Prescriptive etiquette shifted to making the urban individual inconspicuous.

Evidence

By conforming I had become as much a part of the scene as Sir Walter or the waiter who shifted my plates and filled my glass. — Hamlin Garland Munseys, A Daughter of the Middle Border, 462 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rare and brief city encounters push people to stylize themselves as sharply individualized — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 759; Industrialization shifted urban stranger-identification from dress to location; Street-begging harassment built the demand to be left alone in public (+4 more)

Related

• Conforming to dress conventions creates a sense of belonging in social settings. (similarity 0.83)
• Cheap mass-produced clothing enabled the modern city’s masked heterogeneity. (similarity 0.80)
• Rare and brief city encounters push people to stylize themselves as sharply individualized (similarity 0.79)
• Dress reliably signals identity only in socially rigid locales (similarity 0.79)
• Preindustrial urbanites announced identity through mandatory dress codes. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Preindustrial urbanites signaled their identity through visible costuming #contradicts (0.70)
• Conforming to dress conventions creates a sense of belonging in social settings. #expands (0.60) — Hamlin Garland Munseys, A Daughter of the Middle Border, 462