My reflection on the Daniel Miller text 'Why clothing is not superficial'

I read text by Daniel Miller and have two questions to answer for my Critical and Contextual Study module.

According to Miller, do most Trinidadian people think it is important or not important to pay attention to style and surface appearance? Why is this?

For Trinidadian people style is crucial. “Style - that is, the individual construction of an aesthetic based not just on what you wear, but on how you wear it.” They devote a lot of attention, money (“I worked much of my time in Trinidad with squatters who had neither a water supply nor electricity in the house. Yet women living in these squatters' camps might have a dozen or twenty pairs of shoes.”) and time (“On evenings I could spend three hours with them, waiting as they got themselves ready to go out and party, trying on and discarding outfits until they got it right.“) for that.

According to Miller and his research there are a few reasons why:

[if !supportLists]1. [endif]“The way jazz musicians take up themes and develop them, but very often return to a pastiche of well-known rhythms and tunes from previous compositions. In ordinary speech both musicians and others will refer to signifyin(g) upon someone or something.”

[if !supportLists]2. [endif]The experience of slavery. “The idea of keeping things on the surface as a defensive strategy against the condition of extreme degradation. The precarious existence given by the condition of slavery precluded any internalization of love, since there was no knowing when this love-object might be wrested away, resulting in a kind of adaptive tendency to keep things on the surface, to refuse any internalization and thus to minimize one's sense of loss.”

In my opinion, style, clothes, shoes and accessories is a way for Trinidadians to escape routine, poverty or any over problems in their personal life as well as nation, culture.

Having read the text, do you think clothing is more or less superficial than you did before?

After reading this text I think that clothing is more superficial. D. Miller gives reasons behind every situation, clothing, culture, city and person and that comes together with my thought that everything in this life is for a reason, there are no coincidences. Text made me think about my choices and clothing and I immediately understood that there are so many reasons why we dress one way or another. I believe that clothing is not superficial.