Relay Column: The Meaning of Dressing Up - The Magic of Fashion (Megumi Ueda)

I'm an artist who creates works using costumes. Costumes refer to the clothing specific to an ethnicity, class, era, and region, including hairstyles and adornments. Particularly, I'm intrigued by adornment and the act of humans decorating themselves, which I call "the act of adornment."

The motivation for adornment can be traced back to species preservation. Many creatures, besides humans, embellish themselves. For instance, male peacocks exhibit sex appeal to females with their flamboyant spread of feathers. Spider decorator crabs use seaweed and other nearby objects to disguise themselves, protecting their bodies from enemies. Each instance displays wisdom in surviving the struggle for existence. On the other hand, human adornment has its unique development. People groom their nails and hair, create ideal bodies through dieting and training, and even change their body shapes by cosmetic surgery or body modification. Moreover, they enjoy fashion for their own pleasure.