Over time, different societies have established what’s ‘correct’ to wear in different situations. Those who don’t conform can face a lot of consequences ranging from raised eyebrows to severe punishment. Today’s world has, in many cases, more relaxed clothing expectations, but that doesn’t mean there are none. It’s interesting, too, to see how dress codes, if you want to call it that, find their way into crime fiction. It can tell you a lot about a society and about different characters.

For example, Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs concerns the poisoning murder of famous artist Amyas Crale. At the time of the murder, everyone assumed his wife Caroline was guilty. She had motive, too, since he was carrying on an affair with another woman, Elsa Greer. Caroline was arrested, tried, and convicted in the matter and died in prison. Sixteen years later, her daughter Carla approaches Hercule Poirot. She has always believed her mother was innocent, and she wants Poirot to find out the truth. As Poirot investigates, he interviews the five people who were on the scene at the time of the murder. He learns that Elsa Greer was somewhat of a non-conformist. She wore trousers at a time when most women wouldn’t have considered it, and she was hardly demure or ‘ladylike.’ Her way of dressing isn’t the reason for the murder, but it’s an interesting look at people’s assumptions about how one’s expected to dress.

Anthony Bidulka’s Amuse Bouche introduces Russell Quant, a Saskatoon-based PI. In the novel, Harold Chavell hires Quant to track down his fiancé Tom Osborn, who went missing just before their scheduled wedding. Their honeymoon plan had been a tour of France, so Quant follows the itinerary to see if he can find out what’s happened to Osborn. It turns out to be a complicated case, and at one point, Chavell actually asks Quant to return to Saskatoon and basically drop the case. But Quant doesn’t give up. At one point, his mentor Anthony Gatt invites him to a party. Gatt is not just a mentor; he was Quant’s uncle’s partner. Quant doesn’t really want to go to a party, but Gatt insists. In fact, he’s even sent over an outfit he thinks Quant should wear. It’s not at all the sort of thing Quant would choose himself, but it’s fashionable and upmarket, and it’ll fit in with the rest of the people at the party. For this party, ordinary clothes just won’t do.

Zoë Ferraris’ novels take place mostly in Saudi Arabia, where there are very rigid expectations for what men and women should wear. The novels feature Palestinian-born Nayir ash-Sharqui, who is a desert guide, and Katya Hijazi, who is a lab technician. As the two investigate, they are both constrained with respect to what they wear. Katya, especially, must be careful to cover up appropriately and be sure that she’s always wearing a hijab and very modest clothing. In fact, in more than one scene, she’s working in the laboratory, and must rush to cover up when there’s a knock on the door. In this series, it’s not just a matter of people tut-tutting about it. Katya faces serious, even lethal, consequences if she doesn’t dress as she’s expected to do.

Emma Flint’s Little Deaths takes place in 1965 New York City. Ruth Malone is a single mother to Frankie Jr. and Cindy. She’s a cocktail waitress, so she’s already looked down on by a lot of people who make assumptions about her. Then, one day, she wakes up to find that her children are missing. It’s not long before they are both found dead, and that’s when Ruth becomes a real pariah. Everyone assumes that she’s responsible for their deaths, and that includes the police. For one thing, she doesn’t dress the way the other people in her small community do.  She wears provocative clothing and heavy makeup, and people are only too quick to make assumptions about her because of it. But did she really kill her children? If she did, why? If she didn’t, then who did?

And then there’s Dennis Shock’s Murder on Liberty Bay. Lily Pine has just moved from Ohio to the Pacific Northwest. She’s recently widowed and is slowly moving towards starting her life again. One of her goals is to open the bayside restaurant her husband Marty always wanted. In fact, he bought just the right property shortly before his death. Now Lily wants to fulfill his dream. When she goes into the restaurant to look it over and see what’s needed, she discovers the body of Clark Robbins. The police, in the form of Detective Doug Miller, look into the case. Lily herself is quickly cleared of suspicion since she didn’t know the victim and hadn’t even arrived in Liberty Bay when he was killed. But she wants the murder solved so she can open the restaurant. So, she starts asking questions. One likely suspect is Renée Valentine, who was having an affair with Clark. Renée has a notorious reputation, and it’s not made any less so by the clothes she wears, which are almost always revealing. Even Lily, who’s trying not to judge, finds Renée a bit much.

It’s not hard to see why what we wear can have so much impact. It’s one of the first things people notice, and societal expectations of what people are supposed to wear are deeply ingrained. So, when someone doesn’t dress accordingly, everyone knows, and that can have consequences.

ps. Want to know more about clothes in fiction and what it says about us? Treat yourself  to Moira’s  Clothes in Books. Excellent reviews and discussions of books, clothes, culture, and what it all means await you there.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.