|
Once, we were all dressed by someone else. 曾经，我们都被别人打扮。 Parents picked out a T-shirt. The school dictated what colour our trousers should be. 家长们为我们挑选了一件T恤， 学校规定了我们的裤子应是什么颜色。 But at some point, we were granted the opportunity to discover who we might be in the world of clothes. 但是，在某种程度上,我们有机会发现自己在服装界可能是什么样的人。 We had to decide for ourselves about collars and necklines, fit, colours, patterns, textures and what goes (or doesn't) with what. 我们必须自己决定衣领、领口、尺寸、颜色、图案、质地以及搭配什么(或不搭配什么)。 We learnt to speak about ourselves in the language of garments. 我们学会了用服装语言来表达自己。
Despite the potential silliness and exaggeration of sections of the fashion industry... 尽管时装业的某些部门可能有些愚蠢和夸张... Assembling a wardrobe is a serious and meaningful exercise. 整理衣橱是一项严肃且有意义的事情。 Based on our looks or background, others are always liable to come to quick and, not very rounded decisions about who we are. Too often, their judgment doesn't quite get us right. 根据我们的外貌或背景，别人总是很容易对我们是谁做出快速但不全面的认识。通常情况下，他们的判断并不完全正确. ley might assume that because of where we come from, we must be quite snobbish or rather resentful. 他们可能会认为，因为我们的背景，我们一定相当势利或相当愤恨。 Based on our work we might get typecast as dour or superficial. The fact that we' re very sporty might lead people to see us as not terribly intelligent. 根据我们的工作，别人可能认为我们冷酷或肤浅。我们很喜欢运动，这一事实可能会让别人认为我们不是很聪明。
Or an attachment to a particular political outlook might be associated with being unnervingly earnest. 或者可能把对某一特定 政治观点的拥护与极度认真联系在一起。 Clothes provide us with a major opportunity to correct some of these assumptions. 衣服为我们提供了一个纠正这些假设的好机会。 When we get dressed, we are, in effect,operating as a tour guide. Offering to show people around ourselves. 当我们穿好衣服，实际上， 我们就成了“导游”，向别人展示自己。 We're highlighting interesting or attractive things about who we are. 我们强调关于自己是谁的有趣或诱人的事情。 And, in the process, we' re clearing up misconceptions. We' re acting like artists...Painting a self-portrait. 在这个过程中，我们在消除误解,我们就像艺术家一样....画自画像。 Deliberately guiding the viewer's perception of who they might be. 故意引导观众对他们可能是谁的看法。
In 1961, the English painter Peter Blake portrayed himself... Wearing a denim jacket, jeans and trainers. 1961年，英国画家彼得布莱克画了- -幅自画.....着牛仔夹克、牛仔裤和运动鞋。 He wa deliberately nuancing the view most of his contemporaries would have had of him: Based on knowing that he was a successful and rather intellectual painter. 他刻意改变大多数同时代人对他的看法:因为他知道自己是一位成功且颇有智慧的画家。 He might have been thought of as slightly aloof and highly refined... Detached from, and censorious of, ordinary life. But his clothes speak about very different aspects of his personality. 别人可能认为他有点冷漠.....超脱于日常生活，且对生活吹毛求疵，但他的着装却反映了他性格中一些与众不同的方面。 They go out of their way to tell us that he's quite modest. He's interested in talking about pop music. He sees his art largely as a kind of manual labour. 布莱克的衣服特意告诉我们他很谦虚，对谈论流行音乐感兴趣，他认为自己的艺术很大程度上是一 种体力劳动。 His clothes, like ours, give us a crucial introduction to the self. 和我们的衣服一样, 布莱克的衣服传达给我们一个至关重要的自我介绍。
This explains the curious phenomenon.. Whereby if we're staying with good friends, we can spend a lot less time thinking about our clothes.. Compared with the anxiety about what to wear that can grip us with strangers. 这就解释了这个奇怪的现....因.，如果我们和好朋友待在一起， 我们就可以少花很多时间来考虑穿什么衣....相比之下，在陌生人面前，我们会为穿什么衣服而焦虑。 With good friends, we might sit around in a dressing gown. Or just hastily slip on any old jumper. They know who we are already.They're not relying on our clothes for clues. 和好朋友在一起时， 我们可能会穿着睡衣坐在一起，或者匆忙穿上一一件旧毛衣。他们了解我们，不会根据我们的衣服来寻找线索。 It's a strange but profound fact... That certain items of clothing can excite us. 这是一个奇怪但深刻的事实... ..某些衣服能让我们兴 When we put them on or see others wearing them, we' re turned on: A particular style of jacket. The right kind of shoes. 当我们穿上它们或看到别人穿它们，我们就会兴奋:种特殊风格的夹克或者合适的鞋子。 Or the perfect shirt... might prove so erotic.We could almost do without a person wearing them. 或者极好的衬衫...可能带有特别颜色，我们几乎不需要有人穿它们，我们就会有这种感受。
It's tempting to see this kind of fetishism as simply deluded. But it is alerting us in an exaggerated way to a much more general and very normal idea: 人们很容易认为这种恋物癖只是一种错觉，但它以一种夸张的方式提醒我们一个更普遍、更正常的想法: That certain clothes make us very happy. 有些衣服让我们很开心。 They capture values that we' re drawn and want to get closer to. The erotic component is just an extension of a more general and understandable sympathy. 衣服拥有吸引我们并能使我们希望更接近的价值，情爱成分只是一种更普遍、更易理解的同情的延伸。 The French novelist Stendhal wrote: 'Beauty is the promise of happiness'. And every item of clothing we' re drawn to contains an allusion to a different sort of happiness. 法国小说家司汤达写道:“美丽是幸福的承诺。”吸引我们的每一-件 衣服都暗示着一种不同的幸 福。 We might see a very desirable kind of competence and confidence in a particular pair of boots. 从一双特别的鞋子，我们可能会看到一种非常令人向往的能力和信心。
We might meet generosity in a woollen coat or a touching kind of innocence in a hemline.A particular watchstrap may sum up dignity. 从一件羊毛大衣，我们可能会看到慷慨，或者从裙摆看到一种动人的天真，从一条特别的表带看到尊严。 The way a specific collar encases the neck could strike us as commanding and authoritative. 一种特殊的衣 领围住脖子的方式可能会让我们觉得威严和权威。 The classic fetishist might be pushing their particular attachments to a maximum. 典型的恋物癖者可能会把他们的特殊依恋发挥到极致。 And be rather restricted in the choice of items they favour. But they are latching onto a general theme. Clothes embody values that enchant and beguile us. 而且在选择1他们喜欢的衣服上颇受限制，但他们抓住了个普遍的主题，即衣服体现了众多价值，我们为之着迷，被其吸引。 By choosing particular sorts of clothes... We are shoring-up our more fragile or tentative characteristics. 通过选择特定种类的衣服.. ..支撑 着我们更脆弱或暂时的特质。 We' re both communicating to others who we are and strategically reminding ourselves. Our wardrobes contain some of our most carefully-written lines of autobiography. 我们既向别人传达自己是谁，也在战略性地提醒自己,我们的衣橱里有写得最仔细的“自传”。
|
|
|
