When Did Americans Begin To Dress And Culture Analysis

Dr. Mower

Annatasia Meehleder

FMD 252: DRESS AND CULTURE

Assignment 1: Theoretical Perspectives

I. Summary of article (15 pts)

The article, Why and When Did Americans Begin To Dress So Casually, is about how casual dress is becoming more common. As a teen, she never wore what was casual, she went to thrift stores to look for non-casual clothing, which involved opera gloves, evening bags and wasp-waist wool dresses. Culture had given her an opinion of what was acceptable to wear. This article is about a women overcoming the need to follow what is formal dress. By the time she was in her mid-20’s, she decided she no longer wanted to wear clothing that was uncomfortable. Society and culture gives representations on what people should wear, to maintain the perfect image and to have acceptance from others. She followed that until she found that dressing casual gives the individual not only comfort but practicality as well. America gradually started to dress casual making it more common. It dealt with appearance perception and appearance management because she formed her own ideas of what was acceptable about her appearance.

II. Author’s Perspective (15 pts)

The primary perspective is symbolic interactionist perspective because people are managing their appearances and perception. The writer discusses how we try to make casual dressing our own as an individual’s taste. In this article she also found that she developed her own personal ideas in dress. Showing the purpose of casual clothes and how these purposes can change over time. The woman in the article was true to why and when people started dressing casual in her past decade and found many conclusions but she dresses casual because it is comfortable. The article is cultural perspective because it shows the impact of cultural forms between people in social