Referees wear vertically striped outfits that are black and white. Not surprisingly they get called zebras by many. But despite the haranguing referees get, they are considered to be upstanding citizens with good opinions on the match or game they ref. They are an authority figure.
For the longest time, prisoners wore horizontally striped outfits that were black and white. I think they were given such clothing in an effort to stand out from the crowd. If they escaped their prison they could easily be spotted before they managed to change clothes. As prisoners, they were largely looked down on by the general public.
What is it about black and white stripes that denotes the position in society so easily? Could it be that vertical stripes are slimming and therefore of a higher standing? Horizontal stripes make someone look broader and does that denote lower standing?
Does the black and white part, mean that they see things in black and white? Maybe they make the mistake of seeing everything as good or evil, right or wrong. I don’t know because I didn’t come up with this design.
But I do think that the middle class could be denoted by black and white stripes on a 45 degree angle. If we let someone dress up like that, though, I bet one of the first comments would be, “You’re crooked!” since crooked also refers to the criminal, this design doesn’t make the wearer an average, non-criminal, society member.
The only way to denote the ordinary citizen that I can see, is to use zigzagging patterns, sometimes known as saw-tooth wave patterns. But should they zigzag horizontally or vertically?
If the vertical stripes is upper class, then the horizontal stripes would mean lower class. Perhaps the horizontal saw-tooth wave pattern could denote lower middle class. Charlie Brown has a yellow and black shirt with this pattern. Does that mean he was lower middle class? Then the vertical saw-tooth wave pattern could denote upper middle class. We could all display our class with our clothing. Doesn’t that sound icky.
If you don’t want to do this might I recommend any clothing other than black and white stripes.
