I once watched someone get ate up on an Ivy type forum for wearing lambswool instead of Shetland.

Not the wrong color.

Not the wrong fit.

The wrong sheep.

The response was disproportionate.

And it made me think about why certain aesthetics produce militant purists.

Whatever aesthetic you subscribe to, these tend to become rule-based cultures.

Over time, they develop their own standards and forms of correctness.

There are canonical garments, fabrics, and even decades.

Eventually there becomes a “right” version of almost everything.

And once a “right” version exists, someone is always lurking ready to point out when you got it wrong.

This makes sense, if you accept that clothing is a language with rules.

The next logical step is enforcement.

If Shetland means authenticity then someone wearing the wrong knit isn’t just off , they are violating the culture.

And when people build identity around culture, they naturally start to feel protective of it.

I also suspect something subtler is happening too.

The more rules you internalize, the more self-conscious you become. Then you start monitoring yourself constantly:

• Is this correct?
• Is this historically accurate?
• Is this true to the tradition?

That internal pressure has to go somewhere and often it goes outward. All the nit picky correction and roasting people becomes a release valve.

So purism can look like taste, but it’s probably just your anxiety kicking in.

It’s also hard to have a sense of humor when you’re anxious.

That’s something I’ve noticed too.

These spaces tend to be oddly humorless. There’s little play. No lightness.

Probably because play threatens structure.

If clothing is treated as some type of heritage preservation, deviation feels dangerous.

But if clothing is treated as material regulation( weight, drape, movement), then lambswool vs Shetland becomes a sensory decision, not a moral one.

You can prefer one without policing the other, but when identity is at stake, fabric almost becomes an ideology.

When regulation is the goal, fabric is just fabric.

And nobody gets eaten alive over sheep.