Fire and Knowledge

People have always used clothing not only (or even primarily) for covering, but for communicating. The symbolic use of clothing is in many ways like a language, with a grammar or syntax that allows for a range of expressive acts. And what a rich language it is, with regional and demographic dialects sophisticated enough to permit jokes, ironic statements, even slang and metaphor.

What we wear speaks volumes about who we are. Our clothes reveal our age and income, our education and our social class; they reveal our current attitudes and political beliefs, our gender and even our sexual orientation. They play an extraordinary important role in mate selection. Clothing is also an extremely accurate guide to the time in which we live—notice how clothing (along with hairstyles) is the easiest way to date old photographs.

–Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture (UK Edition, 2004), p. 163