What Your Clothes Say

As we have learned, there are verbal messages and nonverbal messages, and we also know that each form can be expressed in various ways, but what some might not know, or at least might not notice, is that your clothes send out messages too. But what messages are your clothes sending? And are they sending the correct messages?

Color contrast plays an important role in what your clothes are trying to communicate, because in order to convey a message, you have to be visible first. Hence, it is important to find the right balance, as too much contrast will result in too much attention to your clothes and none on you, too little will result in you being overlooked entirely. Well of course, if you are like me, and don't really care about whether you are noticed or not, fill your wardrobe with multiple sets of the same boring clothes and you are good to go.

Moving on to the actual message. Style lays the foundation for whatever statement you are trying to make. Choosing the right style is to wear what best represents your personality. This means choosing not only appropriate colors, but the right patterns, textures and accessories.

If you are a real outgoing extrovert and want to send that message, dress the part. Wear patterns, colors and accessories that fit with your contrast and draw lots of attention. Choosing an inappropriate style such as pastels(for an outgoing person) will cause confusion when people realize after getting to know you that you are not a pastel kind of person. Similarly, if you are a calm introvert, choosing a flashy look will draw more attention to you than you desire. In a nutshell, choose a style that makes a statement without overpowering your natural energy.

Do's and Dont's

Do dress in something you feel comfortable in.
Do dress for the occasion. NO SLIPPERS to anywhere but the nearest market or kopitiam
Do match your clothes with your accessories. i.e. bag with shoes for women, or shoes with top/belt, for men.

Don't try to pull off a look that is not you, chances are it'll come out all sorts of wrong.
Don't over-accessorize. i.e. not too much make-up, no ridiculous amounts of bracelets/bangles and necklaces, an absolutley no make-up for men.
Don't dye your hair a color that is not natural to your ethnicity. i.e. blonde for asians

For larger people

Wear something fitting, too tight will make you look disgusting, too loose will make you look even larger(contrary to popular belief).

It is true that darker colors can make you look smaller or slimmer, but wearing black from head to toe(if it doesnt suit your personality), will just look wierd. Try softer colors like Gray or Navy Blue, mix and match from there.


For stick-thin people

Wear fitting clothes in general. If your attire is too loose, you will end up looking sick and weak. A good judge is wind. If you stand in the wind and the portion of your shirt flapping in the wind is larger than the portion actually covering you, you are wrong. For pants, the rule of thumb is, if your butt doesn't decently fill your pants, downsize. You don't want to wear something too tight though, as tight-fitting clothes on a skinny person just emphasizes how skinny you are.

Lastly and most importantly, DRESS YOUR GENDER. This means, nono to skin-tight, body-hugging clothes for men, and loose berms for women.

The Failure of Non Verbal Cues

Doesn't it just tick you off when your classes end late? High and mighty lecturers pissing and moaning about how terribly late you are when you step in a mere 10mins after, citing a million sarcastic examples on punctuality, only to starkly contradict themselves by failing to adhere to that same logic when it comes to dismissal time.

As if the clock isn't cue enough that the lesson HAS ENDED. Consultation, though set aside for that class, is technically still the STUDENTS' time, a time that we are given a choice, to stay back and kiss the teacher's behind for another hour, or to just bunk off to our break and carry on with the day. But no... this is not the case... some lecturers seem to figure that consultation is still class time, and therefore nonchalantly drag the lesson on, and on... for not 10 mins, not 20 mins, but a whole at-least-1-hour long!! Hello?!?! Maybe if there is cause, like an upcoming exam or the likes, that would be fine and good, but not EVERY CLASS.

So the teacher fails to snap back to reality, and the clock fails to inform, what's left but to employ skills learned from COM101. Nonverbal cues. The sending and receiving of wordless messages via body language, hand gestures, paralanguage and so on. So we cough, fidget, roll our eyes, stretch, emit wierd noises such as "tsk", yawn, cough more, yawn more, fidget more... and guess what? IT DOESN'T WORK!

Lets break this down.

Maybe the teacher didn't notice 25 students yawning and coughing in unison, give the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe the students didn't make the gestures obvious enough, 25 students simultaneously stretching and coughing is perfectly normal for class time. Give the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe the theory of non verbal cues is flawed, maybe it does not include lecturers. Can't be...

OR MAYBE... THE TEACHERS WHO PREACH ABOUT THE GLORIES OF PUNCTUALITY ARE IN FACT GUILTY OF THE VERY THING THEY PREACH AGAINST!

Practice what you preach, don't end class late and maybe, we, in turn, won't show up late.

P.S. no, this post is not directed at my beloved coms lecturer of course =)

Emo Screamo vs Emo Nemo

I'm sure anyone the slightest bit involved in the music scene knows the references of these 2 phrases. But just for the sake of the unfortunate ones who don't, these 2 names were coined to represent opposite sides of the Emotional Rock Music genre.

Emo Screamo generally refers to bands that play emotional punk rock music where screaming vocals are largely incorporated into the tracks, check out the following videos to get a feel of it.

Only One - Yellowcard


I'm not Okay - My Chemical Romance


Emo Nemo on the other hand points to bands that play excessively emotional rock ballads, or rock songs in general. See below.

Creep - Radiohead


Storm - Lifehouse


Lets discuss some similarities they share.

Dress Sense








Notice the consistent black theme? The color black signifies sadness and melancholy. Black/dark settings or black/dark clothing gives the musicians an emotional, sad look.

Lyrical Similarities

All the the above examples share lyrical similarities in the sense that they all describe emotional and sad events, maybe a past relationship gone wrong, missing or yearning for a significant other, total dissatisfaction with oneself, or remorsefulness for a supposedly "unforgivable" mistake made.

"Here I go, scream my lungs out so I can get to you, cos you're my only one...." - Yellowcard

"I'm a creep, I'm a wierdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here...." - Radiohead

"And I... could walk on water, and you... will catch me if I fall. And I could get lost into your eyes, end everything will be alright..." - Lifehouse

"I'm not okay!! I'm not okay!! I'm not okay!! You wear me out..." - My Chemical Romance

So what's the difference?

Simple. The delivery and end result. Emo Screamo is of course, screamy, whiney and shrieky. Emo Nemo is more quiet, lonely and haunting. And the end result?

Emo Screamo - Lots of dramatic crying and writhing in invisible pain, destruction of one's belongings or environment, eventually ending in slit wrists.

Emo Nemo - Exit the dramatic crying, cut out the writhing and flailing, leave the belongings and environment intact, proceed straight to slit wrists.

Emoticons Rant

Gone were the days of sweet romance, when Jack would write Jill a love letter for every day she was away, and Jill receiving them weeks or maybe months later, sobbing in happiness with longing thoughts of him running through her mind.

Away with the static-full rotary telephone calls where Little Timmy would say "I love you mom" and his mom, who lived 10miles away, would hear it 9 seconds later and reply "I love you too son".

They were replaced by the modern cellphone. Capable of making and receiving calls from virtually anywhere around the globe, the modern cellphone made long distance relationships, well, not quite so very distant.

But what do these 3 era's have in common? It's simple. Words were used. In verbal or writing, whatever the language, words were used.

If I was sad, I would either say or write, "I am sad" or some close variation of it.

Nowadays however, such phrases as "I am sad" are replaced with......

THIS!!

Or....




THIS!

What the hell is that? Is that supposed to be your face? But it looks nothing like the way you look in person! So we are throwing our human uniqueness out the window and replacing it with a buncha round.... ball.... yellow... what do they call it.... Emoticons!?!? Such blasphemy!

Don't you hate it when you talk to your colleague on msn and she goes:

Colleague: I am so *sadface*, my *heart* is *brokenheart*, my bf cheated on me yesterday... *cryface**cryface**cryface**cryharderface*. He said he was sorry and he still *heart* me, and asked if I still *heart* him too. I don't know what to say... *cryface**cryface**cryface**cryharderface*.

Ah well... just a communications related rant, meh.