clothing in the Potterverse (rather long)

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 90087

zesca wrote:
<< I've always wondered how Harry acquired his muggle clothes. When 
living with the Dursley's his wardrobe choices were confined to 
Dudley's cast-offs. In Diagon Alley he is fitted for robes at Mme 
Malkin's (no mention of casual wear). Hogsmeade trips have never, to 
my knowledge included a stop at wizard equivalent of Brooks Brothers. 
I don't see Petunia taking him back-to-school shopping over the 
summer; she's more prone to instigating clothing humiliation by dying 
Dudley's old clothes grey in some stinking solution. 

<snip snip>
 
Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult for adult wizards to 
understand muggle fashion? it seems like their kids seem relatively 
down with the lifestyle.>>


Sigune here:

[OOOOOH - fashion and the WW! I apologise right here for what will be 
a rambling post...]

Yes, the Muggle dress confusion seems strange to me, too; but I agree 
with other posters that there are bits of information we seem to be 
missing simply because they are not being discussed in the books as 
they would probably lead too far away from the main storyline.

Here are my thoughts:

- Harry went to a perfectly 'normal' (i.e. Muggle) primary school. 
Surely other wizard children (not to mention Muggle-borns) will have 
done so, too. As far as we know there are no wizarding primary 
schools. It has been suggested on other threads that wizard children 
below the age of eleven receive private tutoring; but surely that 
arrangement cannot suit every wizarding family? My guess is that even 
a number of non-Muggleborn wizard children attend Muggle primary 
schools, which means they would be in touch with Muggle culture, from 
which follows there would be some 'contamination' at least, as is the 
case among Muggles also (e.g. at my school there were 'seasons' of a 
sort: one girl would bring a skipping rope and next day the 
playground was full of skipping ropes; next month we would all be 
collecting stickers - in any case someone launched a fad and then 
there was no escaping it).
Of course I have no canon support whatsoever.

- Where do wizards live? Hogsmeade, we know, is a purely magical 
community. Godric's Hollow is another one. But I should think that 
many wizarding families live in Muggle communities. The Blacks, a 
pureblood family, have their house in London. Although it is 
(almost?) perfectly possible for magical folk to avoid all contact 
with Muggles (seeing they have their own transport, their own radio 
etc. etc.), I imagine that a fair number of them would in fact be in 
touch with Muggles on a regular basis. I mean, even a witch or wizard 
might enjoy a walk in the neighbourhood, or (window)shopping, or a 
fair, or an exhibition in a Muggle museum or something of the kind. 
Or they might rent a flat in a Muggle building.

- As for clothes: maybe we are talking generation gaps here. I can 
imagine young wizards or witches being sensitive to Muggle fashion, 
whereas older ones may grow more conservative and go back to the good 
old robe. Wearing Muggle(inspired) clothing might be a way for young 
wizards and witches of expressing their youthfulness and distancing 
themselves from their parents' generation - ideologically and 
otherwise. Besides, trousers can be very practical.
Maybe the adult wizards are simply losing their touch by being too 
absorbed in the WW. Besides, if wizards indeed have twice the 
lifespan of a Muggle, there can be little wonder that they can't keep 
up with all the fashion changes in the Muggle world.
Besides I think they wouldn't be out of tune at some parties :).

* Personally (and here I ought perhaps to mention that I am drawing a 
Potterverse comic, just to signal that the visual aspect of the WW is 
of great concern to me) I find that, although the robes may work 
perfectly in a novel and are indeed the kind of clothing wizards are 
identified with, they are a bit boring. Even taking into account that 
you can vary cloth, colour, neckline etc., basically what you get is 
a long dress that is sometimes combined with a cloak. Not visually 
challenging at all (well, at least not to me). So I would ardently 
defend the film designers' choices AND any wizard who decides to mix 
some Muggle clothing with his/her wizarding getup. *

- As far as money is concerned: in CoS Hermione's parents change 
Muggle money at Gringotts, I believe - or this might come from a JKR 
interview - my memory is letting me down, but I am 100% sure that I 
read somewhere that Gringotts change Muggle money. In any case I have 
been wondering about such simple things as food as well: do wizards 
buy their peas and potatos and steaks at strictly wizard shops? I 
doubt it. So they would need Muggle money anyway.
Of course the novels are primarily concerned with signalling 
everything that is specific to the WW as these are the things we poor 
Muggles know nothing about and need introducing to; witches and 
wizards going to the supermarket are not, I suppose, a priority in 
the storytelling.

But I like to think that the WW is more mixed up with the Muggle 
world than it appears at first sight in canon; wizards and Muggles 
share, after all, their humanity, and the strict segregation between 
them sounds very Voldemortish/purebloodish to me. And then there are 
all those Muggleborn or mixed ancestry wizards and witches - what 
kind of people would they be to simply discard all their Muggle 
relations - school friends, neighbours, family etc. - once they 
realise they have magic in their blood?

Erm - am I proving myself an arch-Muggle here :)?

Yours severly,

Sigune
- who adores fashion and design AND wizards and witches