Who Do Women Really Dress For?
Were you hoping to catch the eye of someone special? Maybe you just wanted to look pretty... or perhaps you wanted to outshine the girl in the cubicle next to you.
If you take out the factor of there being a certain dress code where you are going, the question that surfaces now and again when it comes to women and their choice of fashion is "who do they dress for?". Maybe you do have a specific person in mind when you are matching your skirt with your blouse, or maybe you honestly just don't care about anything but being comfortable. But in general, it comes down to three "who" that influence the way women choose to dress; themselves, other women and men.
It is no secret that women, even among friends, compete with each other. Some of us handle it with more grace though, not letting a little friendly competition get in the way of friendship. A big part of this competition is about what we choose to wear, and when it comes to why women dress for other women I think it comes down to three reasons;
First, to inspire one another. Just look at the amount of fashion bloggers in the world, most of them are women, and most of their readers are women as well.
Another reason why women dress for other women is because women are the ones to actually appreciate the effort you put into your hair, makeup and outfit. They are more likely than men to complement you on the way you dress, and everybody likes to get complements, right?
The third reason is because we want to outshine eachother. We want to be the hottest girl at the party or the most fashionable girl in the office. As much as women appreciate effort we will also notice if you look like a hot mess. Women judge, and therefore it is only natural to want to look better than them, we want to make them envy us.
There is some truth to that, I mean, if you would ask any normal guy (i.e. not into fashion) something about your outfit he would probably never tell you to "wear the pink bag instead of the black one because it match your nails" or "your winged eyeliner is looking really even today". He would probably just say that you look pretty (without taking his eyes if his phone) or suggest that you put on something sexy and revealing. Men rarely do care what we wear unless it is something ground breaking. Switching out the sweatpants for a pair of jeans might not get the same attention as switching them out for a LBD.
But of course in some ways we do dress for men, if not for complements we do it for the attention. When we go out on a Friday night we get all pretty not only because we want to but with also hoping that maybe we will catch a man's attention. It is noting strange with that, it is after all how we attract the opposite sex; by looking good. And since the male and female opinion of what looks good might differ women will choose what they know men will like, she will dress for the men.
But women who onlydress for men needs to be careful though, if you are dressing just to please the male gender you probably should try to figure out why you feel the need to do it. At least dressing for other women means that you are being judged based upon your sense of style, and not on how much skin you are showing.
