Costume

Last summer we visited a Milotice castle, a baroque castle situated in South Moravia. When we entered the castle’s court yard, we noticed a poster inviting everybody to “Change into a period costume!”. After a while we noticed a group of three women dressed in enchanting period gowns. Obviously they were having fun while promenading in the castle’s park, posing for photographs and chatting, and it felt as if we found ourselves in that period as well.

The way we dress ourselves definitely influences or even decides on how we feel. To put on clothes of a different style than we are used to wearing may evoke a surprising experience of any of the whole spectrum of feelings. What would it be like to put on not the clothes but a body and personality of “a different style”? Sometimes I wish I could try that though the experience would probably be rather shocking.

A few weeks ago I read about an experiment done in this field. A man and a woman, dressed only in their underwear, had a video camera placed on their face. Each camera was connected to the other camera in such a way that when they were looking at their own bodies, they could see just the body of the other person. Can you imagine that? To feel your body but to see someone else’s?

And what about hearing your own thoughts and listening to someone else’s? Feeling incapacity of the other body? Maddening ideas perhaps and actually, what that could be good for? Just in the back of my mind I can hear whispering suggesting that perhaps then we would value more our own thoughts, skills and personalities and would understand better our weak and strong points.