What happened to being well-dressed?

[Elaine Benes]

This is going to sound incredibly boomer-ish, but in my neck of the woods, not a lot of people like to dress nice anymore.

My initial impression was that it was due to laziness, but it seems that might not even be the reason. Many people simply do not care to use clothing to create a lasting impression on others. Pre-covid, I would go to somewhat upscale clubs on a regular basis and many patrons would show up in jeans and a T-shirt as if they were going to a dive bar. Even at historic jazz venues like the Green Mill (one of Capone's favorite hangouts), only about a quarter of attendees wear anything even remotely close to cocktail attire.

Has anyone else noticed this where they live, and do you find yourself falling into this trap? While this year has not been a great one for nightlife, I'm curious if other large cities in the US or abroad have seen a cultural shift where dressing to impress has fallen out of fashion.

 

[Krystal]

Pretty much the saying "times change" explains it all. It's really where people saw formality as a form of upper class and having some restrictions on what everyone had to wear as sort of requirements. Many are in rather middle or lower class to not afford the clothing many upper class people have. The jazz age really started the cultural shift with the rebellious flappers. People just see it more or less not important to dress well for common day activities other than forms of work/school. The only exceptions for everyday people really being for special occasions. That and many people have branched away from so it created many forms of subculture (goth/emo, gang, hipster, etc.) that kinda did away with it as most saw it as going away from "the man" or formal wear.

 

[Slick]

Nah, its like that everywhere now it's who can spread the most venereal diseases, or construct a sentence with the most uses of the word "Cunny"
This is likely due to the downward spiral of western culture following the release of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990. I try to redress this balance by wearing my formal long-coat made of circumcised foreskin and a propeller hat, every time I go down to the DMV to convince the people in line that the holocaust didn't happen. This is to show I am willing to be formal and personable at all times, including when I'm being forcefully dragged out by security.
-slick

 

[Lonely Grave]

I think it's mostly generational drift. Each successive generation of youth, or at least a small but influential part of each generation, sought to break away from norms by being "shocking" in fashion and manner. Peer pressure and conformity did the rest. You also saw counter-movements as youths more aligned to their mentor figures stayed loyal (e.g. the mod vs. rocker situation in 60s and 70s Britain).

That being said it did really seem that the days of suited gentlemen and attired ladies carried a certain amount of innate respect that feels absent from today's society.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Same as above. But they have a name.

Hipsters.

They are why your local fancy-pants watering hole looks like shit now. A bunch of dipshits with more money than sense showed up to intentionally dress shitty at it. Ironically.

Hey, at least it finally got them the fuck out of my kind of place where they actually thought they were fitting in with the blue-collar crowd.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

This has been a meme for a while now.
Like @/A/non Prince said, time change:

 

[T0oCoolFool]

I mean, have you seen what most people look like these days? Most people are fat and have shit posture. If you look at past generations, even those in poverty could look nice compared to today's generation because being fat was rare and it was easy to find nice clothes in your size. Clothes always look nicer on low BMIs than it will on an obese ones, even if the fabric is shit. Not to mention, you weren't bogged down by endless fashion choices and cliques, you really didn't have a lot of options, and almost all of those options back then were modest and clean cut looking.

 

[The Fool]

Ancient Japanese tea ceremonies held by emperors were once extremely extravagant to flaunt their wealth. Then one day an emperor decided that was gay and held a humble one, and that's how people did things ever since.

Sometimes people just realize going out of your way to look like a privileged asshole is actually kind of obnoxious. Like maybe it's not that weird to just dress casually when going out instead of trying to one-up everyone around you like you're some goddamn woman.

 

[дядя Боря]

there are many factors here:

Prevalence of shitty quality and consumerism, in fact finding a good quality clothing is pretty hard on a budget. Even midscale clothiers peddle the same shitty material that Walmart does, may be a tad better, but at considerably bigger markup. Shitty materials, cheap shitty dyes, shitty sawing made by slave labor. And with that comes the age of throw away clothing, wear once, throw it away. No one is taking or know how to take care of clothing. Wine stain? Fuck it, just buy new one.

The last few generations have been declining on tastes and culture. Poverty, victimhood and lack of manners are being celebrated. People are totally clueless and somehow it's diversity and I have to respect some savage who wipes his ass with his barehand. More of 3rd worlders come to US and there is nothing they can conceivably enrich people here who were raised right, only the trailer trash, may be.

Do I see it around me more? No, not really. My circle of friends keeps it classy. There is nothing priveleged or asshollish about it. I have traditions and history to respect and it does not burden me.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I chalk it up to fashion technology. Back in the "good old days" there really wasn't as much in between "suit" and "laborer's clothes", both fashion-wise and fabric-wise. Jeans weren't stone-washed and elasticized with spandex like they are today, it was the sort of raw, unbroken-in denim that was the province of miners then and hipsters now. Wearing jeans to a nightclub then would have been more like, I dunno, wearing some camouflage thing you got from the Army surplus store now. Similarly with things like T-shirts - these used to be considered underwear or work clothes.

100 years ago, the most "casual" thing remotely imaginable for a gentleman - for his rough-and-tumble sporting - was tweed and flannel.

https://www.bartleby.com/95/34.html

Look through the list of fabrics mentioned here and you'll see a lot of wool, linen, and silk - hardly any cotton besides a mention of "homespun" in the sporting section. Nobody was making midrange clothes out of our most affordable material.

Clothes were expensive until the age of mass-production - even Emily Post, writing squarely toward an upscale audience, anticipates the lower ranks of "gentlemen" only to be able to afford two suits. And when was the last time you took clothes to be mended at a tailor? Unless you're into high-end clothing, these days it's almost always cheaper to just buy a new one.

To a certain extent I think stuff like "Casual Friday" was inevitable once you actually could dress casual without looking like a stevedore.

 

[Sir Bartleby Montclair]

I think some of it laziness, especially when it comes to men. Boys just aren't taught to dress themselves anymore and we get a generation of men walking around with video game shirts and mom jeans. It's terrible.

I think the biggest thing though is just formality is gradually going away. My husband has a white collar job in a major city. He wears casual button downs and chinos everyday and people always ask him what he's dressed up for. His co-workers wear jeans and sweatpants most of the time. It's so weird to me that offices are letting employees show up like that now.

My mother said when she was a kid, if they want shopping in the city, they'd get all dressed up for it. Dresses and formal gloves and everything. That sounds so foreign to me. I guess dressing up for clubs and work will sound foreign to our children too.

 

[ZombiefiedFerret]

T-shirts are more comfortable.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

Who gives a fuck what other people think about what I wear? Lmao.

 

[northstar747]

Who gives a fuck what other people think about what I wear? Lmao.

Well how are you gonna sort out the pecking order? how will the people below you know your above them and vice versa.

Also I think the fact that we have more on demand entertainment. I was cleaning out a closet and found my mothers records, and it hit me how much work people would do for music. you d have a huge machine to play it. you d have to put a record on and it would only hold a few songs before you d have to flip..

I am sooo fucking lazy I cant be bothered to push a tape into a vcr but fuck we all used to go to the video store on friday night to find a movie.

anyway I remember all the older boomers would go to formal concerts and realizing how people who didnt have entertainment on demand would leave their homes to seek it and socialize explains alot.

Now I kinda want to see a hipster with a man bun in a romper onesie in a room full of sharp dressed men.

 

[Arch Zealot]

im sure an 1700's person would ask the same of an 1800's person.
Since time and fashion just changes.
Ah look at that suit, where are the frills! Why is the woman wearing the high heels? no colours, he must be awfully poor. what kind of man would ever go to a celebration without a proper codpiece.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

Well how are you gonna sort out the pecking order? how will the people below you know your above them and vice versa.

Also I think the fact that we have more on demand entertainment. I was cleaning out a closet and found my mothers records, and it hit me how much work people would do for music. you d have a huge machine to play it. you d have to put a record on and it would only hold a few songs before you d have to flip..

I am sooo fucking lazy I cant be bothered to push a tape into a vcr but fuck we all used to go to the video store on friday night to find a movie.

anyway I remember all the older boomers would go to formal concerts and realizing how people who didnt have entertainment on demand would leave their homes to seek it and socialize explains alot.

Now I kinda want to see a hipster with a man bun in a romper onesie in a room full of sharp dressed men.

I mean, that's what I chalk it up to: people give less of a fuck about social hierarchy.

Dressing nice is a class thing, and always has been. Lots of people itt talk about how "well used to everyone had a suit" and all that shit. No. They didn't. All the *middle class* people that we see pictures and video of had suits. The Irish immigrants working in sweatshops didn't. The Italians living nuts to butts in windowless (as in there were holes, but no frames or panes) blockhouses didn't.

People wore suits because they needed everyone to know they were a middle class wasp and not a fucking disgusting working class eye-tie or potato nigger.

A lot of that social interaction was some keeping up with the Joneses shit. My parents had me later in life so growing up I got to see a lot of that real old school stuffy money bullshit, everything was about perceived social class. A lot of "oh no you can't go over to Longfeather's house, what would people think?" "Oh you're really planning on wearing *that* to dinner? You know Mr. Sheckelgruber will be there."

I just see a lot less of that social hierarchy, pecking order bullshit. Maybe it's my old man punk rock roots, but I see young people telling the fat cat corpo shills to fuck off as a good thing. Yeah there's still lots of CONSOOM but actually interacting with these young people, they are a lot shrewder than most of us give credit for, and I think we shouldn't mistake commercials and paid influencers for actual habits.

 

[Not Really Here]

Do you really want things like the 90's swing revival to come back?
Bros in zoot suits and shit?

 

[FatalTater]

Back In The Day one did not go out in their pajamas and flip flops with messy hair because someone might see you. If there was a chance another member of the community might witness your appearance, you at least threw on some clean clothes and brushed your hair. Being seen looking like you woke up on the front lawn would give the impression that your were lazy and untidy, things that were (are?) considered bad character traits.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

"It isn't comfortable" has been the go to response when I ask manchildren why they still constantly wear shorts and graphic tee's like 9 year olds instead of real clothes.

There's also a real lack of shame in this society. See fat people, fur fags, cosplayers outside of conventions for proof of this.

 

[Maurice Caine]

does this count as being well dressed