I have a nit-picky question, Colonel. You wrote:
Arguably dressing below your rank in a sumptuary culture may invite ridicule - or be performed for effect to cultivate a reputation as an aesthetic…
Did you mean aesthetic or ascetic? I noticed you seemed to confuse the two once on a different page.
An ascetic chooses a life of poverty and self-denial; St. Anthony was an ascetic. One who is aesthetic chooses a life of beauty and artiness; Oscar Wilde was aesthetic.
Yes, I'm being pedantic again; but since it is conceivable that one might affect the clothing style of a lesser rank for artistic purposes, I didn't want to presumptively correct you without checking.
And yes, I do have better things I should be doing.
"All the World's a Stage and Everyone's a Critic" — Mervyn Alquist