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06704_Field_TCUM T269.txt
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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