answer:I grew up in what I now realise was a not very well off family on the edge of wonderful countryside. We were expected to look smart when required but as we spent much of our day climbing trees or playing at the beach how we looked was mostly unimportant. That is still how I feel, though I appreciate dress sense in others as a kind of art form and I do respect it when it is well done. The people we grew up around were much the same as us. In those days people rarely went out at night or even ate out much and life was centred around the family and the home where how you looked was of little consequence. I think things have changed. People go out much more to be entertained and they want to look smart when they do so. Designer clothes, of which I knew nothing as a child, have become popular. There is a rivalry, even among young children to look smart and to wear the best clothes and this isn’t entirely healthy. Much of it is driven by advertising. How we dress always makes a statement about who we are and how we like to be seen and not caring too much about how we appear is itself a statement. I used to think how we dressed was unimportant and superficial but I no longer believe that to be true. How we dress, and it doesn’t have to be expensive to look good, is a reflection of our inner souls. But there are other ways to express ourselves.