My third eye can see straight through your shit
The classic white dress shirt is familiar and omnipresent in men’s fashion. As a result, we tend to be unaware that for more than 200 years this singular item of apparel, which is essentially unadulterated in form from the late 19th century, has been able to define and represent status, wealth and fashion norms.The history underlying this garment is rich and, in the main part, untold.For men, the influence of the white dress shirt can be best traced back to the Victorian era where it was an important symbol of wealth and class distinction and a powerful emblem of sobriety and uniformity – despite it being for the most part hidden by outer garments.The pure white colour of the cloth fulfilled masculine ideals of resolute austerity and only a person of substantial prosperity could afford to have their shirts washed frequently and to own enough of them to wear.Get news that’s free, independent and based on evidence.TempusVolatThe link between social distinction and colour of the cloth was a marker for affluence, with the terms “white collar” and “blue collar” evolving from this delineation. Indeed, some working class men resented clerical workers for wearing white dress shirts, referring to them as “white collar stiffs” as they dressed above their social rank, as an employer not an employee.
My third eye can see straight through your shit
qIllustration of stand-up turned-down collar, 1898. Wikimedia CommonsInterestingly, the collar was also used as a symbol of status, with high-standing armour-like detachable collars preventing a downward gaze. Starched high rigid collars distinguished the elite from clerks, who necessitated low collars for ease of movement – the idiom “to look down one’s nose” was, in part, connected to this consequential upright facial stance.Arguably, by the late 19th century, men who concerned themselves with decorative versus utilitarian dress were reviled for being “non-masculine”. Indeed, the unadorned white dress shirt was intrinsically correlated to appropriate moral masculine behaviour and this austerity of dress indicated that a man could be trusted and was soberly business-like.