Brooks Brothers Burning

Myth:  The Salem Witch Trials, occurring over the years of 1692 and 1693 in three counties of colonial Massachusetts, is regarded as one of the most indelible events of mass hysteria to occur in this young nation of ours.  It underscores the veritable shortcomings of a Puritanical society – a society that was isolated, fear-based and propagated ideas of intolerance.  In the end, twenty of the accused of witchcraft were executed, including one who was crushed to death.

Fact:  The Puritans were indeed very intolerant of others not of their ilk and very suspicious of the “stirrings” of the devil.  What many historians fail to acknowledge is the paramount role of clothing and its effect on culture and religion at the time.  The Bible was very much important to the Puritans of colonial Massachusetts, but not nearly as sacred as the cable knit design adorning the strapping young men of this exclusive religious culture.  Cotton Mather (first name taken as a sign of his piety and his servitude to fine fabrics), one of the preeminent Puritan preachers of his time, tried to perpetuate the idea that demons did in fact exist among the living.  Contrary to popular belief, Cotton Mather was not being literal, but rather fairly metaphorical.  The demons among them were the improperly dressed – the bohemians of their day, sporting what would most likely be the American Apparel this day in age.  Furthermore, Cotton Mather was the founder of Brooks Brothers, a company started in 1681 with the religious iconography befitting of the Puritan people – the golden fleece, or lamb of Christ, emblazoned over the left chest, the heart.  I am not denying that this was a form of religious hysteria, but many are ignorant of its true origins.  Only two copies still exist, both at Harvard University, of Puritan Bibles created in 1685 with several additions to Leviticus.  Chapter 5, Verse 7 reads, “Those who do not adorn the clothing of a king – a polo, tucked in, covered by a navy blue cable knit sweater, khaki chinos with a sailboat or anchor patterned belt, all complemented by a Nantucket brown loafer – shall be stoned by the righteous.”  These twenty accused of witchcraft were playing with fire by straying from the norm – some even wore Palestinian-inspired scarves, the true mark of the devil.  This was a rebellion against the stifling, shall I say sweaters, Puritan status quo.  The claim that they could not afford the “proper clothing” was moot since most the lower class at the time adorned J. Crew, a suitable and cheaper substitute equally projecting their subservience to a supreme being.  As the fledgling colonies began to expand, those who were labeled heretics fled westward in search of clothing/religious freedom, but the damage had already been done – nineteen had died hanging from fine cashmere nooses.  Vestiges of this clothing fanaticism still exist in parts of Massachusetts and New England, but the Puritan spirit of fervent “clothingism” is slowly being eclipsed, on the verge of extinction.  But we must never forget the Salem Witch Trials lest we fall under same zealous spell that affected our Puritan forefathers.  Skinny jeans and Republican evangelism is a frightening thought…