Wear your attitude

Whether it is friendship groups or work circles, uniformity in dressing seems to be hard-wired

 

Last week, at an event to felicitate a visiting celebrity chef in Delhi, I found it hard to take my eyes off his shoes. They were standard Converse sneakers, but in a very non-standard colour of parrot green, set off by gleaming white laces, and perfectly embodied his iconoclastic image in the food world. But even as I was admiring them, my eyes were drawn to his staff, following in his wake. Each one of them were wearing the same kind of sneakers, albeit in colours ranging from sherbet pink to bright red. Clearly, this was a look that the entire team, following quite literally in the footsteps of the master, had adopted, presenting a united (in footwear at least) front to the world.

 

I guess I should not have been so surprised. If you pay attention, you see this happening across workplaces. If the boss comes to work wearing handloom saris and chappals, those further down the food chain gravitate towards the same sort of sartorial choices. If the boss rocks a business suit with conservative shoes, then that becomes de rigueur office wear. Nobody really needs to lay down a dress code. Most people tend to conform out of choice, not wanting to stand out by dressing in a more, shall we say, individualistic manner. Of course, there are always exceptions, but as always, they simply exist to reinforce the unwritten, unspoken rule.

 

You could perhaps explain this in a work context, where everyone wants to blend in with the senior staff so that they don’t make any waves. But what accounts for the same phenomenon happening in friendship groups across the board?

 

Take a good look at the bunch of women lunching together at a restaurant. If one of them is wearing a salwar kameez and carrying a giant designer bag, then the odds are that every other woman will be dressed in exactly the same manner. If they are wearing short dresses, then the hemlines across the group will hit the same above-the-knee mark. And you can bet that if one of them has blonde highlights, then so will all of the others.

 

And it’s not just the ladies. The same sort of uniformity can be seen in groups of men as well. If one of them is in a suit, then the others will be just as formally attired. If they are wearing collared T-shirts with jeans, then the look will be adopted by the whole group. It’s almost as if there is a tacit understanding that they must present a united front to the world with a similar choice of outfit.

 

Even people who are not in friendship groups or work situations, will find a common sartorial theme if they have to interact with one another over a period of time. Take a group of mothers who drop off their kids at the school gates every day. They may begin the school term dressing in their individual styles but over a period of time a certain homogeneity will set in, decided by what the alphas in the group are wearing. 

 

I guess at the end of the day, we are all pack animals. And to stay in the pack, it is essential to look like you are part of the pack. And the simplest – and the most visible – way to do that is by wearing your allegiance on your sleeve.