Whether consciously or unconsciously, fashion and clothing play important roles in our daily lives. The simplest routines of getting dressed in the morning, whether for work, pleasure, or even the gym, require us to make decisions on how we present ourselves to the world and what might be comfortable and appropriate for any given task. When we buy clothes, we again engage ourselves in a decision-making process: is this color too bright? Can I wear this for work? Does it make me look fat? While interacting with peers, visiting shopping malls, flicking through magazines, or watching movies and television, we are overwhelmed by an array of styles, colors, and shapes. This daily contact becomes a vehicle in building a relationship with clothes, helping us to make decisions and informing our judgment.
Informed by these concerns, anthropologists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, theorists, and academics alike have brought the subject of dress, clothing, and fashion to the forefront of modern culture.