As an alter ego, I didn’t change my name at all. Instead, I made sure to add confidence and be sure to wear what I wore with more pride than usual. I chose something that would remain true to my inner self, but that I definitely do not usually wear. I own an orange suit and decided to wear this. Although no one would think that I’m out of my usual attire if I wore a suit or the color orange. However, wearing a suit that is orange is quite a different story. I wore this orange suit for a total of twenty five hours.
The orange suit was first worn to a gas station on my way to school. While here I experienced one stare, and surprisingly, attracted a homeless woman’s attention to the point where she thought it was okay to tap on my car window next to my face to ask for change (unfortunately, I was startled by it and just drove off). But this woman is always at this gas station in the morning and had never once asked for change from me before. I didn’t know how to explain this other than it is a bright color and she may have been attracted to such a happy and warm color. My next stop was school. I purposefully parked in the back of the parking lot so I would pass a lot of people on the way to and from class. As I walked up stairs to the outside of the theater department, there were so many stares given. Two girls sitting at a table giggled as they watched me pass by. A young man sitting at a table stared up from his book. When I arrived to class, there were not many people there, as it was the day before thanksgiving, and that class only has 8 people in it to begin with. I was told I looked “cute” by one classmate. I thanked her. This would set the tone for the rest of the compliments I received while wearing the outfit. Our professor Dr. Davis had to be sought out by me as she was in her office. When I approached Dr. Davis she said “Hello. Wow you look so bright and put together today.” This of course was a compliment and was another positive reaction towards the outfit. Dr. Davis and I shortly after discussed the assignment and she stood by her reaction and compliment, even after explaining it was a social aspects experiment. After class, I went to pick up my niece to go to a museum with me. When I arrived at my cousin’s apartment, my niece looked up at me and said “Why are you wearing that orange jacket?!” I guess orange pants were okay in her book, but an orange blazer was simply out of the question. The fact that she wasn’t okay with me wearing a jacket could refer back to gender roles set in at an early age. And the fact that if it is outside the norm, the aesthetic (in this case an orange suit), is deemed an outcast garment, and tossed to the side and disregarded because it is so obscure. The reading touches on this. “Thus, many contemporary philosophers oppose the Hegelian account for moral reasons: the concern with identity always involves the rejection of the Other as Other” (Levinas 2002). This totally makes sense not just with a child’s analytical procedures, but with adults as well. If you have to categorize your look as “other”, people don’t know how to categorize it themselves, and this makes them toss your look aside, and you are just put into a bad category. Instead of unique, you are seen as silly, playful, or just unfashionable. Gianna (my niece) and I went to the Museum of Latin American Art. When I arrived, the woman working the front desk greeted me without eye contact, and proceeded to help another person. As I waited for help, a man came to help us. He was very smiley. He made a lot of effort to talk to me, but didn’t make eye contact until he mentioned the suit. He said “Woah good thing I didn’t wear my orange suit today!”, as though he even owned one. But after he said that, he made eye contact the rest of the time he was talking. It was almost as though he had to bring up the white elephant in the room so he could get past it. Many people who worked at the museum would stare and smile. This went on for the rest of the visit. I also took my niece to a cafe called Hot Java where many gay men go to get coffee. I went here on ourpose because I knew if anyone was going to judge me, it was the gay men in my neighborhood. I walked in and the person who greeted me and took my order said “I love your ensemble. It fits you so well!” This, of course, coming from a much older man who was probably just trying to get into my (orange) pants! But as the time went by while we were there, most people did the same thing as others: staring with a smile.
The next day I wore this was on Saturday night. My boyfriend and I went out for drinks. Our first stop was paradise, a piano/martini bar we frequently go to. As I know most of the people who work there, I knew they would either give me an honest reaction, or kiss my ass for a tip. The bartender gave me his best “Ooh girl!…” And a laugh that said it all. The man who sat directly next to me said “That’s a nice suit you’ve got on.” I thanked him. As the night went on (and the martini went from one to more than one), more and more people were friendly about the suit. Some drag queen with fuzzy rainbow boots yelled “You look fabulous!!!”, as she stepped into her evening taxi cab. I felt unsure about her compliment, as she was wearing the most colorful outfit of the evening that night on broadway, but was that necessarily a good thing? And was the fact that I came in second for that title also a good thing?
The next time I wore this outfit was Sunday. I wore this outfit all day. Our destinations included Target, lunch, Toys R Us, Home Goods Store, and meeting my mother and cousins at a store to pick up a couch for my cousin’s new home. My boyfriend was honestly more nervous for me. It was one thing to wear this on broadway in my own neighborhood, but for him to have to walk around with me all day in Orange County while I was in the suit was quite a different story. The suit got every stare you’d imagine. The family of a mom and two daughters in their target sweats placed judgement on my outfit. The Jewish family also buying latke mix and geld was stunned to see a man in an orange suit at Target. A woman made conversation solely because I caught her staring at me. She asked if I was having a nice holiday. I told her I was and walked away. While at Home Goods, middle aged white people filled the store, and all of their eyes were on me as though I was wearing some sort of prison suit. The looks on their faces were priceless. There was a woman at Toys R Us who looked like she was so offended by my suit. She couldn’t stop staring at me. As we checked out a family stared at me when they were walking in. After that, we had lunch at Panera Bread. A family was praying at the table and as soon as they were finished, they all looked at me. I felt like a sinner of some sorts from the way they looked at me right after praying. A mom had three kids at the table and all of them stared right at me mid-meal. After this, it was off to meet my family. My mom’s face as I approached her was hilarious. She laughed and said “Well, at least it fits really well.” My cousin Zach agreed with her. After I explained the assignment, he said “If you needed a reaction you should have recorded mine…fuck you look ridiculous.” I laughed and so did he. His sister said I looked great. My niece said, “Hey, you already wore that jacket!” Again, the jacket being the problem. The people at this store reacted the same as everyone else. A large smile and a stare. As we left the place, two women walked in and one said to the other “Girl don’t even comment!” My mother laughed at their reaction.
Overall, this social fashion experiment proved to me one very important thing: people are not as sincere as they wish to be. I believe most people smiled, yet stared because they wanted to give a dirty look without me knowing. It was as though they were hiding behind their smiles. I know my fellow classmates were sincere with their compliments, but if they weren’t fashion students, I doubt they would have gotten pas the orange and seen the nicely tailored suit that it is. It was also clear to me that most people who have the subculture of being uncultured have a hard time being around anything that isn’t an ill fitting pair of sweats or a light washed jean. The statement made by these clothes of course being conformity and uniformity. The obscure man in the orange suit definitely did not fit their status quo.
drewtsimmons 