Well - I've mousepod to thank my research expedition about Sumptuary Laws (So far I've linke this
link best) which sought to curb the extravagence of fashion which was seen as "wicked" if not "sinfull."
Personally, I'm fascinated by the subject of fashion becasue I think it has a far greater influence than we let on and tend to react to fashion as to what is "trendy" or "fashionable" at a given time.
I tend to see fashion as one of our primary forms of communications - telling others about our position, beliefs, occupation, or alliances all without speaking a word. So to me, it's not a stretch to see how someone might want to judge, criticize, or condemn for fashion's sake since we do it all the time with people's words. But perhaps that's still in the subtext.