My reaction on

“The Language of Clothes” depicts how fashion is “a language of signs, a nonverbal system of communication.” The author explains that from centuries clothes have been a way to communicate or signalize something between human beings.
The reading is divided into three sections. The introduction describes existing theories about dressing. It also compares a regular, verbal language to this one - nonverbal, but rich in its vocabulary, popularity and ways of expressing. The first section -“Magical Clothing” - introduces a magical aspect of clothes. Clothes often have a symbolic meaning, for instance a necklace that brings luck. The second part “Fashion and Status” describes how people attribute to clothes other, nonverbal meanings. They tend to judge each another through their way of dressing. The wide range of somebody's look can estimate many features: sex, age, culture, class in society, and even current mood. The last section - “Color and Patterns” writes about roles of color and an outfit in general.
Color can characterize, so can outfit. Human has an acquired skill to define those two and give them a meaning. In conclusion, the author quotes”Apart from the chameleon, man is the only animal who can change his skin (…).”
In my opinion, “The Language of Clothes” is a very interesting selection. My reaction, however, concentrated on one concept. This fragment states a life-truth: people do judge each other in accordance to how they look. The question is: “Is it a positive occurrence?” There are two answers depending on the way people judge each other. The first one sounds no if we estimates the value of a man based on, for instance, expensive clothes he or she wears. In this case, this occurrence is negative because the real value of every human being is inside, not outside. The second answer is yes; it is positive to judge people if we want to estimate their identity because this is the main purpose of language of clothes - people want to define themselves.