Dating has been a central part of the western culture for a long time. With the changes in time, the whole culture of dating has also changed significantly over the ages. In earlier days the idea of marriage was seen as the ultimate aim of dating but in the last couple of decades we have seen a significant shift in the culture of dating. Marriage is no longer always the goal with which two people date and the methods of dating and meeting people has also seen remarkable change. The TV show Friends uses dating and relationships as an important theme throughout the show to push forward the story and create funny scenarios. Set in an American society, the characters constantly go on dates with new people for various different reasons.
Fashion plays a key role in dating especially when meeting someone you like, the expression of one’s self through his or her clothes becomes crucial. Dates and fashion thus share a very close connection with each other. Given the fact that the show ran for 10 seasons and was very important part of popular culture at the time, we can study dating and its evolution through the characters and their fashion in the show.
Throughout the whole show the most common and clearly the most used dating method is the dinner date. The characters go to various dinner dates throughout the show with a lot of different people. The dinner date has been one of the oldest and most formal types of date. The dinner dates are common from the start of the show till the end which shows that this type of dating is one of the few things that hasn’t changed in the dating culture.
If we look at the first couple of seasons we see that the clothing styles for the dates are very formal. We can see the women wearing dresses and the men wearing suits or blazers. By the way they dress we can infer that dates were more serious occasions earlier. A lot of thought goes behind how they dress up, how they fix their hair and even the shoes, accessories and jewelleries they wear. The color of the dress their dress also tells us a lot about how they want to express themselves. While most of the time the people wear more formal black, grey, dark blue colors occasionally we see someone wearing more bold colors like red. For example, when Joey goes out with a fan she is dressed in red from top to bottom and is much more confidant and dominating whereas Joey is very casually dressed. There dressing represents the intentions with which they are at the date.
When the setting of the date changes the fashion of the character also changes. When Ross and Rachel go for a movie date they are dressed more casually. It can also be that because they are good friends and they have known each other for a long time they do not feel the need to make a strong impression or express themselves through their fashion too much.
As the show progresses we can see that the dressing style during dates changes a little. The clothing of the men specially becomes slightly more casual with jeans, shirts and sweaters instead of suits and blazers. It is not completely casual but it is not as formal as the first couple of seasons either. In the case of women the fashion style is always very closely connected to their intentions and the type of date. On a date where the woman is interested in a serious relationship the fashion style is formal, the hair and accessories are also formal but this changes when they are not really interested or only looking for something casual. There is a very clear difference in their day to day clothing and the clothes they wear for dates which shows that it is clearly a statement that they are trying to make through their clothes. Through their fashion perhaps women are able to find a mode of expression in the public space but we don’t see this working among the male characters of the show. There is not much difference in their clothing style on a date from their day to day life. This shows that they do not feel the need to express themselves through their clothes too much. Perhaps a closer study of the power relations and the cultural upbringing of the characters might produce very interesting arguments for the reason behind this phenomenon. We can see that fashion in a way follows the changes in the dating culture rather than the other way around.
By Arun Enterria (1733107)
Friends & Fashion 