Wizard Clothes. Plus WIzard Isolation.

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49071

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, alicit at a... wrote:
> What, exactly, constitutes the difference between wizard clothes 
> and muggle clothes?  
> 
> We see the twins in ordinary muggle clothes, slacks, and percy wears
> a sweater vest an awful lot.  (this is mostly from CoS, which I am 
> currently re-reading)  But, in GoF, we see all the witches and 
> Wizards that can't quite seem to grasp the concept of muggle 
> clothes: men wear dresses and ponchos. 
> 
> So, are these just wizards that never manage to go anywhere outside 
> the wizarding world?  We know from PS that they're not supposed to 
> be seen by muggles in their robes, so what do these odd fellows do?
> 
> I fear that the answer is obvious to all but me.
> 
> -scheherazade
> www.livejournal.com/users/uchidachi


bboy_mn:

I think the answer is 'KIDS'. For wizards who have kids who are
currently in school at Hogwarts, they are more likely to know what
kind of causal clothes modern muggle kids wear. In GoF, take Mr.
Weasley for example, he wasn't that far off; baggy jeans, shirt, and a
wide belt. He has a model, that is, his kids serve as a model of what
muggles dress like because they have adopted the casual cloth,
tee-shirt and jeans, that all muggle kids wear. Since more and more
muggle and half-muggles are coming into being, the wizard world is
modernizing it's dress slowly. 

Although, I suspect adult wizard will alway continue to wear robes for
business and social occassions; that is their traditional form of
dress, just as Scots and Irish still wear kilts. By modern standards,
kilts are hopelessly out of date and obsolete, but they continue to
hang on to them as a symbol of the past and as a connection to their
heritage. Just as the Parliment and the courts in Britain continue to
wear their traditional gown and wigs.

It has also been brought up that, since their is only one all wizard's
village in the UK and it is not a huge village, that implies that all
the other wizards must live intermixed to some extent with muggles.

 Someone wondered how they could be so ignorant of muggle ways when
they live in muggle communities. Both the Weasley and Diggory family
as well as a few other named families live within walking distance of
Ottery St. Catchpole. Dedalus Diggle lives in Kent. 

To understand, how people can be in places like this and still stay so
isolated, I'm reminded of Colonial Britain. For example, the British
in India, or the French in Indochina, they made little or no attempt
to integrat themselves into local society. The build a miniture
England within the borders of India. You see this in other ways. In
London, their is Chinatown, an enclave of China within the boundaries
of London. In many major cities in the western world, you find little
enclaves like this; Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Siagon, Thai
Town,.... People of a like culture tend to gravitate together. (Birds
of a feather, flock together) So it is not that unprecidented for the
wizards to keep themselves isolated from the culture that surrounds them.

I work with a Korean in the export business, I meet Koreans who are
successful businessmen and who have been living in Los Angeles, for
example, for decades, and their English is still marginal, and they
are culturally 100% Korean. They only go to Korean resaurants, they
only shop at Korean stores, they only drive Korean autos, they only do
business with other Koreans, etc... Yet, the are VERY successful
American businessmen. Again, my point is that this cultural isolation
is not that uncommon a thing.

Back in October there was a great deal of discussion about wizard's
robes. Here is a link to one of my post that will lead you to one of
GulPlum aka Richard's posts which will probably lead you to a couple
of long detailed discussions. Also, there are some link to period
costumes, that we used to determine what wizard robes might really
look like.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/45724

Just a few thoughts on the subject.

bboy_mn