How does what a person wears affect how other people react to them

This is how society views people. It has nothing to do with what the person is like inside. I saw an old man in the mall last week wearing a waist length leather jacket with a collared shirt and pressed jeans. The guy was probably in his early to mid 60's. How would you classify him?. How you dress doesn't change who you are. The old man in the leather jacket didn't make him anymore of a street tough than dressing Ted Bundy in a suit, made him a gentleman.

I actually did a study on this for a soc class...one week I dressed goth and went into a couple stores. I received glares and other bad looks, other people pretended were completely isolating to me, and in some stores the workers watched me very closely to make sure I wasn't going to steal or cause trouble.
The next week, I went to all the same stores dressed nicely in something really fashionable. Everyone was much more warm and inviting in general, and instead of watching me like a hawk, the employees were friendly and offered to help me with anything--also, I never changed my attitude through out the entire study.
Clothing is supposed to represent your status and who you are, and in general, society follows stereotypes. Someone dressed to the nines represents $ and power, and their gonna get a lot more respect than someone dressed in dirty old clothes.

I know from personal experience that people act a certain way towards the way you dress... this tends to be very stereotypical. I, for example, tend to wear alot of black, skinny jeans, neon, etc., so people automatically think I cut myself, am depressed, and call me an emo kid. People who actually talk to me, though, realize that I'm much more than that and am actually fun to be around..

I think it actually does say alot. If you are always dressing as a "gansta", people aren't going to think you are too smart, if you dress like a priss, people aren't going to assume you're slutty, etc. People will perceive the type of person you are based on how you dress.

for some reason .. women in tight jeans , ...... make my jeans tight . ;-)

they either give you a seat, or they try to pretend they don't notice you ;)