General Information about Item:

• Material Lore – Ornamental
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Aidan Pierce
• Date Collected: 03-02-2018

Informant Data:

• Aidan Pierce is a male student in the Dartmouth College Class of 2018.  He grew up splitting time between Hong Kong and London. He is a pre-med student and intends to pursue a career in medicine after graduation. Aidan was briefly a member of Dartmouth’s Club Swim Team in the fall of 2014.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: The competitive nature of swim meets requires strong team cohesion, and so traditions such as this one are often utilized in order to further bond the team. Furthermore, the practice of wearing bright clothing is common across many organizations at Dartmouth, indicating that it may be imported from other facets of Dartmouth culture at large, but was made specific to swimmers and the club swimming team. Having all of the members of the team wear ridiculous, easily identifiable pieces of clothing, allows them to easily associate with each other, while publically displaying their association with the team.
• Social Context: This tradition was mentioned in a one-on-one conversation with the interviewee, more than two years after he had left the team. The traditional clothing is specifically worn for competitive meets, and allows competitors to somewhat identify their teams and supporters in the stands, when they surface for air during the pandemonium of the race, thereby giving them a feeling of support.

Item:

• “Flair” is a slang term in the lexicon of Dartmouth College, which indicates brightly colored, absurd costumes such as neon tutus (both for men and women), cartoon character onesie suits, and nonsensical accessories. The Dartmouth Club Swim Team members all wear flair to all of their meets,

Image of Flair:

Transcript:

• “A common tradition we always used to follow [when Aidan was on the team] was that we would wear flair to all of our meets. It’s pretty widely practiced, a lot of people actually did it. It’s funny to see everyone dressed up so ridiculously, it really helped us relax and connect with the rest of the team before meets so that we’re prepared to compete.”

Informant’s Comments:

• Flair is ridiculous when you first see it, but once you try it on, it’s really fun.

Collector’s Comments:

• Having worn flair to other events, I completely understand the informant’s sentiments. When a large organization has a uniting uniform (whether serious or silly), it certainly helps to build camaraderie.

Collector’s Name: Ashwath Srikanth

Tags/Keywords: Material Lore, Ornamental Lore, Flair, Swag, Clothing, Swimming