Declining clothing standards in downtown Chicago (Marshall, Brooklyn: sale, credit card, wedding)

[misspetite]

Originally Posted by jdiddy

With a name like that, I'd have never guessed.

LOL

[scarletneon]

Originally Posted by rgb123

#9 its the dead of winter and everyone is sick and tired of trying, much more interested in staying warm, yet tired of having to try to stay warm, picking up whatever is clean AND warm....few choices, probably had to run back into the house after cleaning the snow off the car and ended up getting soaking wet, and had to change into something in the leftover pile, beyond the leftovers you chose to wore that day that were slightly better than what you ended up in. Just a guess of what might be going on there...

yes. i like to at least try to look nice with the cheap clothes that i do have, but when it comes right down to it, it takes a good 10-15 minutes to bundle up so i don't freeze to death waiting for the train, and my down coat looks like a bag lady coat (think that bird lady from Home Alone 2). being warm to me is more important than looking good to people i probably won't see tomorrow.

[Krimo]

I probably should not give my opinion since I have never been to Chicago or the US for that matter, but desibear it seems to me that you miss elegance.
There is this quote from a famous french author : "Elegance resides in behaving in solitude as you would behave in society" (hope I translated this correctly)
Bottom line is, you should not care much for how people dress, for elegance is in the behavior, not in the outfit. Then again, IF indeed you miss elegance, I am just making an asumption here

I do agree with you Carolina when you say that this is the way things are going, it is true over here as well, but I think there will always be suits and track pants in the streets, regardless of the peoples' professions. For instance I am a 21 year old student, I like my t-shirts and blue jeans, but I do fancy a lot suits as well (but unfortunately do not have many occasions to wear one)

[Drover]

I'm not sure it's possible to entirely separate elegance in behavior from elegance in outfit. Yes it's true that truly elegant people/personalities can come in casual packages, and truly caustic people can dress quite sharply. But it seems lost on too many people that one's manner of dress is a form of communication. It's a big part of establishing a first impression. Dress immediately establishes the tone with which people are likely to approach you and communicate with you. Those in the know use manner of dress to set expectations of how you expect to be treated and addressed by others. If my purpose is to do business, I will dress accordingly -- no jeans and T-shirts at the law office: this isn't goof-off time, we've got work to do. If my purpose is to relax, I'll wear jeans and a T-shirt: don't walk up to me and hand me a business card or try to sell me life insurance when I'm wearing "weekend clothes" at my kid's soccer game.

I'm not too upset that the dress code for certain social functions and activities has been dialed down in the interest of comfort -- it's just too damned uncomfortable to wear a suit on a cramped, stuffy airplane, for instance. But I still believe in business attire for business, evening attire for nights on the town at fancy restaurants, and disapproving glares at women who dress like streetwalkers in public and/or attention-hounds who wear ridiculous outfits for the purpose of eliciting judgments from others so as to feel morally superior to the narrow-minded squares casting said judgments. I suppose you can call me old-fashioned.

[Krimo]

I definitely agree with you Drover.

The sad reality is indeed that you cannot completely separate behavioral elegance from the one in the attire.

Anyways, I too believe in formal dressing for formal circumstances, and the opposite. Makes me think, I have an interview next Tuesday (for a summer job in Disney World) and the lady I had over the phone (Whose voice was very seductive by the way) put so much emphasis on the attire...She was like "I cannot stress enough how important your appearance is"
Which surprised me a bit. I mean, it is common sense that you would not go to an interview dressed as if it was laundry day.

[ParkerP]

Originally Posted by Krimo

I definitely agree with you Drover.

The sad reality is indeed that you cannot completely separate behavioral elegance from the one in the attire.

Anyways, I too believe in formal dressing for formal circumstances, and the opposite. Makes me think, I have an interview next Tuesday (for a summer job in Disney World) and the lady I had over the phone (Whose voice was very seductive by the way) put so much emphasis on the attire...She was like "I cannot stress enough how important your appearance is"
Which surprised me a bit. I mean, it is common sense that you would not go to an interview dressed as if it was laundry day.

You would be shocked. I work at a lab and a lot of people make the fatal mistake of thinking that just because their position requires a lab coat or because its a scientist position, they can come to the interview looking like a bum or they think that they don't have to have a professional demeanor.

[Krimo]

It only half-surprises me...But still, I mean, what do people think sometimes ?

[Manigault]

I think its due to the decline of the Maxwell Street clothing trade.

[newmover99]

Originally Posted by desibear

I'm not that old (early-mid 30s) but I swear I see people downtown getting more and more casually dressed. I'm not talking about what people wear on weekend, where there is no standardized definition of slobiness but what people are wearing in the loop during business hours. I'm referring to guys in untucked shirts/jeans, golf shirts plus khakhis, shoes that look like they have never been shined since new, etc.. Now don't get me wrong in that I don't want only suits walking around downtown but come on, if you are working in a building downtown, have some respect for your surroundings and throw on a dress shirt and a pair of (god forbid) wool pants. How hard is that? By the way, I'm referring only to those who pretty much don't appear to be working in a skilled-trade of any sorts but look like they are in white collar jobs (big assumption, I know, I know).

Looks like most women take care to dress up on weekdays but even that is not universal. I'm writing this from an airport since Chicago is delaying flights left and right, and there are a bunch of early 20 looking women dressed in what looks like pajamas to me. It's a strange feeling because on one hand, if the early 20s women want to wear less, a big part of me says that's great OTOH, there is conflicting part of me that's partly sad that almost no cares anymore how they present themselves and now even women are letting go of the standards

Maybe I'm just really bored, maybe I'm a snob, maybe I'm hallucinating but I think downtown Chicagoans just don't dress like they used to not even that long ago. That was part of the 'charm' of living downtown vs the suburbs where you sort of expect the sweatpant/t-shirt as a de facto uniform....ok, that's a pretty soapbox I was on but whatever, flame away...

Think that's bad??Look at FL & CA--tshirts , shorts and flip-flops!! Everywhere

[Chicago60614]

I did a professional accounting job for 5 years downtown with no dress code at all. Sometimes I felt like a slob on the train for wearing jeans and a t-shirt every day to work. Then I got a new job where I have to dress up everyday....yeah. It was fun for about a week. Unless you're meeting with clients or doing something in the public eye - I don't see any reason to make everyone dress up all the time. It's very old school, and I'm fine that the tradition is melting away.