Apparel
Apparel in dreams — the clothing you find yourself wearing — often reflects how you feel about presenting yourself to the world, whether worn, pristine, or mismatched pieces mirror inner states of confidence or unease. The condition and color of what's worn can speak to readiness or resistance, though sometimes a dream outfit simply asks: who are you trying to be today?
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These are the entries the historical dream-books record for apparel, in their own words. They are period voices, not predictions, and they do not always agree with one another.
Gustavus Hindman Miller, 1901
WHAT'S IN A DREAM. 37 Dreams of apparel, denote that enterprises will be successes or failures, as the apparel seems to be whole and clean, or soiled and threadbare.
To see fine apparel, but out of date, foretells that you will have fortune, but you will scorn progressive ideas.
If you reject out-of-date apparel, you will outgrow present environments and enter into new relations, new enterprises and new loves, which will transform you into a different person.
To see yourself or others appareled in white, denotes eventful changes, and you will nearly always find the change bearing sadness.
To walk with a person wearing white, proclaims that person's illness or distress, unless it be a young woman or child, then you will have pleasing surroundings for a season at least.
To see yourself, or others, dressed in black, portends quarrels, disappointments, and disagreeable companions; or, if it refers to business, the business will fall short of expectations.
To see yellow apparel, foretells approaching gaieties and financial progress. Seen as a flitting spectre, in an unnatural light, the reverse may be expected. You will be fortunate if you dream of yellow cloth.
To dream of blue apparel, signifies carrying forward to victory your aspirations, through energetic, insistent efforts. Friends will loyally support you.
To dream of crimson apparel, foretells that you will escape formidable enemies by a timely change in your expressed intention.
To see green apparel, is a hopeful sign of prosperity and happiness.
To see many colored apparel, foretells swift changes, and intermingling of good and bad influences in your future.
To dream of misfitting apparel, intimates crosses in your affections, and that you are likely to make a mistake in some enterprise.
To see old or young in appropriate apparel, denotes that you will undertake some engagement for which you will have no liking, and which will give rise to many cares.
For a woman to dream that she is displeased with her apparel, foretells that she will find many vexatious rivalries in her quest for social distinction.
To admire the apparel of others, denotes that she will have jealous fears of her friends.
To dream of the loss of any article of apparel, denotes disturbances in your business and love affairs.
For a young woman to dream of being attired in a guazy black costume, foretells she will undergo chastening sorrow and disappointment.
For a young woman to dream that she meets another attired in a crimson dress with a crepe mourning veil over her face, foretells she will be outrivaled by one she hardly considers her equal, and bitter disappointment will sour her against women generally.
WHAT'S IN A DREAM. 38 The dreamer interpreting the dream of apparel should be careful to note whether the objects are looking natural. If the faces are distorted and the light unearthly, though the colors are bright, beware; the miscarriage of some worthy plan will work you harm. There are few dreams in which the element of evil is wanting, as there are few enterprises in waking life from which the element of chance is obviated.
[16] See Clothes and Coat.
Fontaine, 1862
(See Silks and Satins.) To dream that your clothes are good, denotes prosperity and happiness; of white apparel, is good only for clergymen; to others it is a sign of trouble; to mechanics, decline of business; to the sick, death. If of black, however, it is of their recovery; of rich scarlet apparel, is good for rich men, signifying honor; but is death to the sick, and loss or captivity to the poor; to dream of women's apparel, is good for the unmarried; but to a married man loss of his wife or sickness.