Clueless Style Analysis: The Psychology & Sociology of Fashion within Social Identity

This video analysis dives into the iconic fashion movie of the 90s, Clueless. It is a psychological and sociology style analysis. The creator explains how certain styles and colors are odes to the character design, roles, and social standing of many of the characters within the movie. The style director purposefully wanted to implement the wealthy girl’s life experiences into their own personal, routine life. How would an outfit convey one’s life experiences, personality, roles, social standing, group culture, and individual identity? These are many aspects that can be intrinsically analyzed just through personal style. The video explains us vs. them dynamics and how that plays into group identity construction portrayed through style and relationships. 

The video also puts it in a larger perspective and explains how fashion trends can result from social and economic processes. The minimalist grunge of the 90s came about from low-income population thrifting and creating their personal style that relates to the haute couture fashion reserved for the rich for example. 

This resource plays into the central problem of fashion and identity construction with high consideration of how our social and economic environment plays into such. They delve into group identities and life experiences that can impact how you represent yourself, from colors and contrasts to accessories and small details. There are so many subconscious details that go into personal style and how you express yourself to the world. The video does a great job of picking one instance and providing an in-depth analysis. We are able to see how fashion penetrates different aspects such as group identity, us vs. them dynamics, life experiences, personal style, characteristic traits, culture, status, and many more, but specifically within the 90s. 

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