Blog #3: Clothing makes the man. Or in this case, the Generation.

As I look at the old styles of the youth present in the Skipjack, I am left to ponder about what those styles mean. Because it is apparent that people generally do not wear certain clothing simply to feel comfortable or to protect themselves from the elements. No, there is a deeper meaning to the clothes one chooses to wear. The style signifies what one thinks about themselves and how they want others to see themselves. Oten times, the fashion choices of a generation shapes how they will be remembered by others years from now, and how they will remember themselves. None more so is this present than when looking at the fashion senses of teenagers and young adults. A volitale group that is easy to change and fit into any sort of thing that distinguishes themselves from the rest of the world. When looking through the Skipjack yearbook, one can see a world almost completely different from ours. Practically all the girls can be seen wearing a skirt, unlike today where jeans are the norm. Most of the guys can be seen wearing a similar combover hair style, unlike today where hair styles can be completely different from person to person. Yet, even here I can somehow sense that there is an underlying culture that helps people distinguish between one another based upon nothing but their clothes. When I looked upon the 21st page of the UMBC Skipjack yearbook, I noticed a picture where two guys stood side by side. One was wearing a prim and proper stripped shirt prominently displayed for all to see, while the other was wearing an open jacket. The stripped shirted man looked down upon the ground, while the open shirted man looked upon the camera with a smile. And that’s when my mind told me that the stripped shirted man was a “nerd” and the open jacket man was a “party-goer”. So, clothing is an important part of a generations’ identity, because it says far more about the peoples of its generation than they realize.