People read not only facts but symbols too, and if people see me who don't know me, they will judge based on FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Yes, but symbols have different meaning for people, there are very few that are universal, and a pleated skirt is not one of them.
If I saw a woman wearing white gloves would think that has an allergy.
If you don’t like the aesthetics of pleated skirts, I think is great you don’t wear them. But if you like them and don’t wear it because what a stranger can think, then I don’t understand why anybody’s opinion is more important for yourself than your own opinion.
If a woman walked into a boardroom, of men as the majority, wearing a pillbox hat, or white gloves with a pleated skirt, and so on, would her words be takem seriously? Think about it
Harry Potter took Dolores Umbridge’s words (and acts) seriously even though she wore white gloves and sweet pink outfits.
And I can imagine Anna Wintour wearing many of the Prada outfits and speak in a boardroom full of men and still taken seriously and not less powerful or influential.
I’ve never seen Steve Jobs with a business suit and he has succeed with his ideas and work despite his not very serious jeans.
People are not so banal, don’t stop on the façade.
We judge people based on how they look ALL THE TIME
Of course we all judge people by what they wear, but only until we talked a little with them and/or see how they behave, and these attitudes weighs more in our judgment than clothing.
How you say “good morning” (or not say it) judge you more than what you wear. And a person you don’t even say hello, what do you care about a probably wrong opinion about you?
what is being SOLD to us via these clothes?
Just new clothes, different than what we had before.
Why harken back to an era when women were all but locked up and compliant?
Nobody is bringing any kind of attitude toward women with those clothes. Some (not all) designers has bring elements of the clothes of that era, and have been updated to the circumstances and needs of today, as always happens.
The clothing is no longer tied to some archaic meanings that
not everyone knows.
There are women who wear Chanel bags and they are not rich (they had to save to buy them) and women who dress in Zara that are duchesses.
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I’d like people who feel threatened by these two collections (of the hundreds there are every 6 months) tell me which are the appropriate outfits (if they exist) for a woman who feel like a human being with all the rights that humans have.
Do the dresses tell us to go out and drive and destroy the planet? No, they tell us to look back to a time when cars weren't though of as such evil things like they are now 
Why fetishize cars? Because it is "retro" and "sweet" 
I get where you're coming from too, IsabelMarantBoy. Sometimes I just like to rant on my soapbox. 
Forgive me if it sounds too sanctimonious. Of course, I totally get the FUN side of fashion too. I must just have a pet peeve with that era, although I can see all that lady-like appeal in the clothing, for some. 
(I simplify!). I pick clothes by instinct. If people who talk to you only see your clothes to define you, you lack personality I think.. Woman AND men should be free to dress how they like without being immediately categorised one or another type, that's just too simple and human beings are more complex than that..
