History of American Fashion

The clothes we wear and the trends we follow are often associated with superficiality and materialism. come rapidly into vogue, then disappear as quickly as they came. But fashion has always been intrinsically connected to deeper elements of the American experience, from the economy and labor system to culture,  and class. From our underwear to our Levi's to our sneakers, what we wear has, for centuries, spoken volumes about who we are, what we do, and what we want. Whether Americans have dressed to make a political statement, to assert their class status, or simply to be irreverent, every style has carried a certain social meaning. This is in part because our culture has long ascribed great significance to individuals' public image, and because image has long been intertwined with As Mark Twain once wrote, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." Then again, Twain never lived to see the rise of . Clothes or the lack thereof remain central to contemporary American culture and integral to our national history.