do you judge people by the clothes they wear? and should you?

My brother used to quote some Oscar Wilde aphorism about "I have never met anyone who did not turn out to be EXACTLY as I thought they were within the first five minutes of meeting them."

OK, maybe this doesn't work if they are wearing a uniform, or indeed the standard suit-type uniform that Office People are dressed in, but indeed, yes it does, because it says a lot about a person who would WANT to put on a uniform.

Hair and shoes are the two things you should judge people by, and you will almost never go wrong.

I wouldn't judge a person's character based on their looks. I would probably be attracted or unattracted to them on that basis however.

I think it's far worse to judge the character of a person based on the way they dress than to choose sexual partners based on the way they look.

it is like art or music, the sleeves and titles are important, those that dont title may think they are saying "titles are unimportant", what they're actually saying is "titles are so important i'm going to make the statement of not giving one"

OTM!

and you can't base someone's character on what they dress.

really the only way to know ppl is to get to know them.

''it is like art or music, the sleeves and titles are important, those that dont title may think they are saying "titles are unimportant", what they're actually saying is "titles are so important i'm going to make the statement of not giving one"''

that's just wrong! ppl who don't put titles can also be so not bothered to put one, that's all. titles and artwork are no big deal.

Oh well, I fucking hate worrying about clothes really, so I guess there's my statement. I try to look good, but I rarely achieve what I'd like in that respect.

Ok, judge is a strong word.

I guess rather than judge, I should just say that I seek out people whose clothes draw me in.

The obvious thing is it'll only work under certain circumstances i.e. do it on their appearance out of uniform or based on repeated viewings.

Scruffy people obviously are deeper and have more important things on their mind, like that Charlie Manson chap.

But isn't "can't be bothered" also open to judgment?

Anyway, I suppose people who dress as if they don't want to be judged on their clothing are like people who whisper -- it makes you want to listen, but it also raises the stakes on the personality they present verbally. If you have a riveting personality, then this can be a great thing, but it can also backfire.

but also: what if you buy a foreign language rec. it has titles but you can't read it or you can't understand the words. does that make a diff. no, of course not.

Similarly, a person's own assumptions about certain clothes are liable to affect how they think about someone wearing them, who might actually have no such agenda.

Anyway, it's going home time, time to pull on the ole sackcloth and ashes...

When I can, I'll post 'my friend, on dress' which I adhere to.

about records, julio, i think artwork and song titles are VERY important, and i don't have much respect for bands or artists who don't give a shit about it. even if i don't understand their language, the same thing as with people's clothes applies to bands' projected image. plenty times i've known that i would enjoy a record without having heard a note, just looking at the cover, the pictures, the font they used for the song titles...

only kidding. I would.

I haven't thought about or got any new shoes in a year, and those someone gave me, and I started wearing them. I haven't gotten my hair cut in a while either. Maybe you're saying you can see how 'cool' I am by lack of concern for these, right? ;)

As for clothes, I get most of mine from other people (minus white socks, underwear and band T-shirts) and they are all different styles so I'm often wearing really nice preppy clothes, and I'm thinking "people will get the wrong impression of me from these, oh well" and the next day I wear torn up jeans and a leather jacket, and maybe the next day I wear tight pants and a colorful shirt. For some reason people always give me thier old clothes so I just wear them. I cannot remember the last time I've been clothes shopping.

gareth is vv otm here.

money is a lame excuse. if you wanted to express yrself differently you'd bloody well find a way come hell or high water. in any case it's all in the details. you make it sound like ur always in every swanky shop picking out
outre looks but then- oh no! you can't afford it! sigh! admit you can't be bothered

and this is also true, i think.

i have another lecture now so can't set down my thoughts for a couple more hours, but:what do you think yr clothes say about you?

(haha or indeed what do my clothes say about me (if you've met me)?)

Anyway, I'm not even talking about expressing oneself. I'm talking about looking good. I decided a while back that I was more interested in wearing things that I look good in than in making a particular statement through what I wear. (And yes, I realize, that in some sense whether I like it or not anything I wear is going to have some semiotic value, blah blah blah, which I can't control.)

My problem is that I don't know how to iron, which is very limiting.

"I relate to what you're saying about your personal world being scary a lot better than I relate to a sense of apocalypse. I'm sick of social obligations too. I still feel that even taking an interest in your appearance is oddly hypocritical in some way, although increasingly perhaps I see that as a result of me being a bit puritanical, perhaps seeing physicality as inevitably intruding on our judgment of people, which maybe it doesn't necessarily. Eg. is there much different between appreciating the aesthetics of a record or an outfit? Aren't we all just aesthetes? Of course most people wear nice clothes to feel better about themselves, because we can't escape the idea that better looking=better person. But I'm just saying perhaps not everyone who dresses nicely has this motivation. Or even if they do, they're just striving to be more the sort of person they'd like to be. They're just going about it in a way that seems really misguided to me, because I don't think we deserve any credit for our physical appearance, in the way I seem to think we do for our mental capablilities."

Kinda.

oops

that's what i meant, yeah.

with:

"yes david, but if there was something else, which expressed their inner as clothing then they would just go and make it and wear it, non?" NON!

(I write this in, among other things, a Spider-Man t-shirt.)

It's a bit ageist and stupid, I know.

Anyway, I'm almost always thrilled when I see somebody making an effort, whether they look ridiculous or not. Cause I rarely do anymore.

Judging people by the clothes they wear just seems lazy and your assumptions are bound to be shattered.

Dickon to thread...

I would say no. In many cases they may not have the resources to buy the clothes they want or there can be other

This is absolute nonsense. It's perfectly possible, with a bit of time and effort, to dress extremely well on a very tight budget. Today I bought a great tie for 30p. Last week, I got a brilliant shirt for £1.50. You just have to look. Charity shops, markets, car boot sales, jumble sales. There's great stuff out there.

Obviously you can judge someone based on their MacDonalds uniform - you'll be pretty likely to be accurate if you reckon they work in macDonalds. After that might not be so good.

I don't buy this either. Even when someone is wearing a uniform, you can tell a lot by the way they wear it. At school, we had to wear a uniform, but everyone had their own way of wearing it and each way said something about that person. A common form of 'rebellion' was for kids to wear their ties very, very short, or very, very long. Undone top buttons, untucked shirts etc etc, all ways of showing the wearer's individuality (my particular form of rebellion was to always wear my uniform very smartly, to wear crisp white shirts and to polish my shoes everyday - I was rebelling against the rebels)

yes - in as much as if i meet someone who obviously takes a great deal of effort on their image and their clothes then i fairly obviously am going to dislike them intensely. all surface. not good. so many more important things. less thought gone into it = better things on their mind

This is also wrong because less thought gone in to what to wear could also mean someone sat on their arse all day playing solitaire and didn't realise the time and so didn't have much time to get ready.

I think they way I dress says a lot about me. I certainly hope it does.

I get a kick out of white socks. In every sense.

I would judge people by their clothes but I can't 'read' clothes - I dont recognise labels, styles, even fabrics. I can kind of recognise really obvious 'style tribes' and I can see when someone is dressing in a way which shouts "I AM A COMPLETE LOONY" but other than that I'm completely fashion-blind.

I'd be judging someone who wore [Removed Illegal Link].

Or this even! http://www.topman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag&catalogId=33056&storeId=12555&productId=2650690&langId=-1&sort_field=Relevance&categoryId=207183&parent_categoryId=207169&pageSize=40&refinements=category~[207186|207183]&noOfRefinements=1

ugh sorry, link still works tho

these both (? - think there're only two) got taken off sale today apparently

http://www.raoul-moat-t-shirt.com/links.html

who is mr street peeper?

I noticed this t-shirt earlier today, thought it was o_Offensive and crap:

http://www.coggles.com/product-media/3IYU/350/478/Brooklyn-We-Go-Hard-Mens-Yellow-Homeless-White-T-Shirt-1.jpg

Brooklyn We Go Hard – Yellow Homeless, mens white t-shirt with a faded yellow homeless print, taken in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The short sleeve t-shirt also features a scoop neck and ‘By Ben Hoffman’ signature rear print.