Many years ago people in Norway tended to dress for showing which political fraction they were supporting. That was especially remarkable for the ones who supported the PLO (the Palistinian Liberation Organization), most of them wearing the ‘PLO-scarf’ around their neck.
These days a new, similar, trend is developing. As we all, and especially the youth, want to express who we are, we are becoming narratives by the way we dress.
According to an article in the weekend magazine of the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, we are becoming narrativists. We are all telling the story of who we are by the clothes we wear. And that is something the manufacturers of clothes take advantage of. Especially in regards to the young generation which often is rebellious towards their parents. The youth express their opposition by wearing jeans of different brands, each brand telling "something" about the person who is wearing it. The youngsters look at each others butts to see what brand they have. By doing so, youth are including in regards to their own culture and excluding in regards to everybody else, especially their own parents.
By developing their own group culture, the smaller brands sells well and the huge brands (e.g. Levis) sell badly. "By not choosing the huge well-known brands, and still stand out as well dressed and modern, the consumer shows a large degree of overlook and knowledge", says the scientist of clothing habits, Ingun Grimstad Klepp.
What other kinds of narrativisms can be seen?
Contributed by Roy Dahl of Norsing AS. (Nice choice of image, Roy!)
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Nice post Roy!
My first and most obvious thought on this, is we can note ‘narrativism’ being played out on mobile phones, through fascias, wallpapers, screen savers, ring/text-tones, games etc.
Basically, anything that can be customised can be open to interpretation…and may I also applaud your choice of image.
DK
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:10 am
I spent too long arguing with someone about anti-brand in clothing yesterday. They argued that people will stop wearing familiar brands and make statements by wearing brands that don’t flaunt a logo and are co-operatives in fair trade. I argued that it’s just another brand – that doesn’t have any real equity. I think people will still make these kinds of statements but append them to their branded clothing sending a message to their peers. I think this might have been done somewhere? Defacing of Nike?
You can enlarge the image too. Great!
March 22nd, 2005 at 12:10 pm