I live in Sweden and I've recently finished a test in our English class. One specific question caught me off guard. The question is as follows:
Alma's mother, now 95, could once be found on a sunny bench passing the time of day with other women, all ________ traditional dress, including the tartan underskirt.
The instructions were to fill in the blank with one word that fits the sentence and is grammatically correct.
The acceptable answers were "wearing" and "in" according to my teacher.
Could someone explain to me how this works? All my intuitive senses are telling me it's supposed to be "all wearing traditional dresses" but apparently that's not the case, or maybe they're both correct?
Best Answer
One meaning of the word dress is 'costume, attire'. It is uncountable in this sense and can refer to male as well as female clothing (e.g. morning dress).
In your sentence, the women were apparently wearing their national costume.