Dress Codes

Writing on the changes that occurred in the early part of the nineteenth century in London and Paris, Richard Sennett ( 1974) pointed out that standardized modes of dress offered a protective "cover-up" at a time when the distinction between private space and public space first emerged. When one lived and worked among strangers rather than family members, there was a need to protect one's self and one's inner feelings. Wearing the expected mode of dress enabled individuals to move easily among the various spheres of social life. "Appearance was a cover for the real individual hiding within," observed Sennett. Clothing, as Sennett saw it, provided a buffer between the public and the private self.

For the American economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen ( 1899 - 1953), the desire to cover up a lower social origin underlay consumption patterns in the United States. He claimed that in American society there was a general tendency to buy more expensive clothing than one should. This practice applied, as well, to groups and institutions, which buy expensive products in an attempt "to cover up the ignoble, selfish motives, and goals."

In his article "Fashion," Georg Simmel ( 1904 -1957) observed that fashion, the latest desired appearance, allows for personal modification, enabling the individual to pursue competing desires for group identity and individual expression. There is no institution, "no law, no estate of life which can uniformly satisfy the opposing principles of uniformity and individuality better than fashion." The self is also an audience, and clothing allows individuals to view themselves as social objects. By extricating the self from a setting or situation, the individual can scrutinize the image he or she presents in view of the social response that is desired. This separation and objectification, in turn, allows the individual to correct the image if necessary.

In contrast to the social scientist, fiction writers typically imbue a specific image of clothing with meaning. Nineteenth-century novelists, such as Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, Dickens, and Trollope, wrote detailed descriptions of what their characters wore. For example, when Flaubert described Madame Bovary's initial appearance in the kitchen of her father's small farm, he wrote that she was wearing a blue merino wool dress with three flounces. The clothing carried the message that she was fun-loving, frivolous, fashion-conscious, and out of place. Playwrights also describe garments as a means of delineating a character. Today, no newspaper reporter would write a profile of someone without describing the person's style of dress. The implication is that a person's clothing somehow reflects his or her character.

Fashion historians usually discuss clothing in terms of style and the aesthetic tastes of a particular period or a particular group in society. However, they pay little attention to clothing iconography. Examining fascist propaganda, Laura Malvano in Fascismo e politica dell'immagine ( 1988) demonstrated the relationship between politics and patterns of dress, style, and appearance. She analyzed the ways in which Mussolini successfully utilized visual images to encourage consensus among his followers, creating a "new organic whole" composed of people from all levels of society. To promote this ideal he commissioned artistic representations that combined images from the classical art of the past with those from traditional folk art. In that art, men assume the various postures of victory portrayed in ancient Roman times yet they hold familiar farm implements and are thus seen as agricultural victors. Through this appeal to a pride in a shared past, made visible in synthetic images, Mussolini gained support for his political program.

Adolescents and young adults have long recognized the significance of clothing. To signal connectedness and to distinguish themselves from others, groups of young people adopt styles of dress that express their particular, distinct identity. In making clothing choices they demonstrate their awareness that a style or mode of appearance has meaning.