Historical milestones and important dress codes -- Introduction -- Status symbols. Encoding status ; Self-fashioning ; Signs of faith ; Sex symbols -- From opulence to elegance. The great masculine renunciation ; Style and status ; Sex and simplicity ; The "rational dress" movement ; Flapper feminism -- Power dressing. Slaves to fashion? ; From rags to resistance ; Sagging and subordination -- Politics and personality. How to dress like a woman ; Recoding gender ; Piercing the veil -- Retailored expectations. Merit badges ; Artifice and appropriation -- Conclusion: Decoding dress codes -- Epilogue: Dress codes stripped bare

A law professor and cultural critic offers an eye-opening exploration of the laws of fashion throughout history, from the middle ages to the present day, examining the canons, mores and customs of clothing rules that we often take for granted