The clothes - they speak!

Clothes argue - it's in their job description. In part, the clothes you choose to wear show how much money you have (or how much you are willing to spend on your appearance) and what group you identify with (preps, jocks, emo, my-mom-still-picks-my-clothes...). They also serve different purposes for different situations. Why else would you dress up for a job interview and dress down before bed? I guess you could meet your prospective boss in pj's and sleep in a skirt or slacks if you wanted...But for the most part (I think), we pick the clothes we wear because we either want OTHERS to perceive us a certain way, and/or because others expect to perceive US in a certain way.

Clothing commercials often start with "Make a statement this _________ (<--insert season here) with this _________ (<--insert gushing adjective here) _______(<--insert article of clothing here) made exclusively for ________(<--insert brand-name here)!!!" I dunno if the clothing industry has shaped the arguments we are making/want to make, or if we had the arguments first and they've exploited and transformed our arguments into a deranged material obsession.

I think the arguments you make with your clothes are only as good as other's interpretations of them. Banana-Joe(or Banana-Josephine) might be trying to argue that he/she is "down with the times" and "a stud/stud-ess" by wearing a shirt with some expensive clothes company's name emblazoned across the front, but one observer might think that he/she is a "wannabe prep," another observer might think he/she is a walking billboard, while still another might think that he/she is, indeed, "hot shit."
...Who knows? It's too complicated.