The Great Mental Models, Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology

by Shane Parrish

The upper class also shows status through wearing clothes that are totally impractical for doing any labor, reflecting participation in expensive activities and having more than one actually needs. “Charlemagne owned 800 pairs of fine gloves at a time when gloves were difficult to produce and clean,” notes Etcoff.4 We can admit to ourselves that not a lot has changed. Status is still frequently demonstrated through fashion. Labels, fabric, the cut of a suit or a hoodie, communicate a lot. Yes, it is often nuanced. For example, even though luxury goods in some contexts are still markers of status, dressing scruffy when you don’t have to is also a form of demonstrating one’s privileged place in the hierarchy. The academic in a shirt with soup stains, the CEO in battered jeans, the billionaire in a tracksuit—these are all examples of them announcing to the world that their status is so secure they don’t need to indicate it through luxury clothing. In so many cases, what we wear “helps us negotiate our relations with the outside world and provide us with comfort and protection.”