This is a visual representation of my subject positions highlighting the six subject positions: gender, nationality, place, education, body type, and education, that impact my dress practices. Intersectionality becomes a lot more complex when the dress, style, and fashion comes into play as these subject positions so-called individual “identities” coexist and move around in no specific direction, creating this unique framework of self and identity. Another way, these “individual processes of subjectivity become collective processes of intersubjectivity when individuals engage, influence, and perceive one another.” (Kaiser 30) They become one big cohesive manifestation of one’s identity that constructs who you are and how you became the person to be. Place and education closely relate to how I dress on a day-to-day basis. Moving to New York and receiving the education at a design school impacted my dress practices as I am more confident in the way I express my identity through the way I stylize myself. I believe that coming to New York allowed me to see the limitless possibilities of how fashion can be interpreted and manifested and is a place where it accepts all possibilities of how one can be represented. I also believe that going the education I am receiving right now at parsons and immersing myself in this communal space where all forms of self-expression are accepted, this allowed me to genuinely express who I am and seek to be through the practice of dressing, styling, and fashioning. Fashion to me now has become a “ritual experience or personal conditioning that occurs in everyday life.” (Kaiser 31) My body type has also impacted my dress practices as I was always tried to make myself look bigger through the aid of clothes. After I moved to the United States to further my education, my friends would always make fun of me for being “flat” or having no volume. This made me self-conscious about my body type and then I constantly find ways to change the silhouette of my body through the help of clothes. I would wear clothes that more loose-fitted so that no one would notice the shape of my body. Moving to New York has changed my mindset and helped me to embrace my inherent body shape; however, my dress practices of wearing more oversized clothed rather than more fitted and silhouetted garments has almost become a ritual to me that cannot be forgotten yet a style that I now embrace. Also, gender and nationality are two subject matters that I can relate to because coming from a Korean background where the too much revelation of skin is perceived for women is considered inappropriate and too sexual, this has formed a rebellious side of me where I want to prove that the exposure of your skin is not sexual but is the most natural appearance of oneself. This does not necessarily affect my dress practices because I wear more oversized clothing that rather conceals the body than exposing it, but I do somehow try to mix and match clothes so that there is a balance of exposure and concealment. Interestingly enough, “fashion helps us to contemplate power in ways that multiply, complicate, and intersect beyond oppositional thinking.” (Kaiser 2) Another subject position that I want to focus on is my blood type and the personality traits that are conventionally associated with people who have blood type O subtly impacts the way I dress. Blood type O is known for having good leadership and being straightforward and direct with feelings and thoughts. I believe that my personality is reflected in being blood type O and my impacts the way I dress. I believe that I am very apparent and specific in the way I dress and my style accurately demonstrates who I am as an individual. Also, I utilize fashion to form my identity but to also show others how clothing can change how one is perceived through always experimenting with clothing and mixing and matching.
Bibliography
Kaiser, Susan B. Fashion and Cultural Studies. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018.
