From the point of view of the elites, the most distasteful aspect of this appropriation has probably always been that he who takes on the dress may also, in the anonymous city, decide to take on the "rights." … A very impudent young fellow, a journeyman cabinet maker, upon the presumption of a ruffled shirt, and a gold button and loop to his hat, took the liberty of accosting two ladies of fashion in the Park last Tuesday evening, and was not a little vehement in his declaration of a prodigous passion to one of them, who he earnestly begged to favour him with an assignation.

XREF: Class-based anxiety over impersonation of rank via clothing — echoes the fop of Restoration drama and later 19th-century worries about 'passing'.

XREF: Connects to themes of clothing as social performance and status signaling in urban anonymity.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 1109