Power Of Language Inquiry Project

Topic: Fashion as a Language
Inquiry Question: What does your wardrobe say to others?


The Inquiry Proposal

                I’m curious to know more about body language and other ways that people subliminally send messages to one another. Body language is a form of nonverbal communication that everyone should be capable of understanding. If a person isn’t capable of fully understanding these nonverbal languages there are great chances that mixed signals can come across and things can be misinterpreted, just as in any other language. I am interested in looking at a person’s wardrobe as a language or as a means of expression. Fashion is a very controversial topic, especially for teenagers and young adults. The topic of “fashion as a language” may come up in the investigation of crimes. For example, if a woman claims to have been “raped”, her attire at the time of the incident in question may be taken into account. The defending questions will try to find ways to consider what type of “signals” the accuser was sending and they will maybe even use that to try and claim that it was consensual sex. Even though her wardrobe doesn’t consent to sex, it would still be questioned and possibly taken into account.

                Fashion is a topic that is very interesting to me. I am almost certain that I am not the first person to inquire into this topic. I noticed from my own personal experiences that when I dress a certain way it may affect my mood and how I feel throughout the day.  I think that I need to know more on what people are thinking about when they choose their daily attire. In order to find out what most people consider, I would like to create a questionnaire to gather statistics from the student body here at UNC Charlotte. I hope to find out what most of my peers consider when choosing their wardrobe. I want to know what factors tie into a person’s sense of style. I will also find articles to see what others in the world have found about this topic. There is a book entitled You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal About You. I plan to use excerpts from this book to support my arguments in my research. I will also search for other sources through the web and news media as evidence.

                There are some various ways of looking at this topic. Some individuals may say that their attire does not affect their performance. Maybe they won’t believe that their style describes who they are. Maybe their style just depends on the weather and what’s affordable that season. Even that is a fashion sense and it also describes a little about you, how you think, and what things are important to you. How does your wardrobe affect your performance? In what ways does your wardrobe display your socioeconomic status within society? What does your wardrobe tell others about you as a person or how you feel? These are the questions that I want to research to inquire into a specific aspect of fashion as a language.

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 *This presentation for me wasn't very helpful at all. I was hoping to get feedback from my classmates in regards to the project as a whole. I wanted to know if my ideas were good and if I am on the right track, but no one really had anything to say so I'm left to assume that I am on the right track. I did receive a stronger argument as a result of the presentation. I will argue that fashion IS a language and I will give multiple reasons why this stands to be true. I am anticipating gathering data through my poll and seeing whether or not other people agree or disagree with my argument.