Alison Nichols
Logan Bearden
ENC1145-18
19 October 2013
As humans we both consciously and subconsciously judge people based on the clothes
that they wear. When we look at people’s clothes our minds automatically make assumptions
about their character, whether accurate or not. The clothes that people choose to wear can
conceal information about a person or lead to stereotyping. In the Harry Potter series, Severus
Snape’s costume is an example of the misleading power of costumes in film. This is a positive
thing because Snape’s costume further added to the concealment of his character until the right
moment in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, unraveling substantial truths of the
series and characters that led to a feeling of completeness in the series. I argue that clothes shape
how people see us and we can use that to our advantage, which gives us power.
In The Fashioned Body by Joanne Entwistle, she addresses identity. She states that
clothing can be representative of identity, or conceal identity. This chosen identity can be
concealed with clothing that is not representative of any specific stereotype, or conceal with
clothing that is representative of a stereotype or has certain connotations. Malcolm Barnard says
that identity can be a race, ethnicity, class or gender. Some identities, like gender, are a
performance, and it would be impossible to hide this identity because there is no true identity. I
think though that identity is who someone is in their entirety. It is what their genes are and what
environmental influences shaped them. An environmental influence would be like a tragic
incident that caused someone to change allegiances. By looking at people’s clothing, people can
stereotype one another to make sense of other’s identities. In the case of identity as a person in
their entirety, we are limited in knowing information about a person. Our mind does not know
the difference between clothes that are not representative of a person and clothes that are. This
can give a false sense of identity of a character for the audience, or conceal identity. For the
wearer though, it gives them control and therefore power. To shape what someone else views of
you is to shape what they know of you, or what they think they know of you. If you want
someone to believe something of you which you may not be, you can gain authority and control.
Another aspect of clothing that shapes how we see identity is color. For centuries, clothes
that are black have evoked connotations of rebellion or evil. In Wild West movies the bad
cowboys would wear black hats, and the good would wear white hats. Those who are pure or
good tend to wear white. Angels in films are often seen in white, and a white beard has always
suggested wisdom and god-like greatness. In films of the 1950’s about rebellious teens (181
Crane), teens would wear black leather jackets which became a symbol of defiance. “Good” and
“bad” are both identities that people either essentially are from their environment and genes, or
perform because they are concealing themselves, though performance does not always equal
concealment. Whether the identity is either of those, we can gain power and control over other
people by what their perception of what our moral standing is.
Fred Davis in Do Clothes Speak? What Makes Them Fashion? says that fashion has
many parts to it, including socially, psychologically and where it fits in among different
societies. Our clothes are a combination of what the world asks of us, and what we want for
ourselves. This combining of different elements is also known as “bricolage”, which Crane
covers in his book (190 Crane). Bricolage forms the identity that we understand of people when
we look at what they are wearing. All of the influences that Davis mentioned, influence us to
make certain decisions about the clothes that we wear. Psychologically I may pick a shirt
because it is pink and reminds me of my of my favorite food, to fit in I may pick the shirt
because it is a button up and I need to wear something a nicer for an interview, and socially I
may pick it because it looks more current. When other people view me though, they will not
decipher all of that just by looking at my shirt. In fact, they may receive entirely different
connotations from their different experiences in life. Pink may remind them of their dead cat,
therefore giving them unpleasant feelings when looking at my shirt, viewing me unpleasantly. Or
they could stereotype me as being a prep because students of prep schools wear button-ups. With
clothes, we have the power to control how other people view us. If I was being interviewed by
the person with the dead cat, being aware they have bad associations with pink, I would pick a
different color button up.
Sarah Street supports me in Costume and Cinema: Dress Codes in Popular Film that
clothes can be an “armor” for the “vulnerable”. Like when people cross their arms when they are
feeling uncomfortable, clothes act as a barrier between the wearer and the outside. These clothes
can either resemble armor in appearance, or be an armor to conceal ones entirety identity.
Whether being used to show allegiance to a group of people, or to act as a barrier between ones
identity and other people, we shape whether people view us as a member of an army or as
concealed and mysterious. We can shape what other people view us to be and gain control over
their perception, therefore gaining power.
A person’s clothes reflect an identity to us. Deborah Landis shares a similar idea to
Davis in Dressed: A History of Hollywood Costume Design “Their look declares their origin,
their position in society, their place in time, their relationship to life” (x Landis). Like Davis,
Landis thinks that fashion has many parts to it. A person can choose to wear anything that they
want to, and what they choose to wear is influenced by these different aspects in their life. When
looking at someone’s clothing choices, the decisions for the choices may not be clear to us, or
mean the same for us. This means that certain character traits can be revealed or concealed from
the audience.
Dumbledore is also often seen wearing white, light and silvery colors. Since light colors
like whites represent purity and god-like greatness, these light colors represent Dumbledore’s
goodness, and reflects his loyalty to the good of the wizarding world and muggles. Snape and the
Death Eaters wear all black. Black has rebellious connotations which makes the audience believe
that the Death Eaters are bad, including Snape, which supports the assumption after he kills
Dumbledore that indeed he is a Death Eater. Some professors wear all black sometimes, but not
all the time like Snape does. And Voldemort and the Death Eaters do all the time as well, which
makes us see Snape as aligned with them. We get a false concept of identity of Snape not only
from his actions like when he killed Dumbledore, but his costume as well because his costume
conceals his true loyalty. This is a good thing for the film because his costume supports the
mystery behind where his identity lies in the Harry Potter films. All of the films revolve around
Snape and Harry’s relationship. Not knowing where his true loyalty lies until the final movie
wraps up this element of the novel, giving a sense of completion. Also, since Snape chose to
wear black, it gave him power over who knew what about his identity in the wizarding world. It
gave power to the film makers over us because it led us to believe Snape’s loyalty lied with
Voldemort.
Bricolage is shown in the costume that Snape wears throughout the films. It reveals the
complexity of his different relationships when looked at closely. As a double agent he works for
both Dumbledore and Voldemort, and his clothes combine in ways to show this. Like the other
Death Eaters he wears all black, so he can easily be stereotyped by the audience as being a Death
Eater. The Death Eaters are in support of Voldemort and the world being entirely pure-blood.
This is an evil concept, and they wear clothes with evil connotations to match. In Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire, the Death Eaters wore what resembled the attire of the KKK: long cloaks
and pointed hats. The only difference is that they were black, and black also has negative
connotations. In this film, they wore creepy skeleton like masks which brings to mind horror
films and dead people, also negative connotations. Snape also wore a long cloak similar to the
Death Eaters in the films, for example in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two.
Snape’s cloak looked more like the Death Eater’s cloaks in Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows Part Two. Though Snape never pulled out the KKK cloak and creepy mask, just being
associated with Voldemort and his people by the clothes he wore concealed his identity from us,
and gave him power over who knew his identity.
Someone whose clothes resemble armor are Snape’s. Like Snape’s, armor covers
up a person’s entire body and is typically all one color. A suit of armor has a part resembling a
tunic and a part resembling pants, like Snape’s. As well as the armor’s shoulder parts which
resemble Snape’s collar. This shows that Snape is vulnerable and wants to hide where his true
loyalty lies under armor. In addition to the “armor” appearance of Snape’s costume, it also
resembles an older military uniform. We can see this by looking at the long sleeved, tight fitting
tunic with rows of vertical buttons on the sleeves and front. This also leads the audience to
stereotype Snape as a Death Eater because the rest of the Death Eater’s costumes resemble
different uniforms from different eras. For example, Voldemort’s robes look like the robes of the
Chinese Qin Terracotta Warriors. Snape’s costume conceals where his allegiance truly lies. If
Snape wore a professor’s suit, the audience would not be confused about which alliance Snape is
in. If anyone other than Dumbledore knew that Snape was working with him to keep Harry safe
and work against the Death Eaters, then he would be given away. Voldemort would find out and
kill him or other people that Snape loves. Like when Lily and James were killed because Peter
Pettigrew betrayed them. Voldemort does not hesitate to kill anyone that goes against him. They
would come to the assumption, after seeing various encounters with Death Eaters that he is
working for Dumbledore and using the Death Eaters for information. After reading that Snape
killed Dumbledore, it seemed to the audience that his loyalty lied with Voldemort. Finding out
that Snape’s true loyalty lied with Lily and her son in the final novel created shock. This is
because Snape’s costume leads us to see him as mysterious and questionable because of this
covered up and armor like construction. Other people who are also mysterious and questionable
are the Death Eaters. There is a whole mystery around who exactly is a Death Eater, until we see
them engaging in Death Eater acts or engaging with Voldemort. The Death Eaters carry this
mysteriousness, and Snape does also. We as the audience do not know whether he is mysterious
because he is hiding something or because he is a Death Eater. Snape’s clothing created this
other element of mystery and concealment about his character, hiding where his true loyalty lied,
and protecting the storyline from being ruined. The film makers had authority over the audience
because they could control how we saw Snape. The secrecy of Snape’s character unveiled in
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two to connect missing puzzle pieces, that when
connected, show us a complete puzzle which are the Harry Potter films.
A person’s clothes to us reflect who they are. This can conceal or reveal anything to us
because a person can choose to wear anything that they want to. One does not have to wear
something that would declare exactly who they are, and if they did, not everyone would have the
same connotations from it. We do not know what clothes would truly represent a person though
unless we truly know them, and you cannot know if you truly know someone because they may
be concealing something about themselves. We look at people and judge them, expecting to see
who they are by what they wear. Their clothes may only tell a piece of who they are, or conceal
themselves entirely. This is a good thing because we can change how people see us. A film
maker can provide completion when a character’s true identity is revealed, and a suit can have
the effect of someone viewing another with more respect. We have the power to change how
people see us through the clothes we choose to wear.
Works Cited
Barnard, Malcolm, and Fred Davis. Fashion Theory: A Reader. London: Routledge:, 2007. Print.
Crane, Diana. Fashion and its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2000. Print.
Entwistle, Joanne. the Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress, and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2000. Print.
Street, Sarah,. Costume and Cinema : Dress Codes in Popular Film. London; New York:
Wallflower, 2001. Print.