The Language of Dress: A Sociohistorical Study of the Meaning of Clothing in America

Abstract

In the early part of the nineteenth century, Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine warned its readers to "be careful that our fashions are not inconsistent with good sense and pure morals."1 In other words, the clothes we wear tell something about our character. Those who wish to maintain a good reputation will attend to their dress: "the woman who is careless and indifferent to her personal appearance loses half her influence" (p. 18). Americans have been so convinced that dress tells something about the character of the wearer that laws regulating dress were proposed in various states as late as the early 1920's.2 Clothes give us more than information about the character of the wearer, however; in fact, clothes are a form of what social psychologists call "structural nonverbal information."3 Clothing, that is, is an aspect of an individual that, like gestures (dynamic nonverbal information), conveys important information. But what kind of information? Or to phrase the question differently, what is the meaning that Americans attribute to clothing—both to the kind of clothes worn and to the manner of wearing them? We researched the meanings by looking at what people have said in the popular media—magazines and newspapers. Where possible, the data were supplemented by professional studies. We found that there has been a relatively stable set of social meanings of clothing in America. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Americans have asserted that dress provides specific information about individuals (their characters and personalities; their acceptance or rejection of the social order; and their status), about groups (their identity and the character of their members), and about the entire society (its tastes, principles, moral state, and mood). We shall look at each of the categories in turn.