1000% times better than what people are wearing today.
Today is so hoodified you have office workers in sneakers.
The white shirt, suit and trench looks so good. ALSO people where not as obese. This has of course an effect on the fit.
Yes, the tech world brought "casual everyday" to the office. But, ironically, the SF tech scene is full of designer t-shirts and jeans, so the obscenely rich and/or sartorial types can still signal their elite status among casual wear...
The Mulder equivalent today would be wearing a clearance rack hoodie from the megamart, rather than the hand-woven, artificially distressed version from this year's runway show.
An off the rack OCBD and suit with a herring or trench over is so so so so so SO much more stylish than "designer t-shirts and jeans" or "clearance rack hoodie from the megamart"!!!
Or do you honestly set a = between them? Are they equal?
We are truly lost, my god.
Explains why I have to fight to get a decent OCBD and Slacks. I have found it and never leaving.
Hoodies are for kids and african americans when in public and I am neither.
I do not mean runway style if you think that. I mean business and/or business casual. YES give me the 90s slacks, OCBD and blazer anyday I am trying trying so so so hard.
My real message here is, perhaps, old fashioned. I believe art's meaning is in the intention of the artist or author, in this case the show producers and costumers who did their work in the 90s. You can understand it by considering the context of their intended 90s audience. If there are records of their production decision process, that would be even better.
It is through this lens that my original post found mild amusement in this young person's misunderstanding of the show's costumes. In the originating context, nobody should consider the federal drone as fashionable. Rather, it signals the least effort the character could get away with. It expressed a "phoning it in" vibe. This person has other priorities and just wants to bypass the cultural gatekeeping of the time.
By comparison, I'd say Scully's clothing started off expressing the straight-laced, eager college graduate of the time who is trying to manage her appearance, on a budget. Something like "adulting" for later generations? I'm not passing judgment on that either. It's just the contrast that was there to establish characters.
I'm not sure if that was intended as a dog whistle but you might want to consider that it's coming across as one.