Iconic clothing has been secularized. . . . A guardsman in a dress uniform is ostensibly an icon of aggression; his coat is red as the blood he hopes to shed. Seen on a coat-hanger, with no man inside it, the uniform loses all its blustering significance and, to the innocent eye seduced by decorative colour and tactile braid, it is as abstract in symbolic information as a parasol to an Eskimo. It becomes simply magnificent.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how the meaning of clothing, particularly uniforms, changes when detached from their context and human identity.
Angela Carter's quote explores the transformation of iconic clothing, particularly uniforms, from symbols of aggression and power into mere aesthetic objects devoid of their original significance. When a uniform is removed from its wearer, it loses its context and militaristic meanings, becoming a mere decorative item that may be appreciated for its beauty rather than its historical implications. This shift invites a contemplation of how perceptions can change based on context and the essence of an object, illustrating the tension between form and purpose.
In practice
During a discussion on fashion design, this quote can illustrate how garments can transform in meaning.
She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg: she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver.
Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.
Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves.
For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written — heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world.
To pin your hopes upon the future is to consign those hopes to a hypothesis, which is to say, a nothingness. Here and now is what we must contend with.
I haven't changed much, over the years. I use less adjectives, now, and have a kinder heart, perhaps.
I'm involved in all things musical. It's all consuming, even if it doesn't necessarily manifest as a record or a concert.
My personal aesthetic is to be affected directly by everything about what you're seeing... I don't mind being dashed on the rocks... My most base act of defiance is to live a long time and still rock.
Jazz shouldn't have any mandates. Jazz is not supposed to be something that's required to sound like jazz. For me, the word 'jazz' means, 'I dare you.'
What I end up shooting is the situation. I shoot the composition and my subject is going to help the composition or not.
The symbol of all art is the Prism. The goal is unrealism. The method is destructive. To break up the white light of objective realism, into the secret glories which it contains.
Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do and then just go for it. I never know what the public's going to like, anyway.
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