Possibly wanting to craft this more mature and serious image in order to make himself feel more mature and powerful, this could relate also to the fact that he felt as though he did not get to spend enough time with his father, I perceive that the two could be related and if so that he could have felt that he needed to craft himself an older image to gain more confidence.

It could also be that the college environment could often feel quite polarising as they have felt that Tchad was quite different from them

Not wanting to please his fellow pupils but to be taken more seriously

Tchad – blazers and smart dressing

Clothing and Social Identity Richard A. Feinberg, Lisa Mataro W. Jeffrey Burroughs

Following my reading of this text I can conclude that when I am discussing this particular period of Tchad’s life and the garments that he was wearing I am aware of the fact that his choice of clothing speaks of particular elements of him and his personality, not of him entirely. This is a point made in this academic paper that I strongly agree with. ‘’when clothing is said to be related to the self-identity of the wearer, it is important to specify what aspects of the person his/her clothing is related to. It cannot possibly reflect all aspects of the person.’’ (Feinberg, Mataro and Burroughs, 1992)

I am in fact speaking of a particular stage in his life in which he felt the need to dress in much more mature and smart way through the use of blazers and smart attire. Everyday in an environment which it is not normally seen, college. Where in contrast his peers were dressing in a much more relaxed fashion such as sports wear and trainers, he was dressing in a way that was starkly different to this crowd. In my interview with Tchad he speaks of how the blazer was a way of him looking and feeling older ‘’Blazers! those are really important to me, particularly the cashmere one that I have because it was really a moment when I started seeing Freya and started hanging out with you and… Bath college and really kind of growing up out this very sort of childish version of my myself, and I guess blazers were sort of me trying to look older, to try and make myself feel older and so I still have them, although I don’t wear them as much I am still very attached to them, because they still represent a time when I was really changing’’

Clothing is a significant social symbol used by individuals in identity definition because (a)

clothing is used in daily activity, (Feinberg, Mataro and Burroughs, 1992)

‘’If the goal of research is to establish a relationship between clothing and identity, simply showing that clothing cues have meaning is not enough. It is also important to show that the meaning of the cues to observers is congruent to the identity/self of the individual.This paper reports two studies which were designed to explore’’ (Feinberg, Mataro and Burroughs, 1992) As discussed in this quote the importance of showing the meaning of not only the clothing to the wearer but also the meaning to the observer, even though Tchad states in the interview that this change was to make himself ‘’look older’’ so to make himself ‘’feel older’’ I will also be examining how the suit and the way that he was dressing is perceived in society. This is only to gain a deeper confirmation that how you dress effects the observers opinion on you.

In order to paint a more detailed picture of my subject and his narrative I have been considering how to show why Tchad was choosing to dress in this way, and how it made him feel. I feel that this is a very important part of image as I want my photos to not only tell a story of how Tchad’s clothing makes him feel but also his decision to walk away from his younger self and progress.

From looking at the personality scale that is pictured in (Feinberg, Mataro and Burroughs, 1992) I would like to use adjectives such as confident whilst also looking at the opposite, unconfident in representing this particular stage of Tchad’s growth.