I have read on many message boards people say Portland and Houston is the worst dress city in the US. Than people say west coast dress like this , south dress like this and east coast dress like this , has if the US has three areas how people dress.I read that south people dress more casual , than where does the west coast and east coast come in?
Well to me Los Angeles , Miami and Phoenix seems to be more mix dress up casual and dress down casual even in ghettos areas of Los Angeles.
Well Portland seems to be more dress casual and many hipsters:o but do NOT dress like you are going to sleep , for a walk or to the gym.
Also other thing is Canada seems to be more into sweatpants ,trackpants and jogging pants than the US.You will not find 95% people in Los Angeles , Miami and Phoenix into that .
The closes cities in the US to Canada who it seems many people who wear sweatpants is Philadelphia ,Tucson Arizona and San Bernardino.
When comes to baggy look and ghetto look to me that seems be more in the east .Not to many people in the west into that .
I have seen some in baggy jeans , baggy shorts , big long baggy t-shirts so on in Los Angeles , Miami and Phoenix but nothing like Philadelphia , New Orleans and city of Atlanta and state of Florida it like day and night.
I have read that Portland and Houston is worst dressed city in US but Portland seems more dress up casual in fitted clothing where Houston may have more the dress down casual . It hard to tell on google street view because Houston is such a suburb and so spread out :o but seems a lot of guys have more of the country look of Appalachian mountain look :o jeans ,t-shirt and baseball cap and jeans shorts and gym shorts .See some in sweatpants but nothing like Philadelphia ,Tucson Arizona and San Bernardino.
Where Portland is less country more hipster like guys in fitted t-shirt and tight jeans or cargo shorts ( don’t see jeans shorts or gym shorts there like in Houston or Philadelphia , New Orleans and city of Atlanta ) girls in girl top than t-shirt and jeans or cargo shorts . Some girls in leggings.When comes to baggy look and ghetto look no where to be found in Portland.
Other parts of Texas probably more cowboy and hillbilly than Houston.
Anyways other people who been to more cities in US can say more about this and explain the difference.
I live in Florida. I once spent an afternoon drinking beers on the front patio of a bar in Key West with a friend. As people streamed by, we’d try to guess where they were from based on their clothing. If we could, we’d stop them and ask as they approached us. We had about an 80% accuracy rate, but note that some of our clues came from non-clothing hints. (Example, tanned people were probably from the South, usually also Floridians. Really pale people came from the midwest or Canada. Yes, it was mid-winter when this exercise took place.)
The company I work for is located in Texas. Both Texas and Florida are really hot most of the time. I noticed one thing about San Antonio that I noted as a major difference between it and Miami: It doesn’t really matter how hot it is. It could 900º outside and Texans would still be wearing jeans. What’s with the hatred for shorts in Texas? I have no idea but it seems like Florida is far more casual, in general, than in Texas.
This has to have something to do with demand and supply. And by that I’m referring to what the clothing buyers purchase for the stores. We consumers go to a clothing store and buy clothes. Our choices are what is on the racks in front of us. Some people travel to shop, but most people just head over to the mall when they need new jeans or t-shirts or whatever. So I think the differences are regional. Certain fabrics are unavailable in Florida. I have a hard time finding really thick, warm sweatshirts down here. If I want wool something, I call my mom or sister in Ohio and ask them to pick up stuff like that for me. Whenever I’m up there visiting, I try to stop in a store and pick up a jacket or sweatshirt or items that are made from thicker, heavier, warmer fabric. When my family wants cool, lightweight summer clothes, they call me. It’s much easier for me to find linen and lightweight cotton blouses down here than up there: they’ll have it, but I have much better selection.
But yeah, I don’t really know why you’ll see people more dressed up in one city vs. another. I can tell you that, in Florida, many people you’ll see out in restaurants (for example) are on vacation from somewhere else. Most people don’t pack dress-up-for-dinner clothes so restaurants in tourist-y areas tend to have very relaxed standards of dress. There is almost no place you can go where you’d be turned away for wearing shorts and t-shirts. Walk into a nice-ish restaurant and most of the patrons will be wearing exactly that. Do the same thing in another city and more people are wearing nicer slacks and button-down shirts.
We could get chiggers here too, but you have to go out into the woods to get 'em. So, are you telling me, that in urban settings like downtown San Antonio… there’s chiggers?
That’s what my Texas relations always give as the reason. But once you get a large segment of the population dressing one way, it ceases to matter where the rest of the population are. Fashion, and all that. People want to fit in.
The differences are easy to explain. It’s a big country and it’s easy for local styles to take hold. The differences in climate alone are sufficient to explain things. But other factors are the degree of white collar vs. blue collar jobs, the age demographics of the area, the wealth demographics of an area, whether or not a city is a tourist zone, whether or not public transportation is commonly available or used, and the list goes on.
Yesterday I was talking to a colleague and he was describing a guy at work, we’re in DC and described the person in question, “he’s got short hair, glasses and dresses kind of like a New York guy.” I instantly knew which person he meant. That’s the cool thing about culture, all these subtle differences that are lost on outsiders are a kind of secret code among members of the same culture.
My one and only contribution to this is an observation I made a couple years ago while visiting in North Carolina. I took some Birkinstocks I hadn’t worn in years and wore them to McDonald’s, where I took my young son to play in the outdoor playland. Birks, while always popular with a certain segment, surged in popularity, what, 15 years ago?
Anyway, with little else to do but sit there and watch him and people-watch, I noticed that Birks seemed to be the in thing among the teens and young 20-year-olds. You can tell when kids that age are self-consciously preening in the latest styles. I was like “whu?” thinking I was just another out-of-style retro mom in my old sandals.
To sum up: rural North Carolina is about 10 years behind fashion trends. But to be fair, wasn’t it Twain who said he hoped he died in Kentucky*, since they were always years out of date?
Ah yes:
*Although I see from the interwebs that Cincinnati is an alternative backward location.
My GF, the most stylish person I know, is from Pittsburgh and always says no one dresses well there; in fact, people go shopping in their pajamas. Here in DC, it’s acceptable to dress well. Since I prefer to dress well, I like it here.
I’m surprised this would strike anyone as unusual. New York City and Phoenix are further apart than, say, Liverpool and Milan, and yet nobody in their right mind would suggest people in Liverpool dress the same (or, let’s be honest, as well) as people in Milan. Why should that not also be true in places as far apart as Portland and NYC, for example?
Birkenstocks experienced their first surge in the late-80s and early-90s. That’s when I bought a pair, as a resident of North Carolina. Certain limited styles (like the Boston) became very popular again with teens and college students, beginning about 7 or 8 years ago.
I have never seen anyone in public in pajama pants in the US or Canada.
Well I never been to Pittsburgh so don’t know what it is like there.
And for the poster above you are saying Boston people really dress down? More than the south?
I don’t know much about Boston but from what I seen at least the area I was in more of mix of street casual look and house casual look like to the gym and around house . I don’t know but in the suburbs of Boston may have more of the house casual look. Where at least areas I was in seems more 50% of each.
Also hard tell what city has more but it does seem 10% wear sweatpants and trackpants in Boston in the suburbs it may be more.
I’m sure others who have been to more cities can say more about this and clear up.
Don’t lump in Quebec (especially Montreal and Quebec City) with the rest of Canada when it comes to fashion. There are many chic dressers here and a flourishing local design scene. (Though I must apologize for the T-shirt and fanny-pack wearing tourists in Florida; I suspect their fashion sense is confiscated at the border.)
In Vancouver, (west coast Canada) even now people dress like they are going to a Nirvana concert, on their way tree planting. Waffle weave shirts with cargo pants, boots and the omni present Gore-Tex. This is one segment of the population. We do have hipsters, and really well dressed people too, but I lived here before in the early 90’s and also 10 years ago, that style never changes. In Montreal, when I was a student in the late 80’s early 90’s I felt like a country bumpkin if I wore jeans and runners on the metro. I went out and got a pair of boots just so I didn’t seem like I had fallen off the turnip truck that day.
