Have you ever noticed that people dressed better in the past?
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- Availability/survival bias: People took fewer pictures in the past and were more likely to be taking those pictures on special occasions (when they were dressed nicely).
- Now that we live in a world of generational fashion, the previous generation's "casual" wear becomes the next generation's "dressy" (read: stodgy) wear.
- People owned less clothing, had less access to varied clothing, and laundry processes were harsh, so they wore sturdier (and heavier) clothing that more easily supported "dressing well".
- "Back in my day, people conformed" isn't exactly a novel take.
Contra: while not as prevalent as in the current digital age, street photography was a thing in the past too. If you look at the photos (e.g.) Vivian Maier took of everyday people, doing everyday things, you'll get a more random sampling:
There were lazy afternoon pants in yesteryear. However you also owned fewer pants, shirts, etc back then as well. You HAD to take care of what you owned and you had less disposable income. You only bought the nicest you could practically afford.
Nice view of how much manufacturing excess changes things.
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I still try to dress nicely. I have a nice linen shirt and pants that I love but they were expensive. I have less expensive nice clothing with patterns, flannel shirts, a pair of wool pants, a pair of corduroys, all varying colors. What I enjoy doing is matching different fabrics and colors. That a lone looks fancier than all cotton ensemble even if the fabrics aren’t expensive. And remember you can always put on a flashy pair of sneakers. Usually shoes don’t even have to match anything.
There are simple things you can do too. For example, you don’t have to buy $150 selvedge jeans to roll the cuff up on your pair. Dressing nicely is about variety and flourishes more than cost really.
Much as I actually do quite like wearing a nice shirt to work, ironing the damn thing plus pressing trousers and running about having suits dry cleaned in the window the laundry is open and I'm not at work is a hassle and if I'm not prepared to do it if I don't actually have to, I'm certainly not going to make my (also full time working) spouse do it for me.
If your family can only afford one buttondown shirt, one tie, and one pair of nice pants you buy the winter weight because its far more durable (will last years or decades) and you will SWEAT in the summer.
If you can afford summer weight stuff, I own plenty of silky light button down shirts that are far more comfortable and flattering to my body than a thick heavy soggy cotton graphics art lower class tee shirt.
Staying "cool" used to mean being rich, or rich enough to own finer fabrics.
There is also a long term generational shift from people were thin and aspired to look good in "thin" clothes, to people are fat and aspire to look good in "thin" clothes, to now people are fat and don't even bother making an effort anymore. Or putting in any effort at all (clean, no holes, not smelly) that puts them in a high enough class that going even fancier is wasted effort if they already look better than 99% of people they'll run into.
Didn't really resonate with me, I'm not very interested in fashion.
I did think the first comment was interesting, that it could be selection bias as fewer photos were taken so people dressed up.
And there's not much selection bias in the old footage you see of crowds walking city streets at the turn-of-the-century.
Are you sure? What part of town were the photos usually taken, and for what purpose? I would actually be very surprised if there weren't selection bias in where, when and why such photos were taken.
> I did think the first comment was interesting, that it could be selection bias as fewer photos were taken so people dressed up.
He addresses this in replies, noting that people today dress worse even on formal occasions when they expect their picture to be taken. https://xcancel.com/dieworkwear/status/1955872833965580437#m
Fair enough, I meant what you are calling style.
People had vastly higher standards of living in the good old days. A working guy in a factory could buy a house on a cheap small mortgage, have a new car, pay for a stay at home wife and a bunch of kids, and, yes, buy fancy clothes almost recreationally, and anyone higher up had an even better lifestyle, of course my grandfather had a cottage on a lake for the summer, just like everyone else in his socioeconomic group ("management"). The fancy clothes go well with the nice house and new car that even relatively poor people could afford... back in the old days. People are much, much poorer now, much more hand to mouth, if that. Long term socioeconomic decline. I'm sure Rome after the fall of Rome was not quite as stylish as Rome at the peak of the Empire, and now its our turn for steep permanent decline and all that results from it.
Profit must be maximized at all costs explaining why designer clothes are so boring. If you are in the business of buying nice fancy attractive imported shirts for $10 and marketing them for $250, you're more or less legally obligated to buy the cheaper more boring looking shirts for $5 and market them for the same $250. And this trickles down to lower financial levels. So no more fancy multi-part button down shirts with elaborate buttons and collars and shaping, you get the cheap rumpled looking tee shirt with the expensive label.
People in general are statistically very fat and fat people have ... unusual, generally inaccurate, very optimistic ideas about what makes them look thinner, like skin tight clothes so they're still a size "large" despite looking very overstuffed. And due to mass marketing everyone has to wear the same style so as a thin athletic guy I have to dress like how a 300 pound guy inaccurately thinks makes him look thinner. If I shop at Target or Old Navy or something like that, I look like a thin guy in a scarecrow stuffed with straw costume. Fat people clothes are NOT flattering on thin people; ironically they're also not even flattering on fat people. But in 2025 everyone has to dress the same and everyone has to dress like them.
Racial vs socioeconomic status signaling. In the old days if you were not a manual laborer you'd dress fancy to make a visual point of not being a manual laborer. Now we have racial profiling where if you're not obviously an illegal you're clearly not a manual laborer, so there's no need to dress up like a factory owner to make it clear you're not a factory worker. I, and people like me, don't need to dress up for people to assume I'm not a groundskeeper on sight. You're judged based on your demographics much more intensely in 2025 than in 1955. All people need to know is my obvious visual demographics and my postal address and where I hang out, they don't need to look at the quality of my clothes, to have an accurate idea what socioeconomic class I'm in. No need to count the pleats in my pants or measure the starched width of my collar.
So, basically, everything is downstream of slow long term economic collapse, profit taking, normalization of fatness, and multiculturalism.
As a percentage of spending on groceries, people used to spend 25% and now it's 10%; for clothing it used to be 10%, now it's 3%. In 1900 people used to spend over 40% of their budget on food:
* http://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archi...
Transportation and and telecommunication costs have plummeted over the decades:
* https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter1/what-is-tra...
Compare the Mustang (and Charger) in the 1968 movie Bullitt compared to today: more horsepower, more torque, better fuel mileage, better safety and comfort (air conditioning!).
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(first_generation...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(seventh_generati...
The main thing that has changed is that housing has gotten more expensive: just about everything else has gotten less expensive.
Survivorship bias: People who had access to stable lives and institutions are more likely to have their photos passed down to the present day.
Selection bias: are you looking for old fashion photos or just statistically random old photos of people?
Sampling bias: Aren’t well dressed people more likely to be photographed because they are better subjects and because the privilege that allows them to be well dressed also affords them access to cameras and photographers?
I think if I were to take notes I would notice that women tend to dress better, both WNBA coaches and at church as well as just general out and about.
I have high-twist wool(!) trousers that are comfortable up to 90 F. Most people couldn't tell they're not normal wool dress trousers. I have linen trousers that aren't really any warmer than shorts (and they keep the sun off you). Ditto for shirts. I'd rather be in long sleeves and trousers, all light-woven linen, in high heat, than in shorts and a T. Doesn't really insulate more, does keep the sun off.
I have an unlined wool navy blazer in a Summer weight that breaths so well it's basically totally ineffective at warming a person up, LOL. Put it on, take it off, makes basically no difference, aside from the color being dark enough that it does absorb heat from the sun. If I wore that kind of stuff more, I'd have other options that're even better in the heat.
I have some sweaters that're completely comfortable into the high 70s F (50/50 silk/linen blend, thin) and one that won't make you feel like your clothes are making you warmer up to at least 85F (that one's 100% linen and open-weave).
I dunno where people got the idea that you have to be uncomfortable if you're wearing much more than a swimsuit, in the heat.
In the past, the well-to-do dressed in suites and nice evening wear, so the poorer people start following them.
Then at the start of "Tech" wealth, the people starting those companies tended to dress down, guess what ? Poorer people followed. I kind of expect it has to do with reproduction as in finding a mate :)
Now we have sweats, yoga pants, blob shaped shoes, saggy pants, and ripped jeans, and it's all acceptable wear, at least in the urban landscape.
As for heat/cold: wool is unbeatable for hot formal wear. A super 120 wool suit with a wool blend shirt will feel effortless and will actually help cool you down a little bit.
Rich people always had tailored clothing: tuxedos were expected for men at dinner
Poor people didn't: lots of "unfortunate pants" and dresses made from sacks
Do you think that we're unique among crafts, in having taste?
> (…) many outfits in the past looked great because they conferred distinctive shapes — a boxier shirt, fuller pants, short shorts, etc. (…)
> (…) the man in the white t-shirt and fuller legged pants looks better than the man in the blue polo because the higher rise pants lends better proportions.
> (…) I think McQueen looks better here because the t-shirt on the right is just too long. (…)
> (…) their trousers often drape well because they are cut from heavier wool fabrics. (…)
There are more, but I think those get the point across.