“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”
-Peter F. Drucker
Picture this: a woman tries on a skirt in a store. As she twirls around to catch her image in the mirror, the skirt flutters. Closed, the skirt seemed to be a uniform black shade, but slight movement has changed the shape of the garment, and now the narrow, chiffon pleats widen to reveal alternating black and white panels.
At first, the customer had loved the sedate look of the black, pleated skirt, but soon realized that movement imbued it with an unruly feel that, for her, was uncomfortable. She didn’t say those words; she just said: “It’s making me dizzy!”
What happened was this: the skirt had its own language – “clothes-ese” – that was foreign to her and a mismatch for her personality. The jazzy design elements (often called “visual literacy”) of the skirt were dramatic, but also incongruous with the calm stability of her personality. They simply didn’t accentuate who she was, or give her the confidence she was longing for – both key elements when choosing clothes.
Click here to learn more about the Mysterious, Visual Vocabulary of Clothes
