Choosing our clothes is a sensitive matter and far from superficial. John Harvey considers the overlapping values that clothes have for us. They both cover and advertise the bodies within them, helping to define us as the men and women we are. They enroll us in groups, from our own circle to our generation worldwide, and pick us out as individuals. Clothes, like their wearers, may compete in claiming power or the spotlight. They show how we think we matter - and they can matter themselves in ways that may be both intimate and crucial. Contemporary opinion is still divided on whether clothes are the most frivolous of consumer disposables or can take their place as art. Though we wear and see them every day, the value that they have for us is multiple and fugitive. Harvey attempts to sort out the many-coloured wardrobe that distinguishes humans from other creatures.