Fashion is a trillion dollar industry. It makes up 2% of the entire world’s GDP.[1] Why does apparel, the clothing we wear, play such a large part in our lives? For this we can look to art and literature, and even to scripture and the church. Unlike other animals, for as long as humans have roamed the earth, we have been concerned with clothing ourselves.

From the moment of the “fall” in Genesis 1, we began a journey of finding ways to conceal our original “nakedness” and to express ourselves instead through material means. The very essence of communication in fact relies on using symbols for expression. Language employs verbal symbols. Music, dance, art, and clothing all convey symbols that are visual, tactile, or emotional. Every one of these wordless forms of expression still transmits…