Clothing

A baby wearing many items of winter clothing: headband, cap, fur-lined coat, shawl and sweater.

Clothing (also called clothes, accoutrements, accouterments, or habiliments) protects the human body from extreme weather and other features of the environment. It is worn for safety, comfort, modesty and to reflect religious, cultural and social meaning.

The practical function of clothing is to protect the human body from dangers in the environment: weather (strong sunlight, extreme heat or cold, and precipitation, for example), insects, noxious chemicals, weapons, and contact with abrasive substances, and other hazards. Clothing can protect against many things that might injure the naked human body. In some cases, clothing protects the environment from the clothing wearer as well (example: medical scrubs).

Humans have shown extreme inventiveness in devising clothing solutions to practical problems and the distinction between clothing and other protective equipment is not always clear-cut; examples include space suit, air conditioned clothing, armor, diving suit, swimsuit, bee-keeper's costume, motorcycle leathers, high-visibility clothing, and protective clothing.

People also decorate their bodies with makeup or cosmetics, scented perfume, and other ornamentation; they also cut, dye, and arrange the hair on their heads, faces, and bodies (see hairstyle), and sometimes also mark their skin (by tattoos, scarifications, and piercings). All these decorations may contribute to the overall effect and message of clothing, but do not constitute clothing.

Articles carried rather than worn (such as purses, canes, and umbrellas) are normally considered fashion accessories rather than clothing, but hats and small dress sweaters can be called clothing or accessories. Jewelry and eyeglasses are usually considered as accessories as well, even though in common speech these particular items are described as being worn rather than carried.

Historically, there have been many societies where partial or complete nudity was the cultural norm. In the modern world, most cultures find it socially unacceptable to walk around in public without clothes.

Origin and history of clothing

A Neanderthal clothed in fur.

According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the earliest clothing probably consisted of fur, leather, leaves or grass, draped, wrapped or tied about the body for protection from the elements. Knowledge of such clothing remains inferential, since clothing materials deteriorate quickly compared to stone, bone, shell and metal artifacts. Archeologists have identified very early sewing needles of bone and ivory from about 30,000 BC, found near Kostenki, Russia in 1988.

Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser and Mark Stoneking, anthropologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, have conducted a genetic analysis of human body lice that indicates that they originated about 107,000 years ago. Since most humans have very sparse body hair, body lice require clothing to survive, so this suggests a surprisingly recent date for the invention of clothing. Its invention may have coincided with the spread of modern Homo sapiens from the warm climate of Africa, thought to have begun between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. However, a second group of researchers used similar genetic methods to estimate that body lice originated about 540,000 years ago (Reed et al. 2004. PLoS Biology 2(11): e340). For now, the date of the origin of clothing remains unresolved.

Some human cultures, such as the various peoples of the Arctic Circle, until recently made their clothing entirely of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Other cultures have supplemented or replaced leather and skins with cloth: woven, knitted, or twined from various animal and vegetable fibers.

Although modern consumers take clothing for granted, making the fabrics that go into clothing is not easy. One sign of this is that the textile industry was the first to be mechanized during the Industrial Revolution; before the invention of the powered loom, textile production was a tedious and labor-intensive process.

One approach simply involves draping the cloth. Many peoples wore, and still wear, garments consisting of rectangles of cloth wrapped to fit — for example, the dhoti for men and the saree for women in the Indian subcontinent, the Scottish kilt or the Javanese sarong. The clothes may simply be tied up, as is the case of the first two garments; or pins or belts hold the garments in place, as in the case of the latter two. The precious cloth remains uncut, and people of various sizes or the same person at different sizes can wear the garment.

Another approach involves cutting and sewing the cloth, but using every bit of the cloth rectangle in constructing the clothing. The tailor may cut triangular pieces from one corner of the cloth, and then add them elsewhere as gussets. Traditional European patterns for men's shirts and women's chemises take this approach.

Modern European fashion treats cloth much more prodigally, typically cutting in such a way as to leave various odd-shaped cloth remnants. Industrial sewing operations sell these as waste; home sewers may turn them into quilts.

In the thousands of years that humans have spent constructing clothing, they have created an astonishing array of styles, many of which we can reconstruct from surviving garments, photos, paintings, mosaics, etc., as well as from written descriptions. Costume history serves as a source of inspiration to current fashion designers, as well as a topic of professional interest to costumers constructing for plays, films, television, and historical reenactment.

Social status

Alim Khan's bemedaled robe is a social message

In many societies, people of high rank reserve special items of clothing or decoration for themselves as symbols of their social status. In ancient times, only Roman senators were permitted wear garments dyed with Tyrian purple; only high-ranking Hawaiian chiefs wore feather cloaks and palaoa or carved whale teeth. Under the Travancore kingdom of Kerala (India), lower caste women had to pay a tax for the right to cover their upper body. In China before the establishment of the republic, only the emperor could wear yellow. In many cases throughout history, there have been elaborate systems of sumptuary laws regulating who could wear what. In other societies (including most modern societies) no laws prohibit lower-status people wearing high status garments, but the high cost of status garments effectively limits their purchase and display. In current Western society, only the rich can afford haute couture. The threat of social ostracism may also limit garment choice. If one is not wearing a specific brand or style of clothing one's social status may fall.

Marital status

Traditionally Hindu women, once married, would wear sindoor, a red powder, in the parting of their hair. If widowed, they would abandon sindoor and jewelry and wear simple white clothing. Men and women of the Western world may wear wedding rings to indicate their marital status. Also women in the United States, depending on their heritage and/or religion, will usually wear a white gown, although some movie stars have been known to wear a black party dress for their wedding. Observant Jewish women cover their hair if they are married. There is a sect of Judaism in which girls who are old enough to be looking for a husband wear their hair in two braids as opposed to the one braid they wore before they were of a marriagable age.

Religious habits and special religious clothing

Religious clothing might be considered a special case of occupational clothing. Sometimes it is worn only during the performance of religious ceremonies. However, it may also be worn everyday as a marker for special religious status.

For example, Jains wear unstitched cloth pieces when performing religious ceremonies. The unstitched cloth signifies unified and complete devotion to the task at hand, with no digression.

The cleanliness of religious dresses in Eastern Religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism is of paramount importance, which indicates purity.

Clothing figures in prominently in the Bible where it appears in numerous contexts, the more prominent ones being: the story of Adam and Eve, Joseph's cloak, Judah and Tamar, Mordechai and Esther. Furthermore the priests officiating in the Temple had very specific garments, the lack of which would make one liable to death.

Jewish ritual also requires rending of one's upper garment as a sign of mourning. This practice is found in the Bible when Jacob hears of the apparent death of his son Joseph.

Sport and activity

Most sports and physical activities are practiced wearing special clothing, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Common sportswear garments include shorts, T-shirts, tennis shirts, tracksuits, and trainers. Specialized garments include wet suits (for swimming, diving or surfing), salopettes (for skiing) and leotards (for gymnastics). Also, spandex materials are often used as base layers to soak up sweat. Spandex is also preferable for active sports that require form fitting garments, such as wrestling, track & field, dance, gymnastics and swimming.

Clothing materials

Common clothing materials include natural fibers, which are renewable, biodegradable, such as:

• Cloth, typically made of viscose cotton, flax, wool, ramie, silk
• Down for down-filled parkas
• Fur
• Leather
• Denim

And synthetic fibers which are man made and not biodegradable, made primarily from petrochemicals:

• Spandex
• Polyester
• Nylon

Less-common clothing materials include:

• Bamboo
• Hemp
• Jute
• Lyocell
• Recycled paper
• PVC-Polyvinyl chloride
• Rayon
• Rubber
• Recycled or Recovered Cotton
• Recycled PET
• Soy
• Tyvek
• Other Natural Fibers

Reinforcing materials such as wood, bone, plastic and metal may be used in fasteners or to stiffen garments.

Clothing maintenance

Clothing suffers assault both from within and without. The human body sheds skin cells and body oils, and exudes sweat, urine, and feces. From the outside, sun damage, moisture, abrasion and dirt assault garments. Fleas and lice may hide in seams. Worn clothing, if not cleaned and refurbished, will itch, look scruffy, and lose functionality (as when buttons fall off and zippers fail).

In some cases, people wear an item of clothing until it falls apart. Cleaning leather presents difficulties, and bark cloth (tapa) cannot be washed without dissolving it. Owners may patch tears and rips, and brush off surface dirt, but old leather and bark clothing will always look old.

But most clothing consists of cloth, and most cloth can be laundered and mended (patching, darning, but compare felt).

Laundry, ironing, storage

Humans have developed many specialized methods for laundering, ranging from the earliest "pound clothes against rocks in running stream" to the latest in electronic washing machines and dry cleaning (dissolving dirt in solvents other than water).

Many kinds of clothing are designed to be ironed before they are worn to remove wrinkles. Most modern formal and semi-formal clothing is in this category (for example, dress shirts and suits). Ironed clothes are believed to look clean, fresh, and neat. Much contemporary casual clothing is made of knit materials that do not readily wrinkle, and do not require ironing. Some clothing is permanent press, having been treated with a coating (such as polytetrafluoroethylene) that suppresses wrinkles and creates a smooth appearance without ironing.

Once clothes have been laundered and possibly ironed, they are usually hung on clothes hangers or folded, to keep them fresh until they are worn. Clothes are folded to allow them to be stored compactly, to prevent creasing, to preserve creases or to present them in a more pleasing manner, for instance when they are put on sale in stores.

Many kinds of clothes are folded before they are put in suitcases as preparation for travel. Other clothes, such as suits, may be hung up in special garment bags, or rolled rather than folded. Many people use their clothing as packing material around fragile items that might otherwise break in transit.

Mending

In past times, mending was an art. A meticulous tailor or seamstress could mend rips with thread raveled from hems and seam edges so skillfully that the darn was practically invisible. When the raw material — cloth — was worth more than labor, it made sense to expend labor in saving it. Today clothing is considered a consumable item. Mass-manufactured clothing is less expensive than the labor required to repair it. Many people will buy a new piece of clothing rather than expend time mending. The thrifty still replace zippers and buttons and sew up ripped hems.

The life cycle of clothing

Used, unwearable clothing was once used for quilts, rag, rugs, bandages, and many other household uses. It could also be recycled into paper. Now it is usually thrown away. Used but still wearable clothing can be sold at consignment shops, flea markets, online auction, or donated to charity. Charities usually skim the best of the clothing to sell in their own thrift stores and sell the rest to merchants, who bale it up and ship it to Third World countries, where vendors bid for the bales, then sell the used clothing.

There are many concerns about the life cycle of synthetics which come primarily from petrochemicals. Unlike natural fibers, their source is not renewable (in less than millions of years) and they are not biodegradable.

Early 21st-century clothing styles

Western fashion has, to some extent, become international fashion, as Western media and styles penetrate all parts of the world. Few places remain where people do not wear items of cheap, mass-produced Western clothing. People in poor countries can afford used clothing from wealthier Western countries.

People may wear ethnic or national dress on special occasions or in certain roles or occupations. For example, most Korean men and women have adopted Western-style dress for daily wear, but will still wear traditional hanboks on special occasions, like weddings and cultural holidays. Items of Western dress may also appear worn or accessorized in distinctive, non-Western ways. A Tongan man may combine a used T-shirt with a Tongan wrapped skirt, or tupenu.

Western fashion, too, does not function monolithically. It comes in many varieties, from expensive haute couture to thrift store grunge.

Regional styles

• Clothing of Europe and Russia
• Clothing in the Americas
• South American fashion
• United States mainstream fashion

For example: "Catalogue" fashion, regional styles such as preppy or Western wear.

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• United States alternative fashion

These fashions are often associated with fans of various musical styles.

Political issues

Working conditions

Garment workers often have to labor under poor conditions. Mass-produced clothing is often manufactured in Sweatshop conditions, typified by long work hours, lack of benefits, and lack of worker representation. While most sweatshops are found in developing countries, clothes made in industrialized nations may also be manufactured in sweatshops, most often staffed by undocumented immigrants.

Coalitions of NGOs, designers (Katharine Hamnett, American Apparel, Veja, Quiksilver, eVocal, Edun,...) and campaign groups like the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) seek to improve these conditions as much as possible by sponsoring awareness-raising events, which draw the attention of both the media and the general public to the workers' conditions.

Outsourcing production to low wage countries like China, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh became possible when the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) was abolished. The MFA was deemed a protectionist measure which placed quotas on the exports of textiles. Globalization is often quoted as the single most contributing factor to the poor working conditions of garment workers. Although many countries recognize treaties like the ILO, many have also made exceptions to certain parts of the treaties. India for example has not ratified sections 87 and 92 of the treaty.

Fur

The use of animal fur in clothing dates to prehistoric times. It is currently associated in the West with expensive, designer clothing. Once uncontroversial, it has recently been the focus of campaigns on the grounds that it is cruel and unnecessary. PETA, along with other animal rights and animal liberation groups have called attention to fur farming and other practices they consider cruel.

Others counter that clothing for cold weather is very much a necessity and the most common of furs, sheepskin and rabbit are clearly not elitist. Mink and fox, raised on farms, consume the leftovers of our food production.^] The carnivores have a niche, even in an industrial food production process designed to deliver food to 6 billion people. Also, many conservationists and scientists are concerned about the long-term impact of synthetic fibers, including fake furs, which are not biodegradale.