Dress code

Clothing has various sociological functions.

Dress codes

Dress codes function on certain social occasions and for certain jobs. Schools may require school uniforms; if they allow plain clothes they may place restrictions on their use (see for example [1] (this link appears to have broken... ). A doorkeeper of a disco or nightclub may judge visitors' clothing and refuse entrance to those not clad according to specified or intuited requirements: for example an establishment may not allow the wearing of sport shoes.

Transparent or semi-transparent clothing can play with the boundaries of dress-codes regarding modesty, for example: in a wet T-shirt contest.

Clothing Taboos

Possible deficiencies in clothing itself may include:

stains
faded colour
smell
tears
broken seams
thin spots
holes
missing buttons
broken zippers

One or more safety pins may temporarily alleviate some of these imperfections.

Possible inappropriate clothing relative to the person wearing it includes garments:

Too large (wide, long)
Too small (tight, short)
Not corresponding to the sex, age or peer group of the wearer

Possible "inappropriate" or socially unacceptable ways of wearing clothing include:

unbuttoned (notably the fly)
unzipped (ditto)
backward
inside-out
mis-matched socks
a wide dress, skirt or shorts exposing underwear or genitals by the way one sits, or when blown upwards (see also Marilyn Monroe), etc.
a bra, wrongly positioned, revealing a breast (one such "wardrobe malfunction" has become notorious: see Janet Jackson).

Possible "inappropriate" or socially unacceptable situations of wetness include:

transparency, due to wetness (or thin spots), exposing underwear or intimate parts
wetness due to sweat
wetness apparently due to urine, etc.

Possible inappropriateness regarding day-to-day variation of clothing:

too little variation.

Possible inappropriateness of clothing relative to the occasion (note also the concept of dress code):

too bright or merry for a serious or sad occasion, e.g. a job interview or funeral
too somber for a festive occasion
not modest enough
too prudish

Of course some of these clothing faux pas may occur intentionally for reasons of fashion or personal preference.

For example, people may wear intentionally oversized clothing. The rap duo Kris Kross of two teenage boys wore all of their clothes backwards and extremely baggy.