Ingun Grimstad Klepp: Clothes, the body and well-being: What does it mean to feel well dressed?
Head of research, National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO)
In interviews and other statements on clothes and laundry habits people often explain their choices in terms of what feels right and therefore provides a sense of well-being. This article takes a closer look at what this means and raises the question: Why is a feeling of well-being so important in the descriptions of and reasons for people’s clothes habits? The paper is based on interviews and answers to questionnaires on clothes and laundry habits, and on written material such as textbooks and books on etiquette. The material sheds light on how Norwegian women and to some extent men use words to describe their clothes and laundry habits, and also on the arguments for clothes and laundry norms in Norway.
The starting point for this paper is the changing meanings of the concept of “comfort”. In the 18th century it became a term that emphasised the relationship between the body and the body's immediate environment. This change led to a naturalisation of the concept and associated phenomena and legitimised new forms of consumption safely positioned between the necessary and the luxurious. Despite the fact that many students of the emergence of comfort have mentioned personal belongings and products that are close to the body, such as for instance clothes, as important in this re-orientation, comfort has not been a major topic in clothing research. A focus on this concept is a possible way forward in order to make clothing research more material and more sensuous.
There are numerous answers to the question above. One is that we experience well-being because we have learned to experience it. The article shows that we have learned not only to wash our clothes more frequently, but also to experience the state of being clean and odourless as well-being. In this way following the norms is something the individual does for his or her own sake. It is both a luxury that one can indulge in and an obligation to one's environment, a luxury one should indulge in. This has become so well internalised in the population that the means have become an end in itself. We wear clean clothes and shower late and early because it gives us a feeling of well-being, not because we have been taught to do it. Thus it is difficult to oppose the rule, it is both invisible and unnecessary, and indeed most people will feel that breaking it is directly unpleasant.
The dressed body's feeling of well-being depends on more than the fact that the clothes are newly washed and not uncomfortable to wear. We are not like paper dolls whose body and clothes are two separate layers without an inner connection. The body and the clothes form a unity. When this unity is consistent with the desired meaning, it provides a feeling of well-being. Thus, well-being depends on what the body does to the clothes and what the clothes do to the body, and in particular how this relates to the environment or the situation for which the body is dressed.
The women use the experience of wearing the clothes as a key that tells them whether they like the clothes, whether they fit the occasion, their age, etc. It appears that through their bodies the women experience violations of rules that they only to a limited extent are consciously aware of. It also seems as if the feelings that the clothes give them (when they put them on) are used as a means to judge both technical quality, becomingness and suitability for various occasions. It is possible that the body – and a more intuitive experience of comfort/discomfort – is better suited to pass judgement in an area that contains so many and partly contradictory norms as dressing customs for women today. The concept of “silent knowledge” captures this and shows that we know more than we are able to put into words or understand intellectually.
But it is also evident that by referring to how they perceive their own body in the clothes the women also place their statements beyond dispute. No-one can deny that they feel what they say they feel. But equally important, such statements contribute to portraying the women as individual and thus competent clothes consumers. This aspect is particularly evident with regard to fashion, a clothes norm that is more problematic to admit to follow than for instance wearing appropriate clothes or dressing as “yourself”.