6 Social Functions of Dress...

The theme of my source book will be Motion Picture Fashion. Every once in a while, I will incorporate images from popular sitcoms or episodic drama's but for the most part, I will be using images from movies. With that said, I have chosen pictures from movies that reflect certain time periods in history. Enjoy!!

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The reason I chose this picture to represent environmental protection is because of how unique it is. Many dessert people wear white, clothing in the desert, clothing that covers the entire body, to protect their skin from the son and reduce the rate that their sweat leaves the body. By doing this, they protect themselves from rapid dehydration.


This picture is from of Peter O'toole in Lawrence of Arabia and the designer is Phyllis Dalton. It is said that this movies time period is the early 1900's.

DECORATION

This is a picture from Apacolypto which is a representation of the Post Classic Mayan period during the early 1500's. The reason I chose this picture is because I think it is a very clear representation of the decorative function of dress. The costune designer on this film was Mayes C. Rubeo.

GENDER DIFFERENTIATION

The reason I chose this picture as a representation of gender differentiation is because it features women, playing a sport that men played in the late 40's, early 50's and still today, however, their uniforms differed drastically. The women, because they were women, had to wear skirts to play, despite the fact that playing such a rough game often time resulted in major scrapes and cuts because their legs were unprotected. Due to the social norms of the time, it was appropriate for women to wear skirts and men to wear pants.


CEREMONIALISM

This is a modern day picture of a Vivienne Westwood gown from Sex & the City: The Movie.

The reason I chose this picture is because it represents ceremonialism in a fashion that many people can relate to. Marriage is something that cultures across the world don special garb for and I thought that this dress was exceptionally beautiful!


SEXUAL ENHANCEMENT

This is a picture of Beyonce Knowles in a mid 70's inspired Afro and gold outfit. The costume desginer on set was Deena Appel.

GROUP MEMBERSHIP

I chose this picture for two reasons, the first is that the school uniforms are a good representation of group membership however, because all of the women in the picture believe themselves to be witches and because they are all wearing variations of what the school uniform means to them, I think it represents a true function of group membership. While group membership does entail wearing similar clothing, all of the outfits don't have to be exactly the same. This is a representation of group membership in the mid 90's.