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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?

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    Even if the traditional clothing meant wearing a dress, all wearing traditional dress could mean the headscarf, earrings, sandals and such that completed the outfit. Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 13:34
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    Singular dress is far more likely than plural dresses for the cited context, but both are valid (they just have different meanings). But this is irrelevant to the choice between wearing and in (where both are valid, and mean exactly the same). Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 14:56
  • Why isn't 'wore' a possible answer? Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 22:55
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    Strictly speaking, “wore” would be a problem because of the comma before “all _____”—if it were a semicolon, “wore” would be correct and “wearing” would be... somewhat less so. Though, of course, many authors eschew the semicolon entirely; as I recall, Hemingway was particularly adamant that it was worthless and should always be replaced with a comma. But on an English grammar test, it’s probably fair to be “proper” about it. The bigger problem, in my mind, is the idea that only two possible words out of all the English language were acceptable. That’s definitely not the case. Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 3:55
  • @KRyan Presumably the test was graded by an actual human being, who made sure in advance that "wearing" and "in" were acceptable answers, but would have been able to adapt to other correct answers if a student came up with one. Commented Oct 29, 2022 at 8:17

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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.

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    Right, guys invited to a fancy-dress party aren't expected to show up in skirts and gowns, at least not necessarily. :) Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 13:44
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    @tchrist: unfortunately. Parties would be a bit less painful if the men were expected to wear the high heels and dresses with no pockets. :) Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 21:44
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The teacher is using a different sense of the word dress.

The sentence is using this sense:

covering, adornment, or appearance appropriate or peculiar to a particular time

You would use the plural, if the following definition is used:

an outer garment (as for a woman or girl) usually consisting of a one-piece bodice and skirt

A native speaker would likely recognize either as correct.

MW

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    In the supplied example sentence interpreting "dress" as the "garment" in stead of "custome" is clearly NOT correct. The follow-up phrase "including the tartan underskirt" makes no sense in that case. The underskirt can be part of the costume, but is certainly not part of the garment. Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 9:48
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"All wearing traditional dress" could also be read as "all wearing traditional garb." It's a different meaning of "dress" than you're thinking. I can see how this could be confusing to a non-native speaker.

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