Editor’s Note: Examining clothes through the ages, Dress Codes is a new series investigating how the rules of fashion have influenced different cultural arenas — and your closet. Red velvet suit, white fur trim, tall black boots, cozy (if not indulgent) pom-pom hat. Santa Claus’ uniform may have some variations, from Tim Allen’s off-duty outfits in “The Santa Clause” as he slowly transforms into the legendary gift-giver, to The Plastics’ spaghetti-strap-dress versions in “Mean Girls,” but his signature look is ingrained in pop culture and popular imagination older than anyone living today.
His dress codes ensure uniformity across mall Santas around the US, with aspects that are seemingly non-negotiable, despite the fact that he’s — spoiler alert — not real. A Santa Claus wearing a dark green suit at Bloomingdale’s for the department store’s “Wicked” partnership made tabloid headlines as the latest attempt to spark holiday outrage. One mom told the New York Post of the promotion: “Not everything needs to be changed or challenged.
.. Green Santa is stupid.
Hard pass.” But Santa didn’t always wear red, and in fact, his outfits, appearance and height took nearly a century to become the iconic character we recognize today. His predecessors include the early Christian bishop St.
Nicholas and his Dutch equivalent Sinterklaas; the hooded French patriarch Père Noël; and the German gift-bestowing baby Jesus, Christkindl (which, stateside, led to.
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