ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how furnishings of the self, home, and office set the stage for an appearance ours. Organizations also rely on clothing to communicate. In their efforts to promote positive impressions of their people and themselves, from time to time both schools and businesses have mandated dress codes - guidelines establishing clothing and grooming requirements for students and employees - promoting the wearing of "a look" conducive to learning and work. Clothes serve an array of functions: from decorative, protective, and psychological, to attraction-eliciting, group-identifying, and mood-reflecting; from self-assertion or denial, to camouflage, persuasive, and status functions. Clothing protects people, but it also projects an image of them and can announce a political or social position to others. For some, accepted gender norms similarly influence clothing interests and choices with women generally expressing more interest in fashion from an early age. A well-dressed look invests its wearer with perceived dominance and persuasiveness.
