You don't see leather elbow patches sewn into sweaters as a professorial signifier anymore
You don’t see leather elbow patches sewn into sweaters as a professorial signifier anymore
Oh, for the ages: this was absolutely not understood as a marking of distinction, the idea was that given their low income given status ranking they’d reinforce the vulnerable parts of high-but-not-rich-high class clothing with durable material to make them last
Like the association of sweaters and college and football in old cartoons isn’t an accident, those things were pretty equivalent class signifiers in early 20th century America