A Story of Suits vs. T Shirt
On June 12, 2010 I went to a department store to find a set of suits. I needed to find a suit as soon as possible to use for an event next week. Therefore, I decided to buy ready-use suits at a department store. To my surprise, as soon as I entered the suit sections, I was warmly greeted by the shopkeepers. Yes, I said shopkeepers because there were five shopkeepers warmly greeting and serving me. They offered a class one service. For me, it felt so different. Usually, I go to department store just to buy T shirts (moreover when there is a discount). But, the service is so much different. The shopkeepers will not approach me, and rather they will observe me with a suspicious look, as if i am going to steal something. They will not serve me well. What happen in this case? Do cloths really matter? What is so important about cloths that make you have different treatment?
Semiotics is the study of signs. For a semiotician, everything can be regarded as signs, because everything may articulate certain meaning. As stated previously, cloth serves as a sign because cloth possesses a meaning. And it is proven from my experience. Are shopkeepers supposed to serve everyone equally in the department store regardless what they buy? Absolutely, but the fact is not like that. Then let me explain it from a semiotic point of view.
Let me start my analysis from suits first. Above is a picture of a man in suite. Consider the suit as a sign, then it can generate meaning. Suit is a formal dress. Suit is usually used in a formal occasion by men. The history if suits dated way back in the 17th Century. It was used as the royal dress, as opposed to the working class clothes (see: the history of suits). Simply defined, suits then developed well in the Western world.
Suits were then used as a formal dress. President, Congressmen, Prime Minister, all Head of Countries use suits in world meeting. Suits were also used by celebrities in ball, Oscar, Grammy, and many other awards. Thus, suits signify power, fame, elegance, glamor, and professional. For example, look at the picture above. How do you feel about the picture? How do you feel about the man in the picture?
What I feel when looking the picture is that the man is very clean, good looking. He articulates professionality, and he somehow shows that he is elegant. The picture does not connote power since the background does not indicate that the man is powerful. But still, the picture makes everyone looking at it respect the man in the suit, without even knowing who the man is. What happen if we see Obama in suit? we must respect him since we know who he is. But how about the picture above. The man as if suggesting that he is in a different level than others.
That is the function of the suit he wears. It tricks us to respect him. We do not know whether he is really a rich people or not. What we see is that he uses the suit, and it leads us believe that he is from a high class society. who knows that he is actually a so so guy, posing in suits because he is a model. Then, let us compare with picture below.
It is a picture of a man, with a simple T Shirt. But, look at the picture closely. The man has messy hairdo. He has beard, side beard, and mustache that makes him look messy. He looks so simple, and even look so plain. Moreover with no background behind. Then, let us put him on the same background as the previous picture. Will he be able to articulate the same atmosphere as the man in suit? I believe no. The man in T Shirt does not show that he has power, fame, and other high-class-attributed values as the man in suit. And it is because the costume that he wears.
T Shirt is a daily cloth. It is worn by everyone to do daily activities. Thus, it is made simple to make people comfortable to do everything. T Shirt does not have the same value as suits (clearly). People who use T Shirt in formal occasion will not be respected highly as people who wear suits or other formal dress. People who wear T Shirt will not be connoted with power, fame, elegance, glamor, or other high-class-attributed values because T Shirt does not connote that. Thus, it means that cloth can be used as the sign of social class.
Everything can be considered as sign, when it can be used to lie (Berger, 2000, p. 38). In my case it is proven. I bought suit, and it seemed like all shopkeepers respect me, even though they did not know I'm a rich person, or a powerful person or not (i'm from middle class family, not high class). They all treated me as if I was a high class person. So, I was able to trick them all, and use the suit to lie. But when I bought T Shirt, no shopkeepers would approach me to serve me. It was because I bought something that did not signify power and fame.
Well, overall what I can say is that when you consume anything, you consume all the values embedded within. When I buy suits, I also buy power, elegance, and people's respect. When I buy T Shirt, I buy simplicity and ordinary thing, thus I buy no meaning that make me stand out from anybody else. You can be anything that you want to be, whether you want to be regarded as powerful, smart, elegance, or as just ordinary person, humble, simple or anything else based on signs that you use to signify your self.
Suggested reading about semiotics:
Berger, A.A. (2000). Media and communication research methods: an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches. London: Sage publications
Chandler, D. (n.d.). Semiotics for Begginers. Retrieved from: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html
p.s.: something that tickles me about T Shirt v.s. Suits differences can also be found in the way google image display it. Try to enter "suits" in the google image. The image of suits are seldom displayed as piece of suits. Suits are usually worn by males looking handsome, powerful, glamor, and elegance. Then, try enter "T Shirt". What you will find is just piece of T Shirts with no model wearing it. What does it signify? You can tell it by your self.
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