# The main factors in why people dress down much more today compared to previous generations? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 11, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447 "2012-10-11T19:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/61 "2012-10-11T23:48:23Z")
> [@GQELITE33](#): > > Want to be taken seriously? Dress the part! …and try to avoid actually using the word “Amway.” ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/62 "2012-10-11T23:48:51Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > I just don’t understand how anyone can like the color blue. It makes no sense. Red is so much more colorful, it has heart and warmth, blue is like a frozen landscape buried in the depths of time after nuclear holocaust. > > Everyone should like red just like I do. I think you meant to put this part in a new thread. (Cause that would be awesome.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/63 "2012-10-12T00:14:09Z")
[Related thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=612151), only with fewer responses. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/64 "2012-10-12T00:33:22Z")
> [@Blakeyrat](#): > > I work in IT in Seattle. This isn’t true in any company I’ve worked at. In fact, in my first professional position, I usually out-dressed the CEO. (And I was just wearing normal business casual attire.) The boss I most respect wore blue jeans and torn concert t-shirts from 15 years ago, every day. > > It’s not the 60s anymore. That’s true. I work in the Bay Area, but our division is based in Orange County, and the company headquarters is in Maryland. Here we’re all very casual, and that’s true down south as well, but back east there are a lot of people in suits in upper management. So it depends on the company and the local environment. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/65 "2012-10-12T00:38:17Z")
> [@Blakeyrat](#): > > To give the cliched and expected answer, if she’s that shallow I don’t want to meet her. > > But more seriously, despite my looking like a slob (by your definition), I’ve never had any problems in that department. Maybe you’re hanging out at the wrong bars. > > You haven’t yet demonstrated that your point-of-view is the majority view, or even a common view. Actually, as it turns out, the first time my wife saw me I was wearing a suit. It just happened to be a formal occasion. I don’t normally wear a suit very often. However, she thought I looked good in the suit, and that was one thing that drew her to me. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/66 "2012-10-12T00:44:51Z")
When I go to a wedding or funeral, I dress to show respect. But as a person who has been the boss almost all of my professional life, I did not rely on clothing to make a statement. If my associates and “underlings” didn’t know I was the boss regardless of my clothing, I certainly was doing something wrong. I wore business casual, and never had anyone treat me with anything other than respect. Being inherently competent, confident, and assured can be deeper than clothes. Now I am retired, and never go to the Captain’s Table on cruises. And I live where a tie and sports coat is acceptable anywhere. Ahhh, comfort. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/67 "2012-10-12T00:53:58Z")
I actively dislike most suits. If a man in a suit really actually does look GQ, then that’s attractive. I’m not trying to be harsh here, but the chances of the OP actually looking like he stepped out of the pages of GQ (regardless of his clothing and grooming choices) are slim to none. Those photo-shoots are carefully calibrated, tricked-out, bedecked, and then photoshopped to make those suits and those particular models look good. 99% of the population will not look as good in a suit as those pictures would like you to think. (Likewise for women’s clothing, so don’t think I’m knocking suits overly harshly.) In the meantime, to the OP; I think that you perhaps think a great deal about your appearance, and that’s not a bad thing, but lots of other people really couldn’t give two shits, other than making sure that we’re clean, groomed, decent, and wearing clothing that matches the dominant trends in our work/social environment. You know what? That’s totally ok! Think of it this way - it makes you peacocks stand out more, so you can feel superior to all of us “slobs.” BTW - I don’t take showers in the morning, nor do I drink juice, coffee, or eat breakfast. I must be racking up some great cosmic negative karma there, huh? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/68 "2012-10-12T01:12:48Z")
> [@Blakeyrat](#): > > You joke, but [utilikilts](http://www.utilikilts.com/) are considered acceptable standard office wear in Seattle. I have seen a person or two wearing one of those. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/69 "2012-10-12T01:35:32Z")
Y’know, the invisible hand of the marketplace is a wonderful thing. Many restaursants and nightclubs noticed that requiring jackets and ties meant they were turning away people whose money was as green as anyone else’s so they adjusted. And not dressing up to business does not mean not dressing nicely. There’s a way to go between ditching the grey-flannel-suit uniform and looking like a fool with your pants on the ground. Now I can arrive at the club in a sharp-pressed shirt, fine well-fitted pants, vintage jacket and Allen Edmonds loafers, and they’ll show me in just as happily as when I’m in my suit and tie. Options. People did use show up in suit and tie even to baseball games and ride the train to and from menial jobs, as late as the mid-20th century, it’s true. But in the past, a regular Joe’s going-out wardrobe would be centered on one good suit(or dress) or two that could take a whole lot of wear if you took good care. Moneyed people OTOH would have specific suits and dresses for specific parts of the day and specific events. It’s another artifact of post-WW2 prosperity to have middle-class people own a lot of clothes that they wear for one or two seasons and then get rid of or wear out. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/70 "2012-10-12T02:02:36Z")
The Why happened in the sixties. When I was a child, there was a dress code for school – for example girls wore dresses that came to the middle of the knee, no more no less, and I also remember stiff crinkly slips that made one’s skirt stand out, that was standard until about 1962 or so. They were very unpleasant. I remember when I was in fifth grade a teacher was sent home by the principal because her skirt was too short. That was 1966. In the late sixties/early seventies there was, you may have heard, an enormous revolution in dress, via young people. Young women defiantly began wearing pants, miniskirts, long skirts that swept the floor; young men wore their hair long, wore flowered indian print shirts, bell bottomed jeans, all very suddenly . . . The “fifties” were a real historical anomaly in the extreme conformity that was imposed. I didn’t realize this until recently. The pent-up creativity and rebelliousness was kind of an explosion – I remember in 7th grade going to a Donovan concert at the Oakland Coliseum and being amazed at all the young women dressed apparently in nightgowns. At that stage I was being daring wearing blue jeans. Really, that was the beginning and it never went away, it just got more so. On the west coast particularly, the dress code just melted away, first for creative types of professions, but eventually just about everyone was included. Women, who always must tread a difficult line professionally in their dress, I think experience things rather differently than men. Many professions demand that women look “pulled together” in a way not required of men. There are all sorts of practical reasons and cultural reasons, but personally I find it kind of sad that it has increased to the degree that there is hardly any way to mark a different level of formality or specialness any more. I dress up for church and to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant and stuff, but I know that I am going to be one of the few people who does so, it’s like writing with a fountain pen, just an idiosyncratic holdover from the past. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/71 "2012-10-12T04:05:59Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I have to think this comes from late-90s tech culture, when computer skills became a lot more important all of the sudden, and a generation of college graduates rose rapidly through the ranks without being indoctrinated into “business culture” first. I thought it was late 70s -early 80s tech culture, especially Gates and Jobs, that ushered in casual attire at work. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/72 "2012-10-12T04:11:34Z")
I’ll wear a suit for a job interview. I will occasionally wear my Taekwondo dress blue suit. I’ll wear a suit if SWMBO threatens to dismember me if I don’t. Other than that, it’s business casual for me, baby! ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/73 "2012-10-12T04:22:04Z")
> [@GQELITE33](#): > > Only in todays society can you show up to dinner at a five star steakhouse and have someone be surprised to see someone dressed up in a suit. May I ask, did you recently have an experience like this? Because you seem a little annoyed by people not dressing as nicely as tradition may recommend. Does it bother or annoy you when people don’t wear a suit to a nice restaurant or a play? ---
**Author:** ![Frisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Frisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frisco)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/74 "2012-10-12T04:26:40Z")
What happened? The 60s happened. (Stands in front yard shaking fist at those damned, dirty hippies.). I think it’s hilarious that so many people who express disdain for a nice suit under the guise of some naive rebellion spirit don’t even recognize they haven’t given up wearing a uniform – they’ve just rationalized wearing a tackier uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/75 "2012-10-12T04:28:57Z")
You know who was a sharp dresser? Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/76 "2012-10-12T04:49:38Z")
> [@GQELITE33](#): > > When they are campaigning in blue collar communities. In the White House they will always be dressed in a suit. Even state dinners aren’t as formal as they used to be. A generation ago there were always white tie. Now they’re black tie. Of all the state dinners hosted in the 8 yrs of the Bush presidency only one was white tie; the one given for Queen Elizabeth II. And even Bush wanted it to be black tie, but he was overuled by Mrs Bush. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > …I remember when I was in fifth grade a teacher was sent home by the principal because her skirt was too short. That was 1966… The girls PE teacher at my HS once mentioned that when she started teaching back in the '70s she wasn’t allowed to set foot outside the gym unless she changed into a dress & stockings first. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/77 "2012-10-12T06:31:32Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > That’s true, but the the guy in the suit is the guy who tells the guy like you what stuff to get done. Nope the CEO of my old company was famous for not wearing suits (except when meeting with world leaders) and saying that ties were only good for keeping soup off your buttons. The suits took orders from him. He’s a billionaire, btw. Nobody in my management chain from me to him wore suits. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/78 "2012-10-12T06:40:10Z")
> [@GQELITE33](#): > > Dressing up takes time, effort and money invested into a persons image. The more they do that, the more they make a statement that they care about themselves. A person who wants to be perceived as a leader and set an example, dresses up. People that are comfortable just being one of the sheep, dresses down. Bill Gates was never the type of guy that would ever dress up. He was a hippie nerd savant who had high intelligence and even though he is very smart he is very ignorant when it comes to style sense. Just because it is GQ and all, Gates was never a hippie. Gates went to Harvard. I lived in Cambridge at that time - there were hippie types hanging out in Harvard Square, but not in Harvard or MIT. > [@](#): > > In my profession, I want people to know I am the boss. I am the leader of the pack. I want them to say “There is the Alpha Male!” In my profession clout comes from skill and knowledge. A suit wearing guy without these gets laughed at behind his back - or in front. Note that the PHB in Dilbert wears a suit - thus are suits considered in the tech industry. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/79 "2012-10-12T06:59:49Z")
I think one big reason is that interiors are kept warmer than they were in the old days. Maybe it’s age creeping up on me, but I can’t remember the last time I was anywhere indoors and could wear a jacket and tie without feeling uncomfortably warm. I like to wear a sharp suit now and then but what good is it if you can’t keep the jacket on? Without the jacket the suit loses all its visual power and you look like a 1950s-era hardware store clerk. For men, practical considerations may also play a role. When I wear jeans I know I’m not going to lose things out of my pockets when I sit down, particularly in a car. I can carry my wallet in a back pocket without worrying about said pocket wearing out and a tiny hole appearing at its edge over time. I’ve had that happen with slacks. Also, with jeans anything you put in the front pockets pretty much stays put, but in slacks it jingles and rattles, at least in my case. It’s annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447/80 "2012-10-12T07:30:51Z")
As a lawyer, I must show up in court wearing a suit, tie, and dress shoes. The Court expects that I will be suitably attired to speak before it. It can order me home to change; and if I do not obey or if I protest, I can be held in contempt of court. As a lawyer, I must attend upon my clients in the local jail wearing, at the very least, a sports jacket, tie, and slacks. My inmate clients expect their lawyer to look like a lawyer. As a private citizen, I’m torn. Perhaps because I have to wear them so often, I don’t like suits, jackets, and ties; but I will grant they have their place in the private sphere: weddings and funerals, for example. Still, if I could get away without them, I would; but at my age, _not_ wearing a suit and tie at a funeral might be seen as disrespectful to the deceased. In fact, I was surprised to find, at the recent funeral of a relative, that my nephews not only refused to wear anything other than golf shirts and khakis, but that neither owned a suit, a jacket, or a tie. “They refuse to wear anything like that,” their mother (my sister) said. I find this hard to believe, as I was forced into jackets and ties from a young age (weekly church, family gatherings, dinners at Grandma’s, etc.), and I’m surprised that my sister wouldn’t follow our mother’s lead and force her kids into at least owning a jacket and tie for such occasions. I had to have such clothing and was not allowed to refuse to wear it on those occasions, but I guess my sister has other ideas. Times and generations change, I suppose. I do like dressing up from time to time, and when my ex-wife and I went out for a fancy dinner, or to a company Christmas party, or similar; I always wore a jacket and tie. After all, she always wore a pretty outfit, and I wanted to look like I belonged with her. Besides, I have some nice ties that go well with my shirts and sport jackets–why not show them off? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-main-factors-in-why-people-dress-down-much-more-today-compared-to-previous-generations/637447.md?page=5)