Dance Apparel

A feature of all human societies, except perhaps the most primitive, is the wearing of clothing or clothes, especially in public. The primary purpose of clothing is functional, as a protection from the elements. In hot climates the functional need for clothing is minimal, while in very cold climates it is very high. Shelter usually reduces the functional need for clothing. For example, coats, gloves, etc. would normally be removed when entering a warm home. Clothes also have other functional purposes, such as safety during an activity, such as work or sport. But even within these contexts, clothes also perform social and cultural functions. They generally conform with modesty and religious standards of the time and place, and act as social and cultural indicators such as status, wealth and the like. Within these contexts, they also function as a form of adornment and an expression of personal taste. Clothes nowadays, including functional clothes, have a fashion context.

In history, clothes have been from many materials - ranging from grasses to furs to much more elaborate and exotic materials. Based on scientific research into lice it is estimated that humans have been wearing clothing for 650,000 years.

People also decorate their bodies with makeup or cosmetics, scented perfume, and other ornamentation; they also cut, dye, and arrange the hair on their heads, faces, and bodies (see hairstyle), and sometimes also mark their skin (by tattoos, scarifications, and piercings). All these decorations may contribute to the overall effect and message of clothing, but do not constitute clothing.

Articles carried rather than worn (such as purses, canes, and umbrellas) are normally considered fashion accessories rather than clothing, but hats and small dress sweaters can be called clothing or accessories. Jewelry and eyeglasses are usually considered as accessories as well, even though in common speech these particular items are described as being worn rather than carried.

Functions of clothing

The primary purpose of clothing is to keep the wearer warm. In hot climates this function is minimal, while in very cold climates it is very high. Shelter usually reduces this functional need for clothing. For example, coats, gloves, etc. would normally be removed when entering a warm home.

Clothing at times is worn as protection from specific environmental hazards, such as insects, noxious chemicals, weapons, and contact with abrasive substances. Clothing can protect against many things that might injure the uncovered human body. Clothes act as protection from the elements, including rain, snow and wind and other weather conditions, even from the sun. Clothes also reduce the level of risk during an activity, such as work or sport. Conversely, clothing may protect the environment from the clothing wearer, as for example wearing of medical scrubs.

Humans have shown extreme inventiveness in devising clothing solutions to environmental hazards and the distinction between clothing and other protective equipment is not always clear-cut; examples include space suit, air conditioned clothing, armor, diving suit, swimsuit, bee-keeper's protective clothing, motorcycle leathers, high-visibility clothing, and protective clothing in general.

Origin and history of clothing

Main article: History of clothing

According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the earliest clothing probably consisted of fur, leather, leaves or grass, draped, wrapped or tied about the body for protection from the elements. Knowledge of such clothing remains inferential, since clothing materials deteriorate quickly compared to stone, bone, shell and metal artifacts. Archeologists have identified very early sewing needles of bone and ivory from about 30,000 BC, found near Kostenki, Russia in 1988.

Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser and Mark Stoneking, anthropologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, have conducted a genetic analysis of human body lice that indicates that they originated about 107,000 years ago. Since most humans have very sparse body hair, body lice require clothing to survive, so this suggests a surprisingly recent date for the invention of clothing. Its invention may have coincided with the spread of modern Homo sapiens from the warm climate of Africa, thought to have begun between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. However, a second group of researchers used similar genetic methods to estimate that body lice originated about 540,000 years ago (Reed et al. 2004. PLoS Biology 2(11): e340). For now, the date of the origin of clothing remains unresolved.

Some human cultures, such as the various people of the Arctic Circle, until recently made their clothing entirely of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Other cultures have supplemented or replaced leather and skins with cloth: woven, knitted, or twined from various animal and vegetable fibers.

See also: weaving, knitting, and twining

Although modern consumers take clothing for granted, making the fabrics that go into clothing is not easy. One sign of this is that the textile industry was the first to be mechanized during the Industrial Revolution; before the invention of the powered loom, textile production was a tedious and labor-intensive process.

One approach simply involves draping the cloth. Many people wore, and still wear, garments consisting of rectangles of cloth wrapped to fit — for example, the dhoti for men and the saree for women in the Indian subcontinent, the Scottish kilt or the Javanese sarong. The clothes may simply be tied up, as is the case of the first two garments; or pins or belts hold the garments in place, as in the case of the latter two. The precious cloth remains uncut, and people of various sizes or the same person at different sizes can wear the garment.

Another approach involves cutting and sewing the cloth, but using every bit of the cloth rectangle in constructing the clothing. The tailor may cut triangular pieces from one corner of the cloth, and then add them elsewhere as gussets. Traditional European patterns for men's shirts and women's chemises take this approach.

Modern European fashion treats cloth much more prodigally, typically cutting in such a way as to leave various odd-shaped cloth remnants. Industrial sewing operations sell these as waste; home sewers may turn them into quilts.

In the thousands of years that humans have spent constructing clothing, they have created an astonishing array of styles, many of which we can reconstruct from surviving garments, photos, paintings, mosaics, etc., as well as from written descriptions. Costume history serves as a source of inspiration to current fashion designers, as well as a topic of professional interest to costumers constructing for plays, films, television, and historical reenactment.

See also: History of Western fashion and Category:History of clothing

Cultural aspects

Social status

In some societies, clothing may be used to indicate rank and status. In ancient Rome, for example, only senators were permitted to wear garments dyed with Tyrian purple. In Hawaiian society only high-ranking chiefs wore feather cloaks and palaoa or carved whale teeth. Under the Travancore kingdom of Kerala (India), lower caste women had to pay a tax for the right to cover their upper body. In China before the establishment of the republic, only the emperor could wear yellow. There are numerous examples throughout history of elaborate systems of sumptuary laws regulating who could wear what. In societies without such laws, including most modern societies, the high cost of status garments may effectively limit their purchase and display to those who can afford them. Social group pressure may also impact on garment choice.

Marital status

See also: Visual markers of marital status

Traditionally Hindu women, once married, would wear sindoor, a red powder, in the parting of their hair. If widowed, they would abandon sindoor and jewelry and wear simple white clothing. Men and women of the Western world may wear wedding rings to indicate their marital status.

Observant Jewish women cover their hair if they are married. There is a sect of Judaism in which girls who are old enough to be looking for a husband wear their hair in two braids as opposed to the one braid they wore before they were of a marriagable age. For their wedding, women in the United States and Europe, depending on their heritage and/or religion, will usually wear a white gown, although some movie stars have been known to wear a black party dress for their wedding.

Religious aspects

Religious clothing might be considered a special case of occupational clothing. Sometimes it is worn only during the performance of religious ceremonies. However, it may also be worn everyday as a marker for special religious status.

For example, Jains wear unstitched cloth pieces when performing religious ceremonies. The unstitched cloth signifies unified and complete devotion to the task at hand, with no digression..Sikhs wear a turban as it is a part of their religion.

The cleanliness of religious dresses in Eastern Relig