I have been looking into fashion conformity, and have chosen to specifically scrutinise a classic garment, the white shirt. This garment is a staple item of the wardrobe, but do you conform or rebel in terms of the white shirt?
Conformity is all about belonging, fitting in with the norm, following trends, meeting expectations and overall being conservative. A conforming white shirt would be smart, symmetrical and is likely to have a standard, classic or semi spread collar, with a basic one button square cuff.
 |
| The White Shirt - Conform |
To rebel is about being different, an outsider, original, the maverick, an individualist, radical and challenging. Where a conforming white shirt is likely to have connotations of being smart, I found that rebelling white shirts were often more casual. The white shirts I believed to be rebelling included those which were asymmetric, cropped, pleated or backless, with features such as an unusual cuff or collar design or even no collar at all. I also came across a particular white shirt which had cut out lettering.
 |
| The White Shirt - Rebel |
I began my research into the white shirt by creating two Pinterest boards (links can be found at the bottom of this post), one based on conformity and one based on rebellion. I then collected images of the white shirt which I pinned to the board I felt was appropriate. When categorising an image into either of the boards I found it was sometimes difficult to distinguish actually which board it belonged to. I think this is because the white shirt is so widely popular and worn and has been for a long period of time now, meaning it has been adapted and altered quite a lot. For example an oversized white shirt may seem rebelling when compared with the original white shirt, but in fact in my opinion this may actually fall into the conformity board, as an oversized white shirt has actually become so widely worn that it too has become a norm, a conformity.
If you're interested in the conformity/rebellion of the white shirt check out my Pinterest boards based on these themes;
Love, Isabella x
Photo Credit: Pinterest
No comments
Post a Comment