Stylized Sculpture

The history of clothing is as old as that of humanity itself. From the time human

consciousness first awakened from animal nature, we humans have wrapped our

bareness in clothing, very much the way Adam and Eve did with fig leaves. The first

human clothes were animal pelts, a sign of supremacy over other animals by virtue of

our superior physical skills and intelligence. Humans used weapons and tools to kill

animals, skin their hides, and eat their meat.

Fur served to help humans conserve body heat and survive the ice ages, but

conversely led to the devolution of body hair. The ability to maintain a constant body

temperature, whatever the climate, is thought to have contributed to making human

estrus, or sexual “heat,” constant as well, this permanent mating season greatly

strengthening the human capacity to propagate. Likewise, clothing came to conceal our

genitalia while enhancing physical measures of attraction, enabling us to consciously

control our reproductive activities. These added, interrelated dimensions of clothed

body expression must have played a major role in the socializing process and the rise

of civilization.

By the age of the earliest civilizations, humans had gained the knowledge of how to

weave and dye plant fibers, and as primitive communal society stratified into classes,

clothing came to symbolize rank and status. Figures of authority in particular made

extra display of their power and wealth by means of special clothing and adornment.

In India, China, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia―as in Mesopotamia, Egypt,

Greece, and Rome―ancient civilizations each developed a unique culture of attire.

In the early fifteenth century, Europe entered the age of seafaring and exploration,

while scientific advancements led to an ever more logical mindset and with it a rational

worldview of a spherical planet―which grew “smaller” with every new discovery.

Thereafter, European imperialist expansion encompassed almost the entire world, this

overwhelming rule establishing a primacy of Eurocentric standards of dress that

became synonymous with modernization. 

- Hiroshi Sugimoto