How far back are we going here? Lifebuoy soap was on the campaign against “B.O” by 1928.
How many people had running hot water in 1928?
Taking a bath was a lot of work back then.
That’s why my dad wore clip-on ties. (He wasn’t a machinist, but he designed, tested and operated machinery in his skunkworks.) It wasn’t because he didn’t want to tie a tie (and he ties a mean Windsor), but because if it got caught in the machinery, it’d pull off and not take his head with it. Clip-ons weren’t made for convenience, but for safety. Or so he always said.
Yep. When the Bolshoi Ballet came here, the well-dressed people actually bothered to iron their Dockers. Most others were content with jeans.
The very few people that dressed formally were young teens, who took the opportunity to play dress-up for fun, but it only had the result of making any other formal attire look costumey and retro.
I wore slacks, belt, and pullover shirt, and honestly felt I was overdressed 
[nitpicking hijack of my own quote]
Oops, I didn’t realize “Skunk Works” was registered by Lockheed. He didn’t work for them, but at another company doing product and production line design. He always called his place of work “The Skunkworks”. I thought it was a general term. Learn somethin’ new everyday.
Well, plenty. That’s when my house was built, and while my fixtures aren’t original, I assure you the bathroom was built to have a bathtub in it with running water. Hot, I dunno, but running indeed. I don’t live in New York City, either, just a regular residential neighborhood in a small city.
What always got me was looking at old postcards of people on the beach dressed to the nine.
If I remember right I could have swore the men were in three piece suits! This changed I think to something that looked like a prison onesy with the legs just above the kness and 3/4 length sleeves.
I can only surmise the beach was something like any central park back then and people would only meet one another and talk; more of a stuffy social status thing. Otherwise I would figure these men would drown from just the sheer weight of a wet three piece suit!
Just to dive into the thread 105 messages late, I think you have to bear in mind that we are looking at this from the perspective of people in North America in 2006. I said this in another thread but I’ll say it again:
We are the worst dressed people in the history of Western civilization.
Thirty years from now - I will bet money on this with anyone willing to do so who probably won’t die in the interim - people will look at pictures of folks of this time period and say “My Christ, they dresssed horribly then. What on earth were they thinking? They walked around in long shorts and shower shoes? Didn’t anything fit? What’s with the stupid facial hair?”
We are looking at suit-wearing ancestors through the lens of the most slovenly dressed generation in centuries.
More than you think.
But cleanliness was next to godliness.
I was born in 1964. My mom was a little old-fashioned. I can remember wearing suits with shorts when I was a boy; a friend of mine, slightly older, has a great photo of him as a boy in a short suit, slinging a hula hoop. I tease him about it every chance I get.
I do tend to believe that slovenly dress leads to slovenly manners, but that’s a battle that’s long lost, sad to say. First impressions are powerful, and in the legal profession, at least, a suit and tie are still almost mandatory. I wear 'em every day to work and don’t mind it; it makes changing into shorts and a T-shirt when I get home all the more pleasant.
I used to be a Civil War reenactor. I learned that, even on the hottest days, soldiers in 1861-65 would keep on their wool sack coats, and many wore vests! Being seen in no more than a shirt (cotton, even full length) and pants was regarded by many as scandalous.
In the 1960s and 1970s, a lot of barriers came crashing down - mostly for the better (women’s lib, the Civil Rights Movement) - but not all.
Which meant you took a bath on Saturday night, so you’d be all spruced up for church! (Okay, maybe by 1928, people had progressed beyond that, but it was the norm for a long time.
Overall, I’m not quite convinced that people are slovenly across the board, but people’s priorities about dressing up have changed, for sure. Check this photo of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in 1994 at their press conference to announce the launching of Dreamworks. I’d rate Katzenberg as relatively the most formal, with a shirt and tie, but no jacket, then Geffen with a shirt and unbuttoned vest but no tie. Spielberg, in a plaid shirt, unbuttoned to reveal a Hanes t-shirt, might as well have just come in from chucking a football with his kids. And remember, Spielberg’s the guy who, at 17, donned a suit so he could sneak onto the Paramount lot and blend in!
But the thing to remember is that when this photo was taken, all three of these guys had long since earned their place in the top echelon. What I see here in the entertainment capital is that the wannabes and the people on their way up dress hard. The top dogs don’t if they don’t want to, because they don’t have to. Mr. Rilch and Boss have suits that they bought expressly for business meetings. But right now they’re in negotiations with a video game company that I cannot name (knock wood), and the people they met with were wearing jeans and shirts with logos. The person in charge of the meeting wore…khakis and a polo. And that’s par for the quintessential Gen-X industry.
Yes, indeed. That was in the early days of “Madison Ave.” advertising. First create a problem, then offer the solution. B.O. was promoted as a problem to sell soap. Hairy legs on women was promoted as a problem to sell razors. Prior to the ad campaigns, people were smelly, and women were hairy, and no one thought much of it. It was normal.
Widespread adoption of our current grooming standards took a few years. And older people tended to retain the patterns they grew up with and be slow to adopt new ways (just like today).
I’ll tell you who still dresses up in America: Black people. Church, prom, junior high graduation, etc.
My parents are fond of Ponderosa (my mother’s a picky eater, what can you do?) and the one we always go to is right next to a traditional black church. You should SEE the people coming in after church on Sundays-damn, they’ve got STYLE. And the women all have the most beautiful hats, too.
Sorry, but my vote goes to the late 1970s.
Black senior citizens generally dress sharper than older whites, from what I’ve seen. Otherwise, no. Around here, it’s the knee-length white t-shirt for men, and it’s worn EVERYWHERE but church. You see “style” for formal events, but elsewhere, not really.
I do see middle-age and older Indian men dress up more than most. White button-down shirts and brown slacks are practically a uniform for them.
Not even close. There’s a few ugly patterns there and whatnot, and one pair of white pants, but a lot of those clothes aren’t particularly unusual, and at least those people look like they were sober when they got dressed. Or more to the point, at least they put some thought into their appearance, even if now the styles look dated.
I’m in an airport right now. Not thirty feet away from me - this is in the first class lounge, mind you - is a man who, had he been wearing the clothes he is now wearing 30 years ago, would have been assumed to be homeless by any observer. He’s wearing a ratty-looking T-shirt on top of a long sleeved sweat shirt of some kind, big baggy wrinkly shorts, and shower flip-flops. I mean, he looks incredibly bad, as if he’s going outside to play in a sprinker or he lost all his shoes. And that’s a common style for men today. Next to him is a woman who is wearing bright orange plastic shoes, pants that obviously don’t fit, and, by my count, three T-shirts. She looks just like a clown.
Just you wait. In 2030, today will be universally regarded as the absolute nadir of personal style in all of history.
Yesterday I was wearing a comfortable tailored suit (pale green linen tweed), with a cream-colored T-shirt and flats. A woman passing me on the street gave me the once-over and said, “Nice suit!”
Made my day.
About two years ago we went to an evening performance at the Fox Theatre. I had not been there before, but I’ve been to various concerts in other southern cities, and knowing this particular event appealed more towards older folks, I wore a sport coat and tie. Of the 4,500 people there I believe I was the only one with a tie who was not on stage. I was shocked…and though my teenage years were in the 70’s, I was disappointed, too.
<tangent>When we watch a British Comedy such as Keeping Up Appearances from the 1990s we see the late-middle-aged Richard wearing a tie in every scene; gardening, picknicking, you name it. Do English men in their 50s-60s still wear ties everytime they go outdoors?</tangent>
sigh
In July I was unlucky to have to go to two funerals in three days. I’m in my mid-thirties and wore a charcol grey suit. I was disgusted at the sloth and poor dress of most of the other people.