Well...here goes... [Pride in How One Dresses]

[kaylasdad99]

@Shodan

It is true.

How you dress is a social signal. With the pendulum swinging to “casual for everything”, you can use that to your own advantage.

I wear a suit and tie to work. The difference in how people react to me is remarkable. Because everybody knows, although some deny, that the signal being sent is “this is serious. It is not a social occasion, it is not entertainment. This is work, and work is serious, and I am taking the occasion seriously.”

It doesn’t mean we can’t goof around or make jokes. But the default is that the better dressed person is higher-status than those who are dressed casually. And by “better dressed” I mean wearing a social signal like a tie, not that your jeans cost more than mine.

“Wear whatever you are comfortable, that looks professional” is the rule where I work. Fine with me - I am comfortable in my suit, it looks professional, and I am equally comfortable with people thinking I am in charge because I am not wearing a polo shirt, even if their jeans cost more than my first car.

Welcome to the SDMB.

Regards,
Shodan

I thought you were a karate instructor…

[Eva_Luna]

@usedtobe

I remember my mother spending at least an hour putting on her best dress, cosmetics (which she called her “war paint”) and - believe it or not - White Gloves.
To go shopping at the fancy department store downtown.
This was the same outfit worn to Sunday Services.

My mom (born 1943, Camden, NJ) dressed comfortably most of the time when she wasn’t at work, and was not shy about wearing cutoff shorts, halter tops, and Birkenstocks most of the time. But as late as the 1980s and 1990s, if we were ever going into downtown Chicago (to go to a museum or shopping, etc.), she refused to wear pants at all. Maybe she wouldn’t be wearing heels, but she would always wear at least a skirt and some nice non-heel shoes.

[F.U.Shakespeare]

@even_sven

There was a time when most people were farmers and laborers. Working in an office was prestigious. So people tried to dress like office workers in order to present themselves as successful. They wanted to show off that they were not wearing overalls and uniforms.

Today, office work is common drudgery, and even low-prestige jobs like retail focus on “business casual”. So the way to show off is to look like you are NOT an office worker. Casual clothing conveys a message that you are above of the rat race, with no need to impress some middle-manager.

It’s like suntans. In farming cultures, people value light skin because it demonstrates you are a person of leisure who can relax indoors all day. In office culture, people value a “healthy tan” because it demonstrates that you are out on the beach rather than slaving away in an office.

The goal is always not to look like a working stiff.

This.

And not only was there back then a desire to not look like a working stiff, but today, there has arisen a goal not to look like a pampered weakling/clueless status seeker*.

A hundred or so years ago, even white-collar people had to deal with more physical labor than we do today. Horses are more work than a car (and require a helluva lot more skill). And even if you had a car, it didn’t have power steering, and you may have had to start it by hand-crank. (And speaking of horses, walking across a street exposed a pedestrian to uglier pollution than most of us today ever deal with. Someone free of manure on their shoes obviously had assistance with their transport. People didn’t need to worry about looking like pampered weaklings - hell, that was sort of the dream.)

Today, our surroundings are much cleaner, and it’s much more common to not need to exert ourselves physically for much of our day. So wearing clothes that make it clear we aren’t performing physical labor is less of a distinction. (And, there’s less distinction not having shit on our shoes.)

In many workplace settings, if two white collar workers are of equal competence, the one who is (or just looks) more comfortable performing physical labor will likely enjoy higher status. As noted above, casual dress can also convey higher confidence in one’s abilities - no need to kiss up.**
*The Tom Haverford character on ‘Parks and Rec’ is a good personification of what is low status like this. He’s obsessed with “dressing for success”, and is often shown to be comically physically weak. You didn’t have characters like that on ‘The Donna Reed Show’.

**When people tell me that you’re supposed to dress for the job you want, not the one you have, I claim that the job I want is retired Nobel laureate. They can dress however the hell they want!