Did most everyone dress nice back in the day? (American, compare, different)
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It is photos of how the common grunt lived in New York City in that era. One thing that is remarkable, along with the shocking squalor, is that some of the men are wearing suits even though they are indigent, and many other men are wearing at least suit jackets and hats though their pants are filthy and baggy work pants. "Good clothes" seem to have been worn to the bitter end.
People would use their old clothes as work clothes. Very few wore purpose made industrial clothing. Look at the pictures of the men building the railways. They had waistcoats on.
Absolutely they did. Today, most people look like they are homeless and that is what passes for fashion these days. More of the USA's culture rot.
I walked through a whole floor of such yesterday in what used to be "the place" to find nice dresses. Is part of the problem this effort to sell "one size fits all" rage? I did notice that many garments were cut on a line that could be worn by several sizes - straight, loose, baggy.
Like many other societal changes, the decline in dress standards has it's genesis in the mid-1960's. It has little to do with clothing cost or how garments are produced.
Taken by Mitchell and Kenyon in 1904. The British working class at Blackpool beach. They are very well dressed. Amongst the earliest films and discovered about 20 years ago in a can in a shop's basement in Blackburn, Lancashire. The construction guys found an amazing amount of film showing UK towns and cities, and the people in them, from about 1897 to the first world war. Priceless. It was all given over to the nation.
Living in TX, I couldn't imagine being dressed up in dark woolen suits with dress shoes on a 100 degree day. People generally know how to dress, but our society realized that it made no sense to wear a three piece suit for grocery store trips.
Also, keep in mind that in olden times most people had "blue collar" type jobs where they likely wore overalls, jeans etc. when working (farming, factories). The suits and ties came out when they were out on the town. If you have an office job that requires business casual/formal, the last thing you want to do is dress up when going out after work. You'd likely want to dress down just a bit.
Climate is a very important factor. I went on vacation to Tahiti once, and even in some of the better restaurants, the waiters were barefoot and shirtless. None of that "No shirts, no shoes, no service" rule over there! It also wasn't unusual to see toddlers naked in public there. And women crossing the road topless.
But as for this country, while I guess a trip to the grocery store doesn't warrant a suit, I'm sick of seeing the other extreme of young women wearing pajamas to the store! I hate that.
DH and I always have this conversation whenever we fly. Years ago everyone was well dressed and neat. Today it is flip flops and shorts. Quite possibly the comfort factor is partially to blame as years ago there was more leg room and seat room. Also ditto for church, years ago .......Sunday best, today, nevermind!!!!!
I'm not religious, so I don't keep up with church life today, but my next door neighbors are this elderly couple, and they always seem to be out at the same time for a while on Sunday mornings, and they wear their usual retiree uniform of visor, Hawaiian shirts (we don't live in Hawaii), shorts and flipflops. Do some churches today allow that attire?
My first plane ride was in 1969, to NYC when I was still in elementary school -- I wore a dress, nice coat and patent-leather shoes, because going on a plane was special. Now a plane is about as special as the Greyhound bus.
Nowadays, with the TSA making everyone remove their shoes in public with no place to sit down to do so without losing balance, those patent-leather dress shoes could be impractical. If I have to fly in this lousy millenium, I wear flipflops at the airport. Sure they're sloppy, but it feels necessary to me.
Like many other societal changes, the decline in dress standards has it's genesis in the mid-1960's. It has little to do with clothing cost or how garments are produced.
I'd be more inclined to say the '80s.
In the 60s, office workers wore suits and dresses. Pants on women were forbidden. The hippie look came along toward the 70s but people didn't wear hippie clothes to work or church.
All one has to do is look at images of The Beatles. They were well groomed and wearing suits.
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