style
State officials’ dress code:
History and modern times
Natalia Petuhova,
Coach-consultant, garderob.ru
Every morning, while putting on the usual
suit for a working day, one hardly thinks
about answering the question: "Why
exactly this suit?" And, why the suit, but
not the shorts, jeans or something else?
This state of things seems to be familiar,
self-evident. Meanwhile, the uniform of
state officials is an extremely interesting
subject of study for both historians and
specialists in corporate dress code.
When I ask my students a simple question:
"Which uniform is the oldest?" I often get
the answer ‘military’, ‘school’ and even
‘sports’. Since these kinds of uniforms
were formed quite recently by historical
standards – just two-three centuries ago
– so they come to our mind first. This once
again confirms how much these or other
codes of appearance were absolutely
assimilated in our minds, even, I would
say, in the collective unconscious. After
all, that which has gone deep into our
worldview, our life activity, we almost do
not notice. In fact, the oldest uniform is
the uniform of state officials. Let's walk
together with big 'steps' back into the
course of his