Social class can be described as “one’s position in the economic hierarchy in society that arises from a combination of annual income, educational attainment, and occupational prestige” (Kraus et al., par. 4). Trufelman touches on how “class determines… the clothing they wear” (par. 8), further confirming the notion that “when people engage in social interactions, some of their behaviors and cultural practices are infused with social class and, as a result, accurately communicate social class position to observers.” 

Subculture shares this inherent ability to communicate one’s membership within a certain strata of society to outsiders. “Broadly defined as social groups organized around shared interests and practices” (Herzog et al., par. 1), subcultures typically consist of “voluntary, informal, and organic affiliations formed either in the unregulated public square of the street, or conversely within and against the disciplinary structure of enforced institutionalization” (par. 2). 

In “American Ivy: Chapter 4” and “American Ivy: Chapter 5,” Trufelman flits between the histories of Kensuke Ishizu and Ralph Lauren, budding fashion titans of their times in Japan and in the United States, respectively, in order to demonstrate how Ivy, despite widespread opposition to it in both societies, due to its rebuke of standard fashion conventions in the East and its proximity to the mainstream during the countercultural revolution in the West, ultimately comes to predominate modern fashion due to evolving perceptions of class.

Works Cited

Herzog, Amy, et al. Interrogating Subcultures. In[]visible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Studies, 1999, https://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/issue2/introduction.html. Accessed 19 February 2023.

Kraus, M. W., et al. “Signs of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in Everyday Life.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 422–435. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616673192.