ABSTRACT
This chapter considers clothes as things, trusting that aim is philosophical, since philosophers from Plato to Heidegger have contemplated the reality of things. Clothes can be abstract art in motion, or figurative art, if the fabric shows, say, flowers. In Herman Melville's novel White-jacket of 1850, the narrator finds an old, very well-used big linen shirt. Jean-Paul Gaultier is more whimsical and fantastical: he will dress men in zebra stripes of coloured silk velvet, and striped top hats like the cat. In baroque sculpture massively, ponderous capes and robes may swirl in soaring spirals. In cinema an art clothes are important, from the tight jacket and big trousers of Charlie Chaplin to the scene in American Gangster where Denzil Washington betrays his drug wealth by wearing a chinchilla coat to the boxing. Lord Byron won an iconic popularity for his sombre creations.
