Indian cottons democratized color and pattern in English dress

Evidence

The gaps are further made to stand forward by causing the objects they are to ‘separate’ to appear as similar to one another as possible – by clothing them, for example, in identical dress (‘the shirt has a single row of buttons, and is dark blue; the trousers are of bright red; the badges, in gilded leather, are attached to the front of the collar; on the head is worn the tarbush; the different schools are distinguished only by the colour of the collar or the lapel, and by the colour of the trouser stripe’). In the uniformity of appearance, the equidistant interval, and the geometric angle, the acts of distribution, if practised quietly, unceasingly, and uniformly, almost disappear from view. As the techniques of distribution create an appearance of structure, the techniques themselves are to become increasingly invisible. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 278 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Preindustrial urban dress law encoded rank through fabric, color, and hair length; Democratized fashion access made dressing as if clothing doesn’t matter the ultimate status signal — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 407; Mass-produced and westernized clothing has blurred visible class and origin cues — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 446 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Uniform dress makes the act of ordering invisible behind its effects #complicates (0.72) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 278