In the old Peterman catalogs, everyone has glamour, status, wealth, aristocratic ease, sexual attractiveness, individuality, taste, and social acceptability. Peterman sold the idea that if you wear his clothes, you would have, or at least appear to have, all those things. Since these things are the reason for wearing clothing, Peterman clothing sold extremely well, despite very high prices. A mere side effect in my opinion. However a tremendously important side effect.
Humans are an indigenous tropical animal, much like most other apes.
However, we have even less hair than the next least hirsute ape, and so are extremely limited in our natural territory. The moment we started deciding our own bodies were less attractive than the skins of other animals, and so wore the skins of our dead prey, we preserved body heat sufficient to allow us to live in any environment on the planet, including the arctic. I, myself, live in Fairbanks, Alaska , a place that was inhabited for thousands of years due to the technological innovation of sewing. It is an absurd anachronism. Tanning, sewing, patterning, spinning and weaving, to a very high level of technical skill, were all developed before the first wheel and the first metallurgy.