teenagers’ norm.

     The Europeans, however, underwent a sort of consumer 
revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. When 
industrialism was a novelty, it became fashionable among the 
upper classes to abandon rich, courtly attire in favor of simpler 
materials. That was the time when men first donned the 
trousers of the common foot soldier (or pioneer , the original 
French usage), but it was done at that time as a kind of brash 
gesture of social “integration.” Up until then, the feudal system 
had inclined the upper classes to dress as they spoke, in a 
courtly style quite removed from that of ordinary people. Dress 
and speech were accorded a degree of splendor and richness of 
texture that universal literacy and mass production were 
eventually to eliminate completely. The sewing machine, for 
example, created the long straight line in clothes, as much as