Habit, Custom, Costume

The clothes we wear day-to-day, that is to say, habitually, can be called habits for this reason, as are the habits of nuns and monks and, for that matter, uniforms of all kinds; but we don’t customarily wear costumes; these we wear theatrically when we present ourselves at special events as when we perform on stage or in arena, parade in festivals, or else act a clown or go out “trick or treat.”  But the clothes of an exotic culture, worn as costumes, are more habits than costumes for those in their own culture since they wear them habitually.  Conversely, our everyday wear is a costume to the extent that, choosing what to wear and not to wear, we are conscious that what we wear carries in the eyes of others who see it a certain image and therefore a particular significance. Clothes make the man and the woman, and the world’s a stage where we are willy-nilly players donning costumes to fit their roles.  A new dress always feels like a costume but grows less so as as we get accustomed to it repeatedly worn; when it gets out of fashion it again feels like a costume, and when it is threadbare from continuous wear we don’t wear it out on the street because it feels as out of place as a costume representing an impoverished, unless it is a pair of jeans torn by design and in fashion to be worn customarily.  So, a costume, if worn habitually, even if trendy is only a custom wear, ready-made or custom-made.