You Are What You Wear: Symbolic Relationship Between Products and Identities

This article discusses the relationship between fashion products, personal identity and social identity revealing its importance in design and emotion research, and how clothing and accessories for personal use can affect, influence and assert our identity. In a sociological context definitions of identity and self-identity are discussed and related. Fashion as a phenomenon of identity exposure, influencing the development of people ́s personal style. This article proposes a descriptive framework linking products, personal identity and social identity, among the dimensions found, lays the concepts of Giddens ́s self-identity, Belk ́s Extended Self, as well as social status and fashion.