By Selwyn Duke

It’s said that the “clothes make the man,” but do they also make the civilization? What’s for sure is that they reflect it, and America’s sartorial slouching these last decades hasn’t reflected well on her. As standards have dropped and laxity increases, we’ve seen deliberately frumpy young women and kids attending school in pajamas. But if a new fashion trend is any guide, there now may be a counterrevolution brewing against the bum look. If so, this change may end up being more than superficial, too. For a body of research (and common sense) shows that dress style actually influences human behavior.

Reporting on the story recently, The Tennessean wrote:

Gen-Z is embracing a new aesthetic.

Known as the quarter-zip movement, the trend is defined by leaning into an elevated, more refined lifestyle. The one that comes with wearing a quarter-zip sweater and sipping matcha lattes.

Long associated with finance bros and LinkedIn headshots, the quarter-zip has been adopted by Gen-Z men, notably Black men, thanks to a viral video from TikTok content creator Jason Gyamfi.

“I don’t do that Nike Tech stuff that y’all lil boys do, I can’t do that,” he says in a video while sporting a navy quarter-zip. “I’m elegant, I’m classy, you feel me? You could take me somewhere, I look presentable.”

… Young men’s transition from streetwear to the quarter zip took off in November, when Gyamfi began encouraging audiences to steer away from the Nike Techs, a casual athletic garment, and be different.

Quarter-zips, according to Gyamfi, symbolize “grown man attire,” eluding [sic] elegance, sophistication and confidence.

Filtering Down

Recently, there’ve been many stories about Gen Z men moving back toward tradition, embracing conservative ideology and even Christianity. The quarter-zip trend may reflect this, and it isn’t just young men shedding the street wear, either. Rather, ABC 7 tells us,

tweens and teens from all over are joining in on the movement.

Eyewitness News reporter Lauren Glassberg’s son even requested one for Hanukkah after seeing the trend.

Gyamfi says the idea behind the movement is about personally elevating and motivating at the end of the day.

“The movement is elevation at the end of the day, when you leave your house, you’re the best version of yourself, point blank, period,” Gyamfi said.

Why, even Wendy’s restaurant chain is getting in on the act, with a “Quarter Sip” offer. (You get a 25-cent drink of any size through a Wendy’s app deal.)

An ABC 7 video on the phenomenon follows.

This said, not everyone is a fan. Reverend and commentator Jesse Lee Peterson, for example, who works in the black community, bemoaned the trend as “dumb.” He views it as prioritizing superficials over deeper spiritual/moral change. And, of course, we can lament how people tend to be creatures of the herd and slaves to fashion.

Yet the reality is this: People are social creatures. Thus has the brilliant commentator Alan Keyes pointed out that social pressure is immensely effective for controlling human behavior. Moreover, superficial change can catalyze deeper change.

The Clothes Make the Mind?

In his criticism, Peterson dismissed the idea that the “clothes make the man.” And the saying is, of course, an exaggeration. Yet what is true is that the clothes make the man different. Just consider examples of the aforementioned research:

• A 2014 Psychological Science study contrasted formal business attire and casual/sweatpants. Findings: Formal dressers felt more powerful, had higher testosterone, lower cortisol, and took bigger risks in gambling tasks.
• 2012 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology “enclothed cognition” research examined the effects of having participants wear white lab coats. Findings: Subjects exhibited significantly increased sustained attention and carefulness on cognitive tasks.
• A 2016 Social Psychology study found that subjects who wore what they identified as a nurse’s uniform showed increased empathy and helping behavior toward others.
• 2005, 2013, and 2015 studies contrasted red vs. blue sports clothing in competition. Findings: Red wearers exhibited higher heart-rate reactivity and greater dominance behavior. In fact, red-clad athletes won more Olympic combat bouts, the 2005 research determined. Interesting related anecdote: Famed golfer and prolific winner Tiger Woods always wears a red shirt during a tournament’s final round.

Common Sense

Of course, G.K. Chesterton once rightly quipped that common sense was “that forgotten branch of psychology.” And skepticism of that “soft” discipline is justified. Yet don’t common sense’s determinations align with the above findings?

As to this, consider: There was a time when dressing your “Sunday best” for church was de rigueur. Today, though, one could think many attendees took a wrong turn while heading to a soccer game. Now, were you to point out that they’d never show up thus appareled for a wedding or funeral, you might hear that old line, “Does God care how you dress?” My answer is a resounding “Yes!” — I suspect He does. After all, God cares about everything that affects His children. And how we dress likely influences our mindset, and certainly does that of others. Why, just imagine if everyone wore bathing suits to a function. Would that not engender a different attitude than if all attendees donned three-piece suits?

None of this is to say that upping the attire game alone will, let’s say, MAGA. It is to say that MASA (Making America Stylish Again) correlates with and can help catalyze the resurrection of greatness. For it is, after all, movement back toward tradition.

So to the critics of this fashion trend I’ll say: Don’t quarter-zip it — just zip it.

For those interested, the below video illustrates fashion evolution (read: devolution) from 1900 to 2024.

This article was originally published at The New American.