Six Social Functions Of Dress:
Dress communicates the important aspect of our everyday society. For it is a form that communicates our personal views in our identity, it also shows the social boundaries between men and women. Dress shows that there are six important uses to an everyday social setting.
Environmental Protection:
Chadar: Heavy Brown wool,
The Chadar is a multipurpose garment that is worn both by men and women that started in India before the third century C.E. To this very day in Indian's still wear the Chadar and now also in the middle eastern countries too. The Chadar is a large scarf that can measure from three yards long and one yard wide or larger. Due to the different cultures the size, shape, and color can vary somewhat from culture to culture. This form of protection wear is mostly found being worn in the desert countries such as Afghanistan. The Chadar, is most commonly found wrapped around the body, head and face for protection against sand and dust storms. http://pro.corbis.com/images/LY001666.jpg?size=67&uid=%7B9ABCD0D6-62BC
Decoration:
The Elizabethan embroidery styles has black work on linen and dense patterns that are worked in colored silk and metallic thread worked onto velvet or other rich fabrics. The origins of decorative art form of embroidery have been lost in time, but examples have survived from ancient Egypt, Iron Age, Northern Europe, and Zhou Dynasty China. It has a wide arrangement of cultural roots around the globe and is being done in many different ways due to their cultural influence. The Elaborately embroidered clothing, religious objects, and household items have been a sign of wealth and status in many cultures for example: India, Byzantium, medieval England, and Baroque Europe. The European center for embroidery was the city of St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland. To this very day St. Gallen, is still considered among the most famous embroidery textiles in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_Bettes_detail.jpg
Gender Differetiation:
In September 2008 we see Marc Jacobs is wearing a kilt with a tartan pattern, after a runway show.
The Kilt originated during Scottish Highlands of the 16th century for men and boys. The kilt has been an association to Scotland and the Lowlanders as a symbol to their national identity. Individuals with Celtic connections such as the Irish, Cornish, Welsh, and Manx, have also adopted the tartan kilts in a lesser degree in recent times. The tartan kilt is most often made of woolen cloth with a tartan pattern to it. Today the Kilt is has also been adapted as a fashionable formal or informal form of clothing male clothing. A formal occasion would be at a wedding or as we see here as an informal occasion Marc Jacobs wearing it in at an end of his runway show.
http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2008/09/20080910_mj_250x405.jpg
Ceremonialism:
Tea Ceremony:
The kimono is the instantly recognizable symbol of Japanese fashion. .The Kimono was first introduced in the 18th century. The Kimono is always’s wore in a ceremony in Japan. The Kimono a woman would wear in a tea ceremony is called a houmongi. The pattern on the Kimono is called an eba. The pattern will spread over the Kimono which will not be disturbed by the seams due to a special dyeing technique that requires a long bolt of un dyed silk is cut into smaller pieces for sewing into a kimono. The pieces are temporarily sewn together so that the design can be painted on. A formal kimono for a man is called a hakama. The kimono’s for men are made with subdued colors and the patterns in the kimono will have black, gray brown and shades of dark blue. If the male kimono is decorated it usual patterns will be fine checks, polka dots, or a bird’s-eye designs.
Group Membership:
A male world war II Uniform
During World War II, (1939-45) A Military Uniform where extremely important. Main fabrication of a military uniform was to identify a solider from a civilian. The uniforms where designed to provide protection from the elements, also offer storage for the many items soldiers carry and still are to this very day. When the European countries and the United States went into the war, they felt there was a necessary to clothes a solider in a durable, reasonably well fitting uniform tailored to the unique needs of the wide variety of activity for a uniform. In the United States, the clothing manufacturers had becomed very skilled at making ready-to-wear clothes in the 1920s and 1930s.
http://olivedrab.cachefly.net/uniform_1939.jpg
Sexual Enhancement:
Mark Wahlberg, 1990's
The enhancement of the male underwear only really began in the 1970s and 1980s. Designer’s such as Calvin Klein. The male underwear became sexually erotic with a series of ads such in the early 1990s with Mark Wahlberg. Using a series of seductive photographs of the male body with emphasis of his masculinity had the ability to sell male underwear. The advertisements where used to emphasize the look, more than the function. Today’s male still look’s at the brand, and the type of underwear with comparison to their sexuality, masculinity, and Confidence as a man.
http://images.smarter.com/blogs/Mark%20Calvin%20Klein.jpg
The great philosopher Aristotle, right, teaching his pupil Alexander the Great. Both men wear traditional Roman clothing: Aristotle wears a toga and Alexander wears a tunica. Reproduced by permission of Getty Images.
Men of the eighteenth century wore outfits similar to the seventh century. A wealthy man would wear a white linen or a cotton shirt with a laced tie, with a sleeveless waist coat or now know as a vest, and a long overcoat was that was long sleeved. For pants they wore stain knee breeches and a silk hose held at their knee with garters. The working men had a much simpler clothes and their clothing was not made as good. The men of that period wore dark clothing, the difference you could compare between a working man and a wealthy man was from the cut and the quality of the fabric for their clothing. 
Norman Norelle 1969
