THE DUPLICATION OF THE HUMAN PERSONALITY THROUGH CLOTHING – THE CARNIVAL COSTUME
THE DUPLICATION OF THE HUMAN PERSONALITY THROUGH CLOTHING – THE CARNIVAL COSTUME

Summary/Abstract: In the process of duplicating the personality through clothing, imitating the behavior and visual image of others, individuals risk losing the originality of their individual nature. We often tend to value something that is inappropriate for us, something that comes from the outside, or something that belongs to others, rather than what honestly characterizes us. We borrow visions and ideas from others, motives and meanings, copy them and give them the quality of a model. The more a clothing suggestion or behavior comes from the outside and not from the inside, the more easily we tend to embrace it, appropriate it and give it value. Through an experiment carried out by the American sociologist Philip G. Zimbardo with the aim of determining the ways of transforming individuals' behavior depending on what they wear, the idea was argued that individuals use the means of "disguising" their authentic identity to reduce personal responsibility. Uniforms, suits, masks and all other forms of camouflage of the true appearance are an opportunity to hide feelings of insecurity and instability. According to the author, when "someone feels anonymous in a situation, as if no one knows their true identity (…), it is easier to behave in antisocial ways." We can analyze the social identity of an individual from a behavioral and clothing point of view under the fusion of two directions, the tendency towards the general and the tendency towards the individual. In certain situations, existence in society brings individuals closer to a common denominator, standardizes, erases or suppresses their personality, by imposing fashionable standards and trends, or behavioral and dress codes attributed to certain types of jobs and social statuses. At the same time, the need to differentiate from the collective uniform manifests itself precisely through the need to create a personal self-image, as a means of proclaiming and affirming individual personality, uniqueness.

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