服裝與個性

譯/易鑫 賀鶯

掃碼聽讀

For eight years, I had to wear a uniform to school.While doing so, I never felt quite myself.The colors were boring, and the style expressed severity and conformity.Only when I made the uniform my own by adapting it to my tastes as much as I could did I begin to feel comfortable with it.

整整八年，我都得穿著校服上學。其間一直感到不自在。顏色單調，款式訴說著嚴肅與服從。直到后來盡可能按自己的品味改了校服，才覺得是自己的衣服，穿起來舒爽了。

2Almost everyone has felt something similar; wearing clothes you don’t like,that don’t suit your tastes, elicits a general feeling of unease and discontent.

3This attests to the fact that clothes have more than a merely utilitarian role in life.

2幾乎每個人都有過類似的感受；穿上不喜歡、不符合自己品味的衣服，往往會感到不自在、不滿意。

3這說明了一個事實：服裝在生活中不僅具有實用功能。

4服裝可以傳遞著裝者的某些信息。正如前時尚編輯、評論人卡琳·富蘭克林所述，“對于意欲破譯服裝語言的人來說，時尚提供了一場富含社會意義和政治意義的對話……人們認識到，服裝的功用遠不止是防護或保暖，服裝蘊含著宣示或強化個人與集體特質的力量。”隨著服裝業的發展、著裝法規和習俗的日趨衰微，人們開始越來越多地將著裝作為表達個人價值觀的方式。

4Clothes communicate something about the wearer.As commentator and former fashion editor Caryn Franklin writes, “Fashion offers a dialogue rich with social and political meaning for those who want to unlock the language of clothes...Way beyond functions of protection or warmth, we recognize the power of clothes to proclaim or augment individual and collective identity.”Withthe growth of industry andthe withering ofsartorial1sartorial服裝的；縫紉的。laws and customs, people increasingly turned to their wardrobes as a means of expressing their values.

5The effect of different styles is, in the words of Virginia Postrel2美國作家及文化批評家，1982年畢業于普林斯頓大學。擅長從經濟視角談論文化現象。2011年獲得巴斯夏新聞獎。, so “immediate, perceptual, and emotional” that often there seems to be no cause for why we like certain aesthetics but not others.But,as Postrel argues in The Substance of Style, “Aesthetics conjures meaning in a subliminal, associational way, as our direct sensory experience reminds us of something that is absent, a memory or an idea.” The associations we develop throughout our lives imbue certain clothes or styles with meaning, and that meaning causes us to like or dislike those looks.

5用弗吉尼亞·波斯特萊爾的話來說，不同著裝風格具有“直接、感性、情緒化”的效果，從而讓審美偏好往往顯得毫無依據。不過，波斯特萊爾曾在《風格的實質》一書中指出：“美學是以一種潛意識的、聯想的方式創造意義，正如直接的感官體驗一樣，會令人想起某種缺失的事物，一段記憶或是一個想法。”我們一生中形成的種種聯想會賦予某些服裝或風格意義，而這種意義又會導致人們喜愛或厭惡那些式樣。

5Take colors, for instance.We like or dislike certain colors because of the attributes or moods we associate with them.Those associations might be cultural, such as how, in the West, most people associate white with purity and innocence, whereas in China, people associate it with death and mourning.Or we can form associations based on our personal experience and values.Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book The Little Prince offers a fictional example of the latter: After meeting the blond little prince, the fox says that from now on, the sight of wheat, which had been meaningless to him, will bring him pleasure because it will remind him of the color of the boy’s hair.

6以顏色為例。人們因為將顏色與某些屬性或情緒聯系到一起，所以才會喜歡或厭惡某些顏色。這些聯系可能與文化相關。例如：在西方，大部分人將白色與純潔和天真聯系在一起；而在中國，人們將白色與死亡和哀悼聯系在一起。此外，人們會基于個人的經歷和價值觀來創造聯系。安托萬·德·圣-埃克蘇佩里所著《小王子》就是后者在文學作品中的例證：遇見金發小王子后，狐貍說，麥子對他而言曾經毫無意義，但從今往后，看見麥子將會感到快樂，因為這會讓他想起小王子的發色。

7As Postrel puts it, “I like this becomes I’m like this.” Of all the things we buy, clothes perhaps most easily and deeply express our identity.Clothes are an integral part of our personal appearance, which Postrel calls “the most inescapable signal of identity.” The wide variety of affordable clothing gives us a great deal of control over our appearance, enabling us to express ourselves in ways that fit the occasion.

8Certain clothes often evoke particular ideas about the types of people who wear them.Someone who likes to wear sweatpants all the time, for instance, will have different values and personality traits than someone who wears elegant clothes.Many of the latter consider sweatpants, as late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld put it, “a sign of defeat.” But,some regularly wear sweats because they are comfortable, relaxed, and integrate with their focus on getting things done.

7正如波斯特萊爾所說，“‘我喜歡這樣’會變成‘我像這樣’。”在人們購買的各種物品當中，服裝或許最能輕松而深刻地表達個性。服裝是個人儀表中不可或缺的部分，波斯特萊爾稱其為“最無法逃避的個性信號”。經濟實惠的服裝款式繁多，讓人們可以充分掌控自己的面貌，在不同場合以得體的著裝表達自我。

8人們會對穿著特定服裝的人產生特定的看法。例如，喜歡整天穿運動褲的人和喜歡穿著優雅服裝的人，價值觀和個性會迥然不同。后者中有許多人像已故服裝設計師卡爾·拉格斐那樣，將運動褲視為“失敗的象征”。而有些人則經常穿運動裝，因為運動裝寬松、舒適，能讓自己專心做事。

9Clothing patterns might contain lines and shapes with which we associate meaning.For instance, we generally associate straight lines with purpose,intellect, and order; and curved lines with passivity, softness, nature, and pliability.As for shapes, we might associate squares with stability, and triangles with dynamism.Patterns can also represent symbolic objects—for instance,butterflies, which we often associate with beauty, peace, or metamorphosis.We might also associate certain fabrics with different qualities of character; the down-to-earth sobriety of tweed conveys something different than the cold elegance of satin.Particular cuts, colors,ornaments, and accessories can add layers of meaning to our clothing, too.

9服裝上的花紋圖案可能包含被賦予了意義的線條和形狀。例如，人們通常會把直線與目的、智力和秩序聯系起來；把曲線與順從、柔軟、自然和柔韌聯系起來。至于形狀，人們可能會把方形與穩定聯系起來，把三角形與活力聯系起來。圖案還可以代表具有象征性的物體。例如，蝴蝶通常與美麗、和平或蛻變相聯系。人們還可能會把某些面料與不同的性格品質聯系起來；粗花呢務實莊重，綢緞冷艷優雅，兩者傳遞出不同的內涵。特定的剪裁、色彩、飾品和配飾也都可以為服裝增添多層意義。10Because associations can differ widely from person to person and culture to culture, others might read into our outfits something different than we intend and, thus, misunderstand our values and identity.But as long as we are not wearing our clothes specifically to communicate certain traits to others in a specific context (such as professionalism at a job interview), what others think of our clothes should be less important than what we think of them and why we choose to wear them.We ought to dress to benefit ourselves, not others.10這些聯系會因人、因文化而迥異，所以別人對我們所穿服裝的解讀，可能會與我們自己的意圖有所不同，從而對我們的價值觀和個性產生誤解。但是，只要我們的穿著不是為了在特定場合讓他人了解某些特質（例如在面試中表現專業素質），那么別人的看法就沒那么重要了，重要的是自己怎么看待以及為什么選擇這樣著裝。穿衣應該是為了取悅自己而不是他人。

11As Franklin writes, “clothes have the psychological power to elevate our sense of self.” But they also have the power to weaken it.This happens because our clothes can either express our identity or contradict it.If they express it, they make us feel good.If they contradict it,then they make us feel uncomfortable.Each of us has an image of our true self,as Postrel explains, “not as a disembodied set of thoughts but as a visual, tactile creature, whose authentic identity is reflected in the sensory aspects of...person, places, and things.People can look at me and see something true about who I really am.I can see myself reflected in my surroundings.Surface and substance will match.This is the aim of aesthetic meaning—to capture and convey identity, to turn our ineffable sense of self into something tangible and authentic.”

11富蘭克林曾說：“衣著具有提高自我意識的精神力量。”不過，衣著同樣也具有削弱自我意識的力量。這是因為衣著既可能展現個性，也可能與個性相左。展現個性，會讓自我感覺良好。與個性相左，會讓自己感到不適。每個人心中都有一個真我形象，就像波斯特萊爾解釋的那樣，“（這種形象）不是一組無形的思想，而是一種看得見、摸得著的東西，其真實性可以從……人物、場所和事物中的感知層面得到反映。別人看到我，就能感知到某種真我本色。我也可以感知自身在環境中的反映。外表與內在將達到統一。這就是美學意義的宗旨：捕捉并傳遞個性，把難以言表的自我意識轉化為有形的真實外物”。

12In other words, clothing enables us to integrate mind and body, to express our values at the perceptual level.

12換言之，衣著讓我們身心合一，在感知層面表達出自身的價值觀。

13Wearing clothes we like serves an important psychological function: It enables us to experience and express our identity visually and tactilely.The more we consciously identify why we like certain clothes, the more we can choose those that best express our values—and the more pleasure and confidence we can gain from wearing them.■

13穿上喜歡的服裝有一個重要的心理功能：在視覺和觸覺上體驗和彰顯個性。我們越是有意識地弄清自己喜歡某些服裝的原因，就越能選中最能體現自身價值觀的服裝——從著裝中收獲的樂趣和自信也就越多。 □