Clothing

Little Loan asked her second aunt:

• What does "Hungry, but keep clean; ragged, but smell sweet" mean, Aunt? My teacher gave us homework to analyse this saying and I don't understand it.
  Her aunt did not look up, still bent over stirring and frying some dish:
• Go and ask Mr Thìn next door. He is a perfect example of "hungry but clean, ragged but sweet-smelling".
• I see that Mr Thìn's clothes are always neat, and even in hot weather he won't wear shorts and go bare-chested like some other people. That's all I understand.
• Mr Thìn's family isn't rich, but they keep their customs very carefully. Everyone dresses neatly, speaks gracefully and politely, and does well at school. None of that needs money to buy; it needs awareness and ethical views. Pretend to run over and ask.
  Loan said yes and took her notebook over to Mr Thìn's house. Mr Thìn was out, but his eldest daughter Trang was there. After listening, Trang said:
• My father teaches that the clothes we wear are on our own bodies but are the view for everyone else. So our clothing is no longer only our private affair; it is also in the interest of everyone around us. We must dress so that people feel respected. If we dress outlandishly without caring how others feel, we are showing contempt for everyone. And once we show contempt for everyone, we are naturally eliminated bit by bit from the community without knowing it.
  My father teaches that dress must fit the circumstances: don't be too fancy where one shouldn't be fancy, and don't be too careless where one shouldn't be careless. Ordinarily, don't be revealing, dirty, ragged or bizarre.
  Loan pondered a moment and asked:
• With Mr Thìn so strict, will you be left on the shelf with no husband?
  Trang burst out laughing:
• I don't know whether you're clever or cheeky. It's true that with this family discipline I don't make friends easily, but whoever is my friend respects me very much. You don't know it, but many people have hinted at asking to marry me, because for a girlfriend any girl will do, but for a wife they need a decent person.
• So why haven't you married?
• I have to choose someone I look up to and admire, dear. If I married any random person I didn't admire enough, how could I be happy?
• You don't need love? I heard that people marry because they love each other.
• Where there is admiration, there is already love, but where there is love, there may not be admiration.
• I don't understand this yet.
• All right, go home and do your homework. If there is anything you still don't understand, come and ask me 🧕

Clothing has its own ethics. The ethics of clothing here means dressing in a way that shows respect for everyone.
Respecting everyone is a high ethic. Whoever knows how to respect everyone usually succeeds in life. That is how the law of cause and effect works. Whoever shows contempt for everyone, especially those who often open their mouths to criticise everyone, always end up in failure.

Respect for everyone is shown in many ways, such as polite speech, gestures, work, gifts, glances, keeping quiet, protecting reputations, praise... This article is about clothing, which is also a way to show respect for everyone. We do not dress for ourselves; we dress for everyone.
Because we respect everyone, we cannot wear whatever we like. Even at home we should not go about in shorts, because at home there are also men and women, the older and younger generations, grandparents and grandchildren. Appearing at the door, we must be even less casual and revealing, because many people are passing by then.

Usually we choose some outfit because we think it is beautiful and that people will like it, and that too is a sign of the ethics of clothing. But the ethics of clothing go deeper: respecting everyone's feelings through the way we dress.