Of maids' uniforms and blue jeans: The drama of status ambivalences in clothing and fashion

Abstract

Culturally derived ambivalences of social identity lie at the heart of much that is communicated by clothing and fashion. In the West gender, age, sexual and social status identities are all subject to such vacillating clothing impulses and representations. In the instance of social status a culturally encoded tension generated by, at one end, a class based system of invidious distinctions and, at the other, a Judeo-Christian ethic of asceticism and modesty has for some seven hundred years now propelled an ongoing identity dialectic of status claims and status demurrals in clothing. Sartorial issues of ostentation vs. understatement, overdressing vs. underdressing, “conspicuous poverty” and the commission of disingenuous mistakes in dress reflect this underlying tension. In particular, the maid-inspired “little black dress” of the 1920s and 30s and, more recently, the fluctuating status symbolism attaching to blue jeans afford dramatic evidence of the play of status ambivalences in clothing. Identity ambivalence, in general, constitutes an important symbolic resource for fashion's constant forays upon established dress codes.