One foppish high fashion style of dress that made its way from England to Virginia was the so called“Macaroni”. One contemporary observer wrote:
In 1774, Virginian James Mercer claimed that items had been stolen from him by a “profound knave” named William Foster Crosby, whom he described as “(dressed) like a Macaroni”
During the Revolution British soldiers sang the ditty “Yankee Doodle” mocking Americans as simpletons who thought if you stuck a feather in your cap you were the embodiment of high fashion. Americans adopted the song as a song of defiance. By 1781, “Yankee Doodle” had become a song of national pride.
Yankee
Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
Yankee Doodle keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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