requirement of expensiveness is so ingrained into
our habits of thought in matters of dress that any other than expensive
apparel is instinctively odious to us. Without reflection or analysis,
we feel that what is inexpensive is unworthy. "A cheap coat makes a
cheap man." "Cheap and nasty" is recognized to hold true in dress with
even less mitigation than in other lines of consumption. On the ground
both of taste and of serviceability, an inexpensive article of apparel
is held to be inferior, under the maxim "cheap and nasty." We find
things beautiful, as well as serviceable, somewhat in proportion as
they are costly. With few and inconsequential exceptions, we all find
a costly hand-wrought article of apparel much preferable, in point
of beauty and of serviceability, to a less expensive imitation of it,
however cleverly the spurious article may imitate the costly original;
and what offends our sensibilities in the spurious article is not that
it falls short in form or color, or, indeed, in visual effect in any
way. The offensive object may be so close an imitation as to defy
any but the closest scrutiny; and yet so soon as the counterfeit
is detected, its aesthetic value, and its commercial value as well,
declines precipitately. Not only that, but it may be asserted with
but small risk of contradiction that the aesthetic value of a detected
counterfeit in dress declines somewhat in the same proportion as the
counterfeit is cheaper than its original. It loses caste aesthetically
because it falls to a lower pecuniary grade.

But the function of dress as an evidence of ability to pay does not end
with simply showing that the wearer consumes valuable goods in excess of
what is required for physical comfort. Simple conspicuous waste of goods
is effective and gratifying as far as it goes; it is good prima facie
evidence of pecuniary success, and consequently prima facie evidence of
social worth. But dress has subtler and more far-reaching possibilities
than this crude, first-hand evidence of wasteful consumption only. If,
in addition to showing that the wearer can afford to consume freely and
uneconomically, it can also be shown in the same stroke that he or she
is not under the necessity of earning a livelihood, the evidence of
social worth is enhanced in a very considerable degree. Our dress,
therefore, in order to serve its purpose effectually, should not only
he expensive, but it should also make plain to all observers th