On the history of cultural style: "I am authentic" as driving force since the early 20th century

"Every age uses dress and body decoration to signal what is most important at that historical moment. Throughout most of our history that message has been "I am rich" or "I am powerful." If today more and more people use their dress to assert: "I am authentic," it is simply evidence of our hunger for the genuine article in an age which seems to so many to be one of simulation and hype."
-StreetStyle, 1993 [tedpolhemus.com for more on the historical search for 'authenticity']