So clothing can be more fun, if people want to of course - look at how music subcultures have incredibly varied ways of expression through clothing - metalheads, hiphopheads, punks etc.
- market logic made work clothes boring (think about guild clothing, the only interesting thing I see from time to time is the chimney sweeper)
- less people are inclined to feel part of a subculture and/or express that in their fashion choices
As someone who was a teenager in the 2000s, back then I had at least 6 different outwardly recognizable subcultures in my school class (Metalhead, Punk, Hiphop, Emo, Raver, Goth) and that was more or less normal within my generation.
My small brother and nieces were teenagers during the mid 2010s and in their class all people looked the same. Not only did they look the same, they felt the pressure to all look the same and get similar brands and so on. It just appears that it is a more conforming generation, maybe due tonthe role social media started to play for them. When I grew up social media existed but in a class of 25 maybe half would use it (maximum). And all social media algorithms were strictly chronological.
EDIT: Looks like goths are still a thing? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zjg1P_2IPOQ
Like how music went through this phase where "not mainstream" music started getting really cool but now all of those sounds are just what everything sounds like now, you can't rebel against mainstream music right now.
What changed is there is no new "underground" culture to take the place of what had become popular and mainstream.
Witch house in 2009 or so I think was the last gasp of the underground before shortly running out of air.
Now young people just doomscroll tiktok instead.
Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQxq_-dWYsc (in the fine tradition of pastiches combining video with unrelated audio)
A new subculture either grows or dies, if it grows people start making money off of it and it gets diluted by the popularity into something more beige and palatable. It isn't about capitalism it's just when you add more people, they take it less seriously and hardcore becomes bland.
Metalheads? Huh? I like metal, but metal fans are some of the most boring dressers I've ever seen. Go to any metal show and you'll just see a bunch of guys wearing jeans and black T-shirts from their favorite bands' prior concert tours. Some of the musicians used to dress pretty flamboyantly back in the hair-metal days of the 1980s, but those days are long past; the musicians these days are in their 60s and dress rather casually and plainly.