Suit wears the man

Introducing this month’s IndieWeb Carnival, Joe connects the dots between cosplay and personal style, in a way I hadn’t given enough consideration before. The more I cosplay the more I think all clothing is costume. Doing makeup to be a character is not much different from a haircut and a shave. Dressing for Halloween and dressing for a wedding are related. Comic Con, funeral, job interview, first date. We dress to meet a moment. It’s not a purely practical exercise, getting dressed. I can put on things that match my identity, I can put on things that don’t. I’m a middle aged adult cis-het white man, and I never really think about putting on my middle aged cis-het white man costume when I get dressed, but it is there. My personal style is a mix of influences from my dad and the other men in my life growing up; things I consciously rejected or chose for myself in my teens and twenties; different places and climates I’ve lived in too. Writing this up now, I realize how much inhibition…