Did most everyone dress nice back in the day? (influences, 60's, economy)
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When you look back at old videos of crowds of people from, say the early 20th century it seems as if almost everyone, man or woman wore something nice, or at least pretty decent, not lots of the ghetto-type stuff you see lots of people wearing today. And considering how large the crowds are I doubt everyone was really that well off, so did people back then just have an overall finer sense of fashion and things were more affordable, or what? While I'm not trying to imply every man should be wearing suits and top hats or women wearing nice dresses I always am amazed looking at what seemed to be the daily ware for people back in the day from watching old videos not movies just videos of large crowds and real life stuff.
Fashion did not evolve back then like it does now. Respectable clothing hasn't been in style since the days of the leisure suit. Even now it is only a certain faction of men, who were known as metrosexuals back in the 00s, that are THAT serious about their appearance now. Fashion hasn't been "right" for like four, five decades, IMHO.
It is like you can wear a suit, or a nice dress (as opposed to a pantsuit, etc.) but it is still perceived as more of a fashion thing when you do, and less about class and etiquette.
My grandfather, born in 1863, would not go to town without dressing in a 3-piece suit with pocket watch in the vest pocket and a gold watch chain. His idea of casual was to take off the suit coat. Men even wore ties while playing baseball.
One hundred years later, (mid 1960s) my dad's idea of dressing down would be a La Cost (Izod with the alligator), khaki pants, loafers and a "sports coat".
Pretty much what my husband calls "dressing up" today.
I think hats are coming back and Im glad and I usually wear hats during the spring and summer as well . I love it cause then my hair can be just combed out and put a hat on and gone .
Growing up, my mom and my sisters all got hats for Easter. I'm trying to think of when that custom ended. Not only my family but in general.
Believe it or not, people wanted to dress up. It was a sign you were an adult and a responsible, mature person. The idea that you could be a "kid" well into your 20s or even 30s would have been laughed at. Kids wanted to be adults by the time they were 18 and in many cases they were. This acceptance for what clothing meant was very culturally ingrained that to wear something else would have felt uncomfortable and ridiculous to you.
Casual clothing also wasn't necessarily more comfortable.
I DID grow up back then, and I can guarantee that not everyone felt this way. My dad wore the de rigueur hat, coat and tie - and hated it. Ties are uncomfortable and useless flaps of cloth that serve only to contribute to health problems such as high blood pressure. Hats are something you have to hang onto in a stiff breeze. And coats (as in suit jackets) are hot and uncomfortable in the summer, and a pain in the winter to put an actual coat on over.
As for me - as a little girl, I was expected to wear white gloves and dresses. Never mind that walking to school in winter in the bitter bitter cold was torture. Never mind that boys were always standing at the bottom of the stairs trying to look up girl's skirts. Never mind that wearing a skirt meant you weren't allowed on the monkey bars, slides, teeter-totter, or swings. I was constantly in trouble for "dirtying" my gloves and tearing holes in my tights.
We were both immensely relieved when things started loosening up in the 60s. The first day I was allowed to go to school in pants instead of a skirt or dress was the first day of freedom for me. Too bad I was in jr. high school by then - there was a lot of playground time lost by that time. Like virtually ALL of it.
Casual clothes back then WERE most definitely way more comfortable than stiff suits and dresses. We didn't have modern athletic shoes, but at least sneakers didn't pinch and creak like the heavy oxfords and patent leather shoes I was supposed to wear as a little girl.
It taught me that the number one most important thing about clothing was UTILITY. Not fashion, style, or social acceptance, but how the clothing serves you personally. It is more important for clothing to be cool in summer and warm in winter, that it not restrict movement, and that it not be prone to getting caught in machinery (such as my bicycle chain) than whether or not it meets some social norm.
If you want to dress to the nines every day, fine. However I vehemently deny you the right to call me a "slob" for dressing comfortably in clothing that doesn't limit my activity nor leave me stewing in my own juices, simply for the sake of "fashion" or "respectability".
I'd like to see someone try to give me a "makeover". JUST TRY IT! LOL!
I know what you mean. I wouldn't allow my daughter to wear jeans to church even through high school -- and this was 5 years ago! She was annoyed, and I told her that when she graduated, she was welcome to wear whatever she liked. Funny -- on her weekends home from college, I noticed that she still never wore jeans. I asked her about it one day and she grinned and admitted that "they just didn't feel right" in church. I'm still trying to figure out how strapless dresses became the norm for wedding dresses -- it wasn't that long ago that having bare shoulders in church was just a few notches short of scandalous.
T-shirts used to be underwear!! Women never wore them. I'm not that strict, and goodness knows, I have a few t-shirts of my own, but a lot of people don't know the difference between "casual" and "sloppy".
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.
There was an episode of Dr.Who where he and the Companions visited Queen Victoria. The good queen woke with odd dreams of people running from something down the pathway, but the most odd thing was they were all in their underwear. The first thing which happens to the female companion is she gets properly dressed in victorian wear. The novelty wears off fast.
What this shows is two things. In different times people dress in different ways. And sometimes the change is fast. Post ww1, dresses which had remained at the floor for a long long time, suddenly changed to knee length all within a few years. And what we call casual or underwear or proper is a fluid thing.
The last time I took a plane we almost didn't make the flight since I wouldn't unpackage a painting I'd bought and they finally let me take it through the walk thru exray thing. I'd called first. It's not clothes which makes that kind of travel unspecial, but the mess. Customers are just sardines now. I refuse to fly now due to the harrassment.
Growing up, my mom and my sisters all got hats for Easter. I'm trying to think of when that custom ended. Not only my family but in general.
When I was a little girl, we always had an Easter Dress, which was usually frilly with lace and pink. My cousin got blue and I finally convinced mom I'd rather have yellow. But as soon as I was old enough I aced the frilly dress and the hat. In my teens I wore micro minis (One yard, on vest and skirt) and jeans.
But I wore hats a lot, just different kinds. I still love the english style caps and have a stack to choose from. I hate when the hair ends up blown all over the place and in your eyes. They just look good too. Most of them are black with different fabrics. I also wear caps like ball caps because they give your eyes superior sun protection.
I think people have evolved and come to realize that appearance is not a good indicator of character.
Not all the time but most times it is. How you dress is a reflection of how you feel about yourself. In my experience, the way people dress is very much in line with their character and habits.
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