Been blogging at Snook [1] about school dress codes and the degree to which costumes constitute culture, connecting that to how best to prepare for all possible futures and for disasters [2] of all types -- natural, manmade and fashion disasters!
Which no doubt connects somehow to Liza's "taxidermy fashion as politics" [3] too, but to me the main power of story is (as always) educational. Visit the original blogpost if you can, to see other links, comments and connected ideas, including how military hero Colin Powell's dress code fits into cultural warfare, but here's a little tease:
It’s the Culture, Stupid. Change their culture, change their world, which put in current culturally relevant terms might evoke “save the cheerleader, save the world†[4]– and saving her doesn’t mean fretting over her algebra grade, much less clucking at her cleavage and throwing an old shirt over it [5] in the guidance office…
Kids and teens live in a very real culture even if it seems like a comic book, one that School does not control or define (much as it wants to believe otherwise) and marginalizes itself further by refusing to engage.
Feel free to chime in however you'd like, here, there and everywhere. Especially if it's about how changing the clothes doesn't change the clothed.
Although hmmm, now that I type out that thought, Jim Lehrer's new novel "The Phony Marine" [6] pops into my mind, hearing him describe in an NPR interview [7] how merely donning military symbols and uniform pieces without any other change neverthless transforms the man inside and out. But it seemed that the real point was how his changed appearance changed the people all around him and the cultural waters in which he swam, how he was treated differently by them and thus how differently he began to treat himself? Have to think more about how this relates to kid cultures and school dress codes . . . come help! 
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