I’m on team “a suit that fits is comfortable”, except that I’m definitely cooler in short sleeves and shorts. But in the winter i can be perfectly comfortable wearing a pants suit.
Despite it being warmer, I’ll wear lightweight long sleeves and pants if i need to be in the sun, even if it’s quite hot out. (And a big floppy hat.) But in my life, “too hot” is often an indoor space when I’m exercising, or outdoors in the shade. Today i hosted a square dance in my back yard. It was too hot. It was also shady and breezy. I wore shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, shoes and wool socks (i need both the padding and the wicking, although if i could dance in bare feet that would be cooler) and an absorbent head band.
I don’t recall what anyone else wore. At least two people wore lightweight dresses, and the rest? I dunno, nothing exciting.
Garry Trudeau made a salient point in his 28 February 1978 strip, which I can’t seem to link to. Vietnamese ambassador Phred complains to his tailor about having to wear at suit at the UN instead of "the colorful indigenous garb of my native Vietnam. Mort the tailor responds “You call black pajamas colorful?” And adds that if Arafat “wore a nice suit, he’d have a country by now.”
If you want to wear a suit in the hot summer, pick a suitable fabric. Just because you wear a tie does not mean you must tie it tightly or even do up the top button. Fashion is sometimes about about confidence and common sense. That said, I don’t wear a tie while cleaning out the garage. If I wear one at work, you are entitled to your opinion. But it isn’t your circus and it isn’t your monkey.
I know quite a few very wealthy people and quite a few undereducated ones who both refer to themselves as “middle class”. They don’t dress exactly the same, but there are a lot of the same types of clothes and often brands too. I live in a town full of used clothing charity shops and for very little money and effort you could buy stylish clothes, which were often originally quite expensive.
With due sensitivity, the more I think about it I conclude a lot of the current “loose is comfy and comfy is everything” is about the obesity epidemic.
Heavy people have a real problem rejecting all the heat their greater mass creates through ordinary metabolism. Scrawny people like me have the opposite problem: all radiative surface area and nearly no interior meat to make heat.
When the net heat flow needs to be outwards, tight clothes in multiple layers are hotter than one loose layer. Especially if you’re indoors in climate controlled buildings or vehicles, which most people are most of the time.
The examples of traditional desert garb are fully applicable for the situation where the net heat flow is inwards; they’re trying to avoid being cooked by the sun, not being cooked by their own innards.
Of course if people are actively gaining weight, whatever they bought last year now fits tight = is uncomfortable. So real quickly extra loose is extra good. Couple that with some body image issues and “I give up; I don’t care what I dress like.” becomes real easy.
And we do live in an era where “easy” is the Prime Directive. I know it is for me in lots of life areas where it didn’t used to be.
Eh, I’ve been the same weight for decades. And i was usually to hot as a kid, when i was skinny. My mother didn’t believe in air conditioning, and i remember hating the heat of summer in New England, and having to take a cold shower to get to sleep. And my husband isn’t overweight, and is always warm enough.
I think some people run hotter than others. Although I’m sure my extra insulation is helpful in the winter.
I would never go anywhere without makeup, and my hair looking nice. For most days my clothing is casual but in style. It’s something that I’ve always done, my mom always does and my sisters too. If I don’t look what I deem is presentable to myself, I feel uncomfortable and self conscience. It takes me under 10 minutes to put on my makeup and another 5-10 (depending on what I’m doing with it) to fix my hair. I get ready for the day every day no matter what I’m doing or where I’m going. I just feel better being put together. So I guess I do it more for me.
I have two suits, tailored to fit me. It’s not a obesity problem with me.
It’s about suits being uncomfortable and impracticable. I hate the fabric (give me shorts or denim), I hate the tie, I hate the jacket, I hate the weird pockets. I hate having to be careful of stains. I hate that you have to get them professionally cleaned. I hate how hard it is to travel with them and you need to have a special bag and check it. Dress shoes suck in snow, so do dress socks.
I’ll wear a suit, but it’s for others. But I’m not very happy about it.
I have a carry-on suitcase that can hold a suit fine, and other than “it’s bulky”, don’t find it terribly hard to travel with a suit. And my suits are mostly a woven wool fabric, which is a little stretchier than cotton. I find the fabric very comfortable, unless it’s too warm for it.
I have a couple articles of clothing that are “dry clean only”. I don’t follow the rule. Into the washing machine it goes once it needs cleaning. IME it either works or it doesn’t.
If I’m going to generalize I’d say that men generally dress for themselves, and women generally dress for others. And when I say others, women generally dress to impress other women, not men.
When i had to wear a suit every day at work, i found some machine washable suits that were good enough. They don’t need to be washed all that often, though, because they don’t really touch your skin. (I had to wear nylons. Ymmv.)
Not sure this generalization is generally true. Or that people always dress with the same motivation. Or that both things aren’t considered since you have to wear something.
A guy choosing a shirt to go nightclubbing or in a date is not the same guy mowing the lawn. Women may be more likely to be judged for what they wear by everyone, but they also want to like what they are wearing. Even if this like might (or might not) value comfort over cost or cosmopolitanism.
One thing I always found amusing about the show How I Met Your Mother was Barney Stinson’s penchant for “suiting up” everywhere he goes. From my experience, there are few things more uncomfortable wearing a suit in Manhattan in the summer. Simply wearing a suit generally doesn’t make you inherently more attractive to women in NYC. It makes you look like a guy who just got off work. Particularly if you spend most of your time hanging out in a more casual bar like they do in the show.
