Clothing as a second skin

I really enjoyed the reading “Outward Appearances”. I was initially fascinated by the opening bit about clothing as a second skin, however, it appeared as though that had been cut off. I am assuming that that page containing the information on the importance of dress was there only because it contained the ending of the preface. I would have loved to read the rest of that piece, but I wanted to comment on the little I got for the first page. I work for Bebe, a clothing company, that started in California and has a very Americanized, and shall we say, “party” tone to the majority of its merchandise. I started working there in October and in that short period of time, I have been fascinated by the broad range of people who patronize this store. Women wearing hijabs, who would probably be prevented from wearing many of our pieces alone due to their faith, frequently wander through. People who appear to fit the profile of someone living outside a gated community(lower economic class), spend a fair amount of money(our prices are not exuberant but definitely not cheap) on a single item, just so they can have a logo. I think what I have really found astounding is the desire for people who can barely speak English, to dress in the style of this very Americanized fashion. The latter also sometimes appears to part of a lower economic class, or has such a language barrier that I question sometimes if they know how much they are spending. While Boston could probably be categorized as a “global city” or at least on that attracts a fair amount of international inhabitants and visitors, there is still this social push to look American, which is accomplished through clothing. There is not the desire to represent an individual culture. When Leeuwen was talking about the dressing style of Zoraya, it was clear that there was a strong American influence, or a more liberalized character to her attire. This reminded me very clearly of my foreign costumers spending money to look the American part, or in hopes of appearing more advantaged financially then they are ( possibly to avoid the sting of class exclusion, although this was not the case for Zoraya). This brought me back to considering the concept that “global cites” are becoming less distinct, and if that fact is now apparent through fashion. Two weeks ago in my comparative politics class, we watched a video comparing India and China, or more specifically Delhi and Beijing. Beijing, much more “global” than Delhi, resembled and could have been mistaken for any major Western city, while Delhi had a very potent India flavor to it. The attire was definitely part of the visual effect that characterized Dehli, and made China indistinguishable. In conclusion, it would be great if the rest of that piece was made available for interest’s sake.