Clothes, like poetry, painting, drama, architecture, etc., are articles of cultural production; the art is fashion. Whether from Charles Baudelaire to Roland Barthes, it has been said that the unique aspect of this form of cultural production is its relentless inclination towards alteration. It is, as Adam said, a signifier of something attached to our human bodies, observable by the stranger's eye and interpreted by the stranger's mind. It is an easy interpretive method to form conclusions of cognitive disassociation - yes, on the surface, that person is like me; no, that person isn't. Because fashion is an art undergoing incessant alteration at quicker rates than any other form of cultural production, it is also usually the first signifier of cultural change; see, for instance, here for an extreme example. It is perhaps even easier to adopt many of these beliefs that conforming to some fashion ideal dilutes or restricts personal autonomy and self-expression since law school students, from their appearances, represent a pretty homogeneous group of wardrobes. It is therefore harder to make distinctions among ourselves on these grounds. As a soon-to-be lawyer, when I accidentally stepped into a gothic drum-n-bass club in Vienna this summer, I stayed for the experience but certainly felt uncomfortable in my jeans and green t-shirt. The white laces on some folks (a well-known sign of Austrian neo-Nazism) didn't help relieve my discomfort. Closer to home, the number of lawyers getting off at the Bedford stop on the L train to return to their homes in Hipsterville or "Billyburg" is probably slim; that they will be dressed in their V-neck sweaters with buttons in the front and wearing jeans so tight as to appear painted on is even slimmer.

I think that Adam is right. Since fashion is a signifier of our cultural economy at any given moment, you should constantly observe what people are wearing to take its contemporary temperature, catalogue these observations, and plan accordingly. Fashion seems like a good and easy proxy to understand organizational psychologies and plan your next movement for optimal success. But the important point is to be self-conscious about it, despite all the negative effects the tabloids of fashion-obsessed tabloids and other pop culture literature, because there is something particularly anthropological about fashion - from its importance in religious or tribal groups to my mother's trunk of bell-bottoms and puffy shirts.

-- JesseCreed - 12 May 2008