It holds a symbolic and communicative role having the capacity to express one's unique style, identity, profession, social status, and gender or group affiliation.
According to Fred Davis, “ The chief difficulty of understanding fashion in its apparent vagaries is the lack of exact knowledge of the unconscious symbolisms attaching to forms, colors, textures, postures, and other expressive elements of a given cultures.
[4] Specific dress codes are identified by individuals within a culture and convey a message to help categorize and create meaning.
Uniforms are symbolic and their meanings are arbitrary, in that they stand for their referent based upon agreement or habit of individuals within that culture.
[5] In western society a policeman will typically wear variations of a blue suit and this generally symbolizes law, security, and authority.
Fashion is a system of signs, whose meanings and significations are constantly shifting and changing depending on the time, place, and culture.