In a former life, I wrote light articles about fashion and style, but from an unspoken view that clothing was an expression of how people percieved and aligned

In a former life, I wrote light articles about fashion and style, but from an unspoken view that clothing was an expression of how people percieved and aligned to power. We have smarter models for that now in the current century than the last, but fashion is still upstream of politics by a couple of years, and it's a good leading indicator of who the next influential-coalition will be made up of. For example, I suspect the mythology of Beau Brummel's relative minimalism was mainly about the rise of domestic industrial textile fortunes over the colonial fur and silk trade fortunes that sustained the crown and nobility. Also, ask any follower of fashion, and whether they understand why or not, they will tell you that a resurgence of cargo pants is very concerning indeed.