These Damn Blue Jeans And Black Coats!

I was walking home in the cold from my friends house. I was passing strangers in the night and I was reflecting on how it might be awkward to say hello to them. I walked past a guy in a black coat who had glasses on. Much like me.

I walked past a girl and I thought she might be cute. I wondered if she thought if I was cute too. But then I thought about how I had a hat and a scarf and blue jeans and a black coat on and how I probably didn't look like much in that dark night.

Then I stared thinking about how in The Principles Of Art Collingwood comments on how little people were able to express themselves through their clothes in early twentieth century England. Here is the quotation: “The cosmopolitan civilization of modern Europe and America, with its tendency towards rigidly uniform dress, has limited our expressive activities almost entirely to the voice, and naturally tries to justify itself by asserting that the voice is the best medium for expression” (244-45).

Just that our forms of expression are restricted to the voice, and that clothing has implicitly been ruled out as a legitimate means of individual expression.

I just wear these blue jeans and these glasses all the time. I just wear these coats. Everyone dresses so similarly. It is difficult.

It is one of those things that I have never really thought about a ton.

It just seems so natural.

But it isn't.

It is so cultural and historical. What if I could express myself more through my clothes? I wonder.

I read a quotation in a facebook page. Something to the effect of 'Style is being yourself, but on purpose'. Style is expression through clothes? Sounds fun.

I should think about that a bit more. It just sucks that clothing typically costs moneys. Who knows.