Polished shoes, shiny patent leather, or white bucks reveal the wearer as not of the soil - not a clod. The same is true of frothy lace cuffs. White shoes were a symbol of FDR's upper-class summer wear, which is probably what made the tennis shoe so important in the leisure wear of the 1950's. Frequent changes of clothing among the well-groomed is another status pattern. A secretary who wears the same skirt and blouse to work every day of the week is not playing the status game with her peers.
Women wash their hair to come out feeling clean and men go to the steam room.
Both enjoy a hot tub of water or a sauna after a hard day, especially after one that hasn't gone well and one's status-stat is reading low. Most of us treat oily, musky odors with the same repugnance that we treat dirt - garlic, onions, Limburger cheese, and stale cigars. Most of our table manners are standardized rules of how not to offend your messmates by dirtying yourself. We use napkins and finger bowls to keep our person clean. Dinner wear allows you to come to the table looking your cleanest - this was once such an important ritual among the British elite that special dinner dress was taken into the field and used under the harshest extremes in jungle or desert.