6 functions of dress

Module 3: Six Functions of Dress

According to the module, we start to think over not only what we wear, but also why we wear like this, and wonder why people from different countries have unlike style of wearing habits.



Environmental Protection
This is the basic function of dress among the six. From prehistoric times, dresses offer the capacity of adaptation to various climates.


This picture is retrieved from the movie"Night at the Museum." AT that time, human beings wear fur to adapt to the extreme environment.












Eskimo lady: Goldie Hawn's fashion fur pas sees her dressed in a coat that makes her look like an Eskimo, as she attended a film awards in Amsterdam.





Canadian Eskimo dog team
In frigid zones, animals develop thicker
fur to adapt to the climate.

2. Decoration
A way of distinguishing from "ME" and the "OTHERS."

Arranging head dress decoration



The photographer said arranging takes 1 hour or more, cutting the fresh flowers and insert to the hairs and so on. In this process, a usual girl was changing the glamorous sacred dancer, which conducted the sacred performance to the Hindu Gods.




Gender Differentiation
We can distinguish male and female garments from how and what they wear.

The most ancient recorded Indian drape is the dhoti. Until the 14th century it was worn by both men and women across India with little gender differentiation in drape. Then the women's dhoti started to become longer.
The accessory cloth worn draped over the shoulders was sometimes transformed into the upper part of a longer sari, becoming the mundanai.
Awareness of colonial British attitudes about women's physical modesty accelerated the development of a longer sari and the adaptation of drapes to cover the breasts in the mid-19th century.
All dhoti styles of draping wrap each of the legs separately in some part of the sari. This creates a bifurcated garment.
Behind, a "tussah silk" sari. Each mannequin is set in front of a hanging sari. The colors of the saris (hanging and on the mannequin) were carefully selected to match.






Group Membership

Dress can be used to identify an individual group belongs to



Academy Uniform


As part of the proposed move to Academy Status, The Ridings' Federation of Academies Trust will be introducing a new uniform at both Federation Academies for all students in Years 7 to 11, from 1st September 2009. The new uniform is designed to reinforce the new start, generate pride amongst students in their new Academies, introduce new, higher standards of dress and to make a clear and recognisable statement to our local communities about the aspirations for excellence at both Academies.






Ceremonial
Garments meant to create a mood or mark the importance of a social event

Tibetan Monk Ceremonial Costume




When there’s a celebration in Tibetan culture, people come from surrounding villages to celebrate for four days.

Sexual Enhancement

Through our vision, it's a common but easy way to attract men/women. What and how we wear have a lot to do with attraction.

In acient China, comparing to the present time, the Chinese women, reserved and classical behaviors and costumes, turn out to be more sexy, and means more than untrammelled ones.