The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Eight

June the 16th.

I got the call I had been expecting and dreading: Chris Hammond died early this morning. He was stubborn enough to hold on for longer than anyone expected, but it was clear he was never going to recover. He left detailed instructions for his cremation arrangements: All I have to do as his advocate is give them to the funeral director.

June the 22nd.

Well that was a rare sight! Riding in today I spotted a long and very shapely pair of female calves displayed in public despite the weather. She was wearing long dark grey socks but even so it is a brave soul who expresses such borderline contempt for the New Modesty.

Like the beginning of the Consensus no-one can pin down its origins exactly: In truth there were probably a number of causes. There was the inevitable counteraction to the tattooing craze earlier in the century; now tattoos are seen as out of fashion, gauche, lower class, and a barrier to getting a good assignment. These days they are not to be seen in public, and would be better removed if possible (done for free if visible on hands, neck, or face).

The New Modesty values also frown upon the brazen display of bare flesh by both sexes as it is seen as disrespectful of and antagonistic to the Muslim community. The recent run of colder weather, and the fact clothes made from more material are seen as a sign of relative affluence have also played their part in making covering up à la mode.

The pendulum of fashion had been swinging away from not so cheap but nasty disposable wear before the Crises, but the suddenly intensified post-Crises austerity made all the difference. With the disruption in world trade caused by the economic crises the retail clothing sector lost their easy access to supplies of worn for a single season, made just-in-time, imported garments; prompting an instant shortage of new clothes. When the Transitional Council assumed 'temporary' control over the sector - along with so many others of the economy - they used the opportunity to impose their values on what people wore: Dictating how peoples' bodies were to be clothed being another step closer to imposing a far more comprehensive regime upon them.

It took far longer than expected to establish a Fed clothing industry, and while the workforce were being trained to produce subsistence clothing the many people who had expected an endless supply of throwaway glad rags were left waiting for the new stocks to arrive. They began to look increasingly dishevelled and had to learn to repair what they had left to wear in order to make it last as long as possible. Nowadays looking patched and shabby is unwise, as it is a Connie maxim that one who is scruffily dressed is a person of suspect morality deserving of closer scrutiny. Once it may have been fashionable, but now anyone wearing deliberately distressed or holed clothes is asking to be referred to the Community Support Office as an urgent case; something which is best avoided.

Eventually the officially approved styles in a limited range of sizes began to trickle into the few remaining shops with the promise of a planned reduction over time in the availability of extra-large and beyond sizes to encourage the population to lose weight. It was measures such as these which reinforced how our lives had changed for good: Consumer choice was now a bygone luxury.

The new garb was dowdy, drab and uncompromisingly utilitarian; made out of heavy, durable, recycled but not very comfortable to wear synthetic fabrics. Dull colours were specified in order to reduce the need for laundering. Awkwardly cut, the designs came as a shock and met initial public rejection, but there was no choice; either you wore your pre-Crises clothes until they wore out, or bought from the dwindling stocks of upmarket apparel if you could still afford to, or did as some skilled and independent people did and made your own. For the rest of us it was the Hobson's choice of utility or nudity.