain clothes. I thought that the best way to present this constant predicament would be by styling one of my favorite dresses in several different ways to impose the question who exactly are we dressing for? Above is the dress as is and next to it my version of dressing as a wallflower, the rain coat is very appropriate for in Miami summer means rain every. single. day.

To the left above we have me dressing 'for me' and to the right me dressing in rebellion. or to defy my community. Below to the left is dressing in female rivalry and to the right is dressing 'for men'. It is so interesting to me the personal psychology and social psychology that goes into dressing ourselves on a day to day basis. It is truly incredible that all of these things can be expressed through the relationship of garment to body. At the end of the day I would wear this dress in all of these ways and more simply because I want to; because I desire to and like to think that I am not dressing for other people but that simply isn't true. Our sub-conscious is a funny thing and finds its way of expression through many routes in our lives. We use dress to express who we are and to express who we want to be. We use it to comfort us and to make others think certain ways about us. If you think you're dressing just for you think again.