Purposes / Need for Clothing

PURPOSES / NEED FOR CLOTHING

Clothing is a basic cover for human body. Clothing varies based upon sex, climatic ­conditions, standard of living, occupation, religion, nationality and personal liking.

The major reasons for using clothing are discussed below:

Protection

·           Clothes protect human skin from cli-matic changes like rain, (Figure 1.1), snow, wind, extreme cold and heat conditions.

·           Clothes helps to absorb sweat from the body, prevents one from sudden chillness and acts as a barrier between the human body and accidental burns, scratches and rough surfaces.

·           Clothes are a life saving insulating gar-ment for people living in extreme cold and hot climates.

Example: Eskimos, keep them-selves warm by using fur clothes which traps warm air from the body and does not allow cold air from external environ-ment to touch the body.

Safety

Some sports and occupation requires clothes which can provide safety from accidents. Examples:

·           Protective pads (Figure 1.2), hel-mets (Figure 1.3) used in football and cricket.

·           Asbestos clothing for fire fighters.

·           Bullet proof vests for police and military men

·           Florescent orange vests for road workers.

Sanitation

Special clothes and accessories are worn regularly by people in specific occupa-tions for sanitation purposes.

Examples: Doctors (Figure 1.4), Nurses, sanitary cleaners and ­people working in food production institutions wear uniforms, gloves, face masks, caps to ­prevent contamination by germs.

Modesty

Covering the body in a proper way is considered as modesty. This varies from people to people, nation to nation.

Example : A sleeveless, low neck top and highly decorated skirt may not be considered as a modest for an office wear (Figure 1.5).

Identification

Most of the companies, schools, institu-tions and specific jobs (Doctors) have a particular dress code. This helps one to be identified with their work place, or area where they belong.

Example: Doctor’scoat (Figure1.6), worn above the normal dress helps one to identify the doctors.

Uniforms

One of the easiest ways to identify a group is through uniform. Uniforms are related to jobs like police force, fire department and military. Athletic teams and sports person in a team wear uniforms of particular colour. People working in the service occupations such as, restaurant, airlines, employees wear special uniforms (Figure 1.7).

Tradition

Tradition has been followed in all coun-tries with reference to clothing. Due to traditional reasons specific colours and dresses are used in different occasion.

Example: White or black colour garment for marriages and funerals, black robes, cowl and mortarboard caps with tassels used by graduates (Figure 1.8).

Insignias

Patches, badges or emblems pinned or machined to jackets and dresses is a sym-bol of insignias.

Examples: National Service Scheme (N.S.S), National Cadet Corps (N.C.C) (Figure 1.9), badges. Even in school and sports T-shirts, insignia is in the form of school first letter or company for whom the team is playing.

Status

Clothing is a symbol of status also. It helps to identify the position of an individual. These clothings and accessories are more expen-sive with recent designs and styles.

Example: Clothing and accessories like the crown used by queens and kings (Figure 1.10).

Decoration

Adornment or decoration is considered important by every individual. Clothing can enhance one’s look through decoration of garments and use of accessories. Even the cave men decorated themselves with paint-ing using colours from berries and tattooing their bodies with sharp pins or needles.