ABSTRACT
The Viennese architect Adolf Loos, father of Modernism and occasional fashion journalist, authored an infl uential series of short articles in the years around 1900 that positioned the bespoke and everyday objects of the contemporary gentleman’s wardrobe as archetypes of progressive design. Hats, shoes, underwear and accessories were scrutinized for the qualities that set them in competition with the inferior output of more ‘vulgar’ industrial sectors (women’s dress) and nations (Germany). The idea of the Englishman’s suit, in particular, was held up as evidence of humanity’s transformative search for perfection. Through its fi tness for purpose, its sleek elegance and its social grace it offered a perfect example of evolutionary theory and democratic utopianism made material:
I have only praise for my clothes. They actually are the earliest human outfi t. The materials are the same as the cloak that Wodin, the mythical Norse leader of the ‘wild hunt’ wore . . . It is mankind’s primeval dress . . . [It] can, regardless of the era and the area of the globe, cover the nakedness of the pauper without adding a foreign note to the time or the landscape . . . It has always been with us . . . It is the dress of those rich in spirit. It is the dress of the self-reliant. It is the attire of people whose individuality is so strong they cannot bring themselves to express it with the aid of garish colours, plumes or elaborate modes of dress. Woe to the painter expressing his individuality with a satin frock, for the artist in him has resigned in despair.
