While I was interviewing Tae Hoon, themes emerged about what kind of garments are usually in a man’s closet and how the items are related to one’s occupation and status. My interviewee, as a 24 year-old man and a student, had mostly casual and necessary clothing in his closet. However, I had a stereotype on him which was he is studying fashion, and he usually dresses in trendy clothing, so I thought he had much more clothing than what he had, like I do. Although he and I are fashion students and love fashion in common, his closet was different from mine. There are various reasons that can explain the differences of closet between us; however, one of the reasons is probably our gender difference. Menswear is comparably limited to womenswear in terms of design aspects. More options of items require a bigger space, for instance, I need an extra drawer for my stockings. His collection of his daily life clothes was simple, essential, and practical. His straightforward clothing choices helped me understand not only his occupation and status but also his personality, tastes, body type and so on. This was interesting because clothing is so closely associated with almost everything. Additionally, I was able to assume his background, such as where he is from and/or he lives now. In the book, The Dressed Body, Joanne Entwistle mentions that “The dressed body is not only a uniquely individual, private and sensual body, it is social phenomenon too, since our understandings and techniques of dress and our relationship to clothes, are socially and historically constituted.” I agree with her. I learned that clothes contain enormous things about the owner of the clothes from this interview assignment.
Reference
Entwistle, Joanne, and Elizabeth Wilson. Body Dressing. Oxford: Berg, 2001.
