Ever notice how people dressed in TV and movies before, oh, say 1970? Seems as though most (men) were always dressed in a coat and tie, even if they were just sitting around the house, or going to the store for a loaf of bread. Was that the way it really was?
Well, my grandmother wore a dress with shoes, stockings, and jewelry every day of her life as long as I knew her. She came to stay with us every Christmas, and we couldn’t open our presents until Grammy was up, washed and fully dressed. Excruciating.
Well…
Whenever you see clips from old baseball games from decades ago, all then men in the crowd are wearing jackets, ties and hats.
Growing up the 1950s, while we didn’t wear a coat and tie to the table, the dress code was decidedly more formal than it is now. Proper attire for men in public was usually a suit (not a sportcoat and tie, but a suit) while women wore dresses with jewelry and high heels, and a hat. When I say “in public” I mean you dressed to go to church, the movies, sporting events, etc. While it was permissable for a woman to shop for groceries in casual clothes, when she went to the big department store downtown, she dressed for that.
My mom (born in the 20’s) believed that once a woman reached a “certain age” (about 20) she should ** not ** wear her hair down. She never appeared in public in slacks, ever. Not once.
She would attend my brother’s baseball games, sitting in the bleachers, wearing a blue jean skirt (:eek: ), holding her knees together, purse on her lap. that’s as casual as she ever got.
My grandmother was like cher3’s whenever she was anywhere public. At home, she preferred men’s clothing. (She was 5’10" and big boned. They fit her better.) She also put her hair up in sponge rollers every night, including the day after her radical mastectomy.
I was in elementary school in the late 60s/early 70s. I wasn’t allowed to wear pants to school, only skirts and jumpers. Putting on snow pants was interesting; (though necessary-I grew up in Maine) I had to stuff my skirts down the sides of the pantlegs.
My old next door neighbor(born in the 1910’s to a very rich family) would dress up to go check her mail. I never saw her with her hair down or in anything but a dress. It didn’t matter what she was doing.
I saw this thread title and thought “the old days” meant the 1800s, not my goddam CHILDHOOD.
Well. Fashionable Ladies Who Lunched wore a morning frock to make their social rounds, a tea gown to greet afternoon guests in, a cocktail dress to go out in after dinner, an evening gown for formal occasions . . .
People just dressed better back then, pre-1960. They may not have been as comfortable, but damn, they looked slick. Hats, gloves, suits. Sooner or later, the cycle will come around again and our great-grandchildren will look at old photos of us and go, “jeez, what slobs they were back in the late 20th century!”
Men definitely wore suits when they went to work prior to the 70s; women wore dresses.
If you go back to the 30s, you’ll see pictures of high school students wearing jackets and ties to work.
Even today, in some businesses (banking, etc.), you are expected to wear a coat & tie to work. In many other places, you wear a tie, but only put on the jacket if you have to meet others. It’s a quick way to tell who’s an outsider – they’ll be wearing their sport coat.
Things really started becoming less formal in the past decade. I wore ties regularly to work until a couple of years ago.
Heck, I remember being a young lad in the mid-70’s and putting on “Sunday clothes” to go to Phillies’ games. Of course, it being the 70’s, “Sunday clothes” often meant a leisure suit (I had a powder blue one, and I looked adorable), but the concept was the same – going out in public meant dressing up.
Sua
People used to get dressed up to get on an airplane.
I went to an old HS, and like RealityChuck said, the old pictures showed everyone dressed up (like in everyday settings, not the annual class picture).
I had to wear an infernal neck-strangling device at my last job. Yuck. I work in a SW company now, and dressed up means clean sneakers.
Lawyers still dress for work, but even that is changing. The first inroad was “casual Friday” which small firms quickly adopted, but which came more slowly to large or conservative firms.
Now, dressing up is becoming the exception rather than the rule at many small firms. You put on the suit only when you have an important meeting, a deposition, or a court appearance. (And you are even seeing more casual dress at meetings and depositions these days. No Dockers in court yet, thank God.)
Most of the larger firms, and many of the smaller firms still encourage traditional business attire, but I can see a day coming when the suit and tie may become a relic in the same category as knee britches.
I had a weird roommate once (well, several times, but I’m thinking of just the one) who would not go out to check the mail, which was in the hall about ten steps from our apartment, in sweats. She had to change into a regular shirt and pants.
I tend to overdress slightly when I go out in public, but that’s only to offset my work-at-home wardrobe of bathrobe/sweats/yesterday’s laundry.
You know what though? Dressing up doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. Ladies, am I the only one who thinks a long full skirt is one of the most comfortable things in the world?
I’m not talking a big puffy poodle skirt, just a long, ankle length one that isn’t too tight or straight. You don’t have to worry about how you sit.
I’m a sucker for vintage. That’s why I really liked Titanic.
People really knew how to dress!
You’re not alone. I have several ankle-length heavy-cotton skirts that are actually more comfortable (and warmer in winter) than jeans.
I love dressing up. Too bad I don’t get much chance to.
I wear pretty much the same stuff any time I go out of the house. I wear long skirts and some king of knit top. I have one pair of dress slacks. I also wear knit capri pants under then. I weat trouser sock but not panty hose. I also have a suit, but that is also knit. It is pretty smart looking, but it is as comfortable as a sweat suit. I try not to leave the house unless I am completly put together. It is a comfortable way to dress, but doesn’t look as casual as most ppl do when not at work.
In consession to casual day, i bought a denim skirt. For summer parties i bought a silky caftan. Yes, it is a nightgown, but hey, it is festive.
Why did people stop dressing up?
Anybody remember the Abbott & Costello" tv series of the fifties (popular on Saturday morning reruns on cable). Bud & Lou, just regular poor schmokes, always wear coat & tie. Ridiculously high waist bands on trousers & ridiculously short,wide ties, to be sure, but coat & tie none the less.
My mother recently had old home movies put onto VHS, so I now have footage of my Grandfather hiking through the American Southwest in the 1950’s… wearing suit, tie and hat…amazing.
I almost always wear long full skirts. I love them.
Besides those, I have a few pairs of nice trousers in silk and wool. Add a couple of sweater sets and you’re in business.
No reason to be uncomfortable or all cinched up in pantyhose unless it’s absolutely necessary. 
My sense is that things really started to change in the late 70s.
I’m 39, and still remember how my Mom made a big deal of buying little suits and ties for my brothers and me whenever we got on an airplane to Ireland or Florida to visit our relatives. Honest, in the 60s and early 70s, it was considered a BIG DEAL to go on a plane, and we had to dress as if we were going to church.
I THINK that, when air travel first became available to the public, people still thought of air travel the way they used to think of sea travel. And just as you’d dress to the nines when you boarded the QE2, people felt you should dress formally on a plane flight to Europe.
In the same way, as has been pointed out before, if you watch highlight footage of the 1969 World Series, everybody at Shea Stadium was wearing a jacket and a tie, and the women were all wearing hats! Going to a ballgame was indeed perceived as a big deal, when I was a kid.