Fashion: How changing clothes changed the world

Source: Plato against novelty: Why change is dangerous to the state

When frequent changes and innovations occur (in children's games), and things never remain favored by them for long, an agreed-upon standard fails to take shape among them to determine what is beautiful and what is not.

Indeed, one who invents and disseminates an innovation that deviates from the accepted norm—in shape, color, and the like—usually earns great honor; yet we will rightly argue that this person harms the state, for inadvertently he causes the young to disdain the old and familiar.

Frankincense and other foreign incenses intended for the worship of the gods must not be imported, nor purple and dyes that our country does not produce itself, nor any industrial raw material that originates abroad and can be done without. Likewise, no one shall export from the country anything that it needs for its survival.

(Plato, Laws Book 7, 797; Book 8, 847)

Explanation: Conservative clothing as guardian of tradition and stability

Plato warns against a situation where people honor anyone who continually invents new shapes, colors, and tools. This corrupts habits and tradition, threatening political stability. Conservative clothing preserves reverence and ancient tradition, preventing the young from straying from the beaten path.

Perspective: Fashion as an engine of the Enlightenment and the modern era

It was only in the fourteenth century that fashion began to awaken, continuing through the nineteenth century, when fashion designers appeared on the scene. Fashion was undoubtedly one of the engines driving the transition to the modern era, toward a world of change, color, and character. And just as Plato feared, shifts in fashion brought along changes in customs, beliefs, rituals, and the perception of the body. The Industrial Revolution began with textile production for the fashion industry—an industry that sparked the realization that change is the only constant, and that the old must yield to the new. Thus, in effect, the Enlightenment was born of fashion.

Going Deeper: How European fashion brought down the holy city of Safed

At the start of the sixteenth century, Safed became a Jewish holy city following the Ottoman call for Jews to settle there. The economy of this city of kabbalists was based mainly on the production of wool and fabrics, an industry brought by Jewish exiles from Spain who settled there. The city flourished until the end of the century, when England began manufacturing textiles using advanced production methods that anticipated the Industrial Revolution—a shift that brought an end to the city's golden age. Fashion triumphed over Torah scholars in one of the holy cities of the Land of Israel.

Culture: Greek beauty: Between philosophy and the nude sculpture

In contrast to Greek philosophy, Hellenistic culture viewed the body as an ideal of beauty and harmony. The establishment of the gymnasion (from the Greek for "naked") was meant to glorify the athletic human body as the pinnacle of humanity. Greek athletes exercised in the nude, sculptors depicted the male and female form in the nude, and competitors at the Olympic Games competed in the nude—men at the men's Olympics, even before the eyes of unmarried women, and women at the women's games, before women only. Here is one of the most famous Olympic sculptures to this day.