Wealth and Propriety

This graph alleges a simple correspondence between the vertical dimension of a garment (length) with the term “wealth” and between the horizontal dimension of a garment (thickness) with the term “propriety”.

This can be interpreted to mean that the length of the hemline of a garment corresponds to increasing wealth and that its relative thickness – or its layers – corresponds to increasing propriety.

To showcase conspicuously one’s wealth would register negatively upon one's propriety. However, increased proprietous thickness could be seen as a positive counterbalance to the negative impact of conspicuous length.

If we interpret propriety not as financial modesty but as sexual demureness – the covering of the naked body – say, in a societal framework where class relations are assumed to be god given, relative wealth expressed in long dresses covering the body would further increase ones propriety. Likewise, an increase of material in thickness would bolster the notion of material exuberance associated with wealth.

The aspirational citizen then is an ever expanding sphere.