We’ve been talking to 16 individuals, throughout this research, in total. They have been telling us about themselves, their choice of clothing and their likes and dislikes. Our idea was to set up an interview with each individual, containing a few simple questions, and relay on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory about judgments of taste in relation to one’s social position.We realized after a while, that as the society was developing, so was the life of an individual, its social status, and even the surrounding of judgments.
We switched course, and decided to relay on the information, gathered from the field, we got from our participating individuals and cooperative observers. In combination to our guiding literature we managed to finally come to a conclusion. We’ve been wrestling with our own minds and thoughts, books and sayings, and we are now able to present some well arguing and yet informative results.
When we took our first step into this research, we were expecting a clear distinction between clothing among various subcultures, genders and environments. Just like any other individual walking around in Malmoe city observing, we had our assumptions but we didn’t have any facts. We never really thought about why people really associate particular accessories or clothes with particular subcultures or environments until we put our research instinct on.
Although we were aware of the fact that it was pretty easy to find a clear distinction in clothing between the genders, back in the days, we didn’t really think about how much that distinction actually was fading. The dress code back in the days, built with rules or signals indicating the message being given by a person’s clothing including gender was changing radically. Suddenly both men and women were walking around in pants, tattoos, Coverse, shirts and suits.
We also came to the conclusion that it nowadays is impossible to identify an individual with a certain group or try to figure him or her out by his or her clothing. Individuals in Malmoe, Sweden are wearing clothes inspired by different subcultures although they maybe don’t relate to them. Fashion, among everything else, is blocking all of the clear distinctions we ones felt were present among individual’s. Another thing that has changed the distinction between the genders is the strain for equality. Sweden has one of the highest levels of gender equality in the world.
There are no typical Swedish looks, disregarding the dress codes in relation to profession. Although our participants had a variety of combinations based on what they thought could be considered as a typical Swedish look. People feel free to wear whatever they want whenever they want. We learned that all of these assumptions are connected to old references. Tattoos were associated with criminals and bikers. Converses were associated with either basketball or the genre Rock. The society is constantly changing, and so are the subcultures, judgments and stories behind one’s choice of clothing.
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Hi Dajana and Amajla,
Thanks for your final entry which work as an add-on, continuing from previous entries, reflecting back on your work. The idea was to have a final entry presenting, interpreting the project and the data in full – but this is accepted.
Although we may see that dressing styles merge and the particular code or meaning of a shoe or dress are appropiated (given its use and combination with others clothes or signs (in the semiotic sense), I will however resist to believe that ‘people feel free to wear whatever they want’. It may look likes this when merged into an urban culture with a young an multiethnic population, yet I do think we can discuss if there are conventions we adapt to unknowingly, habitually. Here the Bourdieusian apparatus and critique could have useful as a way of exploring our sense of freedom, also in clothing. We do see a diversity of styles, yet also a conformity. It is a paradox of globalization (and urbanization) that it produces difference, yet also some uniformity or ‘sameness’. It is interesting your final text addressess these issues indirectly though.
Best wishes and good luck with future work and clothing observations
Anders