“Gosh, what am i going to wear tonight?!” You propably have heard this sentence quiet often or use to say it yourself. They say that fine feathers make fine birds, that clothes would make the man. Is this really true? And do we have to worry about what to wear more than what we do?
There is a novel on this topic from the swiss poet Gottfried Keller. In his Telling “Clothes make people” the tailor Strapinski is dressing well despite his poverty. He arrives in a foreign city and is regarded to be a polish count by his appearance. Once out of shyness, he has failed to explain the confusion and tried to flee. But as a young lady, daughter of a prominent citizen is introduced. The two fall in love, which makes Strapinski continue to play the role of a count that has been forced upon him. A despised rival ensures that the supposed imposter is exposed. The engagement party ends in an inescapable desaster for Strapinski, who got unmasked not to be what he pretended to. He flees, but his bride finds him, saves him from freezing to death and takes him to task. When she had convinced herself that his love is genuine, she confesses to him and enforces the marriage. The tailor founded a studio with her property and brings it to prosperity and prestige, thus the saying “Clothes make the man” proved its worth?
Now what is it, that is so pleasing about him?
The story implicates that everybody is the same, but it’s fortune that seperates people. In the end it was Strapinskis naked love that has appealed to her and his clothing just got her in the situation to fall for him.
In the novel we’ve talked about a character said: “I’m not exactly the man i seem to be“. and i’m worried.. why? Mark Twain knows the answer when he says: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.“.
Where does the bad smack comes from?
Clothes, as the visual indicator of wealth, mock peoples equality. Everybody is worth the same, but not everybody is worth the same amount of fortune? That doesn’t sound right, but fortune is not equally shared. I’m going to skip this topic.
So, “Gosh, what am i going to wear tonight?!”.
One thing we haven’t talked about yet is, Strapinski was a tailor. You can say that he was able to wear his abilities. Even though he was poor, his tailoring skills made him look like “one of them”. One of those whos abilities already made them become wealthy. You know what had happend in the end.
Tell me which ability is valued most in today’s society. Let me give you a hint: Regression is not godgiven.
“Johnny (Cash) always wear black, because he identified with the poor”
