Clothing as a Language

Alison Lurie states in her book The Language of Clothes that “if clothing is a language, it must have a vocabulary and a grammar.” Lurie is making the point that people can read a message from the clothes you wear, whether it be about where you are from or what you believe in. Hamilton College is a very secular place, and I think that has a very large impact in the way in which people express religion in clothing, which makes it hard to understand peoples’ religious beliefs solely through their clothing. I think at Hamilton, we have very little choice in terms of what we can wear because of the secularity. Although people may show their style, whether it is preppy, or artsy, or athletic, religious dress is something that is seen pretty rarely around our campus. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hijab at Hamilton and I’ve definitely never seen a boy walking around with a yarmulke. The main things that I’ve seen that display religion is a Cross necklace or a Star of David necklace. I think that the secularity has a negative effect on many students here because I don’t think that all the students express as much religion as they would like. Becoming isolated or an outcast, like many of the girls in Shabana Mir’s research, is something that many people fear, so they will try to look as secular as possible in order to fit in. As a Jewish student on campus, I will say that I don’t think my clothes can identify me, and I think I can say the same for my non-Jewish friends as well.