Dearest Doppelgänger

source: www.exactitudes.com/

For as long as I can remember, part of the enjoyment I derive in traveling to different cities/countries is the change in dress code. It appears that I'm not alone in my fascination of social dress.

Since 1995, Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Elly Yttenbroek have traveled the world and diligently studied the human desire to express individuality, which ironically--and as their project illustrates--dovetails with the human desire to conform. "Exactitudes" explores different subcultures from various continents and opines that individuals (and individuality) can be categorized into social tribes, each with a corresponding dress code. In finished photographs of 4 x 3 grids, codes of dress are presented through an anthropological lens. I'm not so much interested in the idea that everyone can be pigeonholed, as I am interested in the idea that our minds automatically create cognitive shortcuts and categories.

The project is now at Selfridges in London.

As an aside, my friend, Alex, claims he has seen my doppelgänger before, sitting on a bus en route to Union Station in Los Angeles, no doubt hunched in her seat, glasses perched precariously on her nose, eyes entrenched in some magazine (foreign) or book (also foreign), clueless and aloof. A more sinister me perhaps? I don't really care. I only hope she (or my social tribe) garbs itself in Rachel Comey, Mayle, or Mociun.