Do people dress like slobs today? Or were people 100 years ago just plain and drab?

Let's just remember that the suit and tie is a relatively new player on the dapper timeline. When did tunics go out of style? This too shall pass.



Just remember we have light-up clothes coming soon!

I have a business suit and a social suit in my closet -- mostly collecting dust. Now that I'm retired, the only time that the business suit gets out is for weddings or funerals. The western-cut social suit gets out only every couple of years.

When I worked, I dressed for my career as a programmer. I found out early on that if I dressed a little odd and walked around with a continual absent-minded expression, I could stay out of all the office "george" jobs, and better yet, all the office politics.

Conformity is for ants.

Kit Walker said:

I have a business suit and a social suit in my closet -- mostly collecting dust. Now that I'm retired, the only time that the business suit gets out is for weddings or funerals. The western-cut social suit gets out only every couple of years.

When I worked, I dressed for my career as a programmer. I found out early on that if I dressed a little odd and walked around with a continual absent-minded expression, I could stay out of all the office "george" jobs, and better yet, all the office politics.

Conformity is for ants.

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"George" jobs?

I don't much bother over how I look for pretty much the same reason I often forget to eat for hours on end. There are other, more pressing matters that exhaust my limited capacity for attentive immersion in the carnal world. It's much less time consuming and more comfortable to wear t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The one thing I'd change is to find t-shirts with a yoke that allows the shirt to be fitted into a reasonably facsimile of the shape of a human being.

So naturally (pun intended, as you'll soon see) I'm not one to discource on the philosophy of human habiliments. But this is no new issue. Henry David Thoreau had some leisure time to consider the issue. I can offer no better defence than to repeat a few of his wise words.

"No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience...I sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this;--who could wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave as if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined if they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon.

"A man who has at length found something to do will not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will serve a hero longer than they have served his valet -- if a hero ever has a valet -- bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make them do. Only they who go to soires and legislative balls must have new coats, coats to change as often as the man changes in them. But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes -- his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion; for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind."

SiBurning said:

Henry David Thoreau had some leisure time to consider the issue. I can offer no better defence than to repeat a few of his wise words.

"No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience..."

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I think modern society could do to take a page from our forbears and mend the odd piece of clothing now and again, rather than just throwing* it out and buying brand new stuff.




*I almost said "Thoreauing" it out ... I'll save you from the bad puns.

Everyone can wear what they want, it's a free country. Just remember that everyone else will have an opinion of you based off it. It's up to you to decide whether the tradeoff is worthwhile. It's different for everyone.

FWIW, the main reason the suit has endured is it's aesthetics. It's proportions are the most flattering for guys.

Doc4 said:

I think modern society could do to take a page from our forbears and mend the odd piece of clothing now and again, rather than just throwing* it out and buying brand new stuff.

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Repair skills aren't always easy. I admit I can barely sow, I know 3 types of basic stitches and I've only used 2. I can use a running stitch, a back stitch and a hem stitch(haven't used).

I passingly mentioned to a couple of my friends about having to restitch my ripped work trousers twice only to be called a girl.
I find it kinda silly that in modern times that someone who can use a potentially very valuable skill can be called a girl for it.

1st time when I repaired them with a double running stitch which they still ripped so 2nd time around I thought myself the back stitch and it's still holding.

Those work trousers weren't cheap either and I wasn't about to throw them away.

gegarrenton said:

Everyone can wear what they want, it's a free country. Just remember that everyone else will have an opinion of you based off it. It's up to you to decide whether the tradeoff is worthwhile. It's different for everyone.

FWIW, the main reason the suit has endured is it's aesthetics. It's proportions are the most flattering for guys.

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Agreed, and I wish I could impart this onto my 17 year old son, but no luck. The issue is that the current generation soon will be the ones who's opinion matters, so sloppy casual today will become the expected norm in 10-15 years unless there is a turn around in fashion. How many places do you go or see that black yoga pants have replaced women's dress slacks now?

ZeroGravity said:

The issue is that the current generation soon will be the ones who's opinion matters, so sloppy casual today will become the expected norm in 10-15 years unless there is a turn around in fashion.

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I'm not sure that's totally the case. There's pushback to hobo chic in lots of areas these days. To think that it will be 1950 all over again is silly (and not desirable anyway), but that said culture moves inexorably forward, but certain mores ebb and flow. There was a big reversal in the early 80's to more traditional dress after the free for all of the late 60's and early 70's, so there is no reason why it wouldn't happen again. It will probably just be in a different guise.

Anigai said:

Repair skills aren't always easy. I admit I can barely sow, I know 3 types of basic stitches and I've only used 2. I can use a running stitch, a back stitch and a hem stitch(haven't used).

I passingly mentioned to a couple of my friends about having to restitch my ripped work trousers twice only to be called a girl.
I find it kinda silly that in modern times that someone who can use a potentially very valuable skill can be called a girl for it.

1st time when I repaired them with a double running stitch which they still ripped so 2nd time around I thought myself the back stitch and it's still holding.

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Anigai said:

Those work trousers weren't cheap either and I wasn't about to throw them away.

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That's what I mean!!



Good on ya' for mending the trousers, and wouldn't it be nice if everyone saw it that way! And yeah, buy quality, mend it when it needs it, and keep if for a long time. Some of the skills are hard to master, and that's why in olden days (like, say, the 70's) there were lots of "repair shops" where you took everything from worn-out shoes to broken toasters to get fixed.

Doc4 said:

That's what I mean!!



Good on ya' for mending the trousers, and wouldn't it be nice if everyone saw it that way! And yeah, buy quality, mend it when it needs it, and keep if for a long time. Some of the skills are hard to master, and that's why in olden days (like, say, the 70's) there were lots of "repair shops" where you took everything from worn-out shoes to broken toasters to get fixed.

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On a further note, those same friends are your typical "but that's really sharp, you could cut yourself with that" people, calling me a girl for being able to sow.

But I'm not sure if Ireland was like that back in the 70's, as far as I know we were always the type of people who either improvise or happen to know a guy in the neighborhood who done all that stuff. Unless it was sowing or some other of the so called "necessary skills of a female" of that time.

I always wear boots, usually military boots. Why you ask? Well on top of me just wearing them because I like them I originally made the switch because I would wear away a good €25 pair of runners/sneakers in 3-4months and I got sick of spending money on them. I'm wearing the same pair of leather boots now since I turned 17 and I'm 21 now. Some of the stiching is coming away and I'm wondering if getting it fixed is possible.

Anigai said:

On a further note, those same friends are your typical "but that's really sharp, you could cut yourself with that" people, calling me a girl for being able to sow.

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Any broke young single guy better be able to sew the basics! Only way I had enough clothes to get through college.

People don't care much about other's opinions. At the same, people don't feel pressed to convey an image of belonging to the burgeoisie.

This relaxes the way people perceive themselves and others, affecting wardrobe choices.

At the same time it can be ground for sharp differences: wardrobe choices become more relaxed or else some sort of political statement. For instance, not wearing jeans, or sticking to harringbone or tweed jackets, villela shirts, regimental ties brogues, flatcaps and Barbour jacket imply somehow something like a political declaration.

Time ago there were no options, one had to be dressed on a certain fashion and that was all.

The bourgeoisie? I sure don't feel pressed to break out a frock coat and powdered wig.

Anigai said:

On a further note, those same friends are your typical "but that's really sharp, you could cut yourself with that" people, calling me a girl for being able to sow.

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Ha!

But I'm not sure if Ireland was like that back in the 70's, as far as I know we were always the type of people who either improvise or happen to know a guy in the neighborhood who done all that stuff. Unless it was sowing or some other of the so called "necessary skills of a female" of that time.

I always wear boots, usually military boots. Why you ask? Well on top of me just wearing them because I like them I originally made the switch because I would wear away a good €25 pair of runners/sneakers in 3-4months and I got sick of spending money on them. I'm wearing the same pair of leather boots now since I turned 17 and I'm 21 now. Some of the stiching is coming away and I'm wondering if getting it fixed is possible.

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I've never been to Ireland, unfortunately. One day ... one day ...

"Back in the day" over here in Canada, people used to be rather similar. They'd be handy enough with a few basic tools and the like, and be able to mend lots of stuff. The more complicated stuff would get taken to a local shop ... nothing big, just a local guy with a few more tools and a bit more talent for that sort of thing. You'd have a local tv repairman, and various other sorts of repair shops usually tucked away somewhere, usually for metal and/or electrical stuff, small motors, and what have you. And a few women would make a bit of extra money mending clothes as seamstresses. And of course the local cobbler.

Nowadays it's "bin ... Walmart ... done."

gegarrenton said:

The bourgeoisie? I sure don't feel pressed to break out a frock coat and powdered wig.

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"Frock the bourgeoisie!"

--Carl MarxCartney & John Lenin.

Doc4 said:

"Frock the bourgeoisie!"

--Carl MarxCartney & John Lenin.

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Doc4 said:

I almost said "Thoreauing" it out

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I couldn't find the quote or essay I really wanted in which Henry was essentially responding to the OP. Wanted to show how this same argument has been going on for at least 170 years. I don't think it was in Walden like the ones I quoted. Though I seem to remember that the main starting point was more a counter-rant against people offended by patches and inexpensive but utilitarian clothing, such as overalls. Somehow I think he'd be against falling down jeans, if purely as a precaution against falling down yourself.

Where would one go to purchase the hideous stuff we now wear 100 years ago? Nowhere. Folk dressed up for pictures 100 years ago heck I can remember people getting dressed up to travel on a plane back in the 60's.