Fit, Young and Casual Were the Trinity (as Youth Became More Affluent in the 1960s, Clothing Came to Be Regarded as a Means of Expression)

Visser, Margaret, Compass: A Jesuit Journal

Fashion is almost invariably kind to the powerful. For a start, the rich can afford better clothes. And clothing can be used for the benefit of the group in power to conceal physical faults and lapses--and, where appropriate, beauty.

For example, when everybody wore the white powdered wig, it meant that beautiful hair could simply not be seen: the wig was a triumph of money over bodily giftedness--and most especially over youth. In the nineteenth century, the modern dark tubular business suit was invented largely to disguise the poor physiques of the newly powerful, sedentary rich. The same garment made the muscular working classes look uncomfortable, even foolish, in "proper" dress, especially in cheap versions of it. Youth, with its recent …

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Publication information: Article title: Fit, Young and Casual Were the Trinity (as Youth Became More Affluent in the 1960s, Clothing Came to Be Regarded as a Means of Expression). Contributors: Visser, Margaret - Author. Magazine title: Compass: A Jesuit Journal. Volume: 14. Issue: 1 Publication date: March-April 1996. Page number: 19+. © 1996 Compass Foundation. COPYRIGHT 1996 Gale Group.

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