Dress Like the Great Depression!

[Milsurp]

Here's an observation:

In that era more people were from a rural/farming background on top of everyone being broke. People didn't want to go out in public looking like an overalled hick, which would have been very easy. Perhaps they needed prove that some decent clothes were atleast within their means.

I think people dress like trash today because anyone can afford a suit. I think suits get worn less now because, since they are out of fashion, are of much crappier quality and design, thus are not comfortable or practical.

I had always thought of a suit as a stuffy constrictive thing I had to wear on special occasions.

I didn't know such a thing as a summer-weight suit existed until I discovered the FL!

I had regarded suits as pointless, uncomfortable garments until I tried on some vintage jackets with high arm holes and good overall fit.

As a son of baby boomers, I never cared too much for my parents' bland, casual appearance, and my parents probably dress less casual than a lot of their generation. I think wanting to be different than my parents is part of what draws me to the sleeker golden-era styles. It's funny because their generation probably thought their parents (greatest generation) were too dressy and wanted to be different!

Maybe golden-era generation didn't want to look like their peasant-farmer looking parents. It cycles, you see.

 

[Nick D]

Then again, people's heat tolerance before a/c used to be better. Too good actually. In those incredible heat waves in the 30s, farmers would work all morning in full sun and be dead before noontime.

I've seen this mentioned before, but it's not just heat tolerance, it's cold tolerance as well. It drops below 70F and the heating gets cranked.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Maybe golden-era generation didn't want to look like their peasant-farmer looking parents. It cycles, you see.

I think you hit the nail on the head, Milsurp....
Rob

 

[John in Covina]

The battle goes on. There is and was always a part of the community that wants casual over serious, rumpled over neat and sees the opposite as an intrusion on their personal self importance. It was picked up by parts of the high tech innovators and projected as the wave of the future. As such it was pursued by the followers of trends and became a work and social norm in many areas.

As a push on the "Don't judge a Book by it Cover" words such as predjudiced was applied so that people could dress and act like South Central LA gang members with out a second glance. Then it gets to the point where punk kids in retail venues were acting like they were doing you a favor and really extending themselves performing their job duties. (BTW: the mayors office in LA has forbidden the term South Central to be used by any city employee including the police. The reputation of South Central was global for pretty bad. Evidently if you change the language the problem goes away.)

Well the times they are a changing, and the competition is greating ratchetted up a bit. I have a feeling you better be pretty darn special to be in the working and rumpled crowd in the near future.

Anybody going to be first to call me a Hater?

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

Good commentary, overall. I don't think the author was trying to squash individualism; rather, for those who want to get a job or keep the one they've got...

In the bust, your clothes need to send a different message. There are fewer resources to spare. Everyone is conserving. The goal of your life becomes different. You are no longer permitted to pretend that your very existence is a blessing to the world. Instead, you must add more value to the world than you take from it. This is especially true in your work life.

Employers don't want to hire people who consider themselves The Most Important Person on the Planet. Overly casual (and more importantly, overly *sloppy*) clothes give the impression that the employee considers their person comfort/vacation time to be more important than the employer's work, or how they look to the customer. Employers want to get something out of you; they don't hire you on as a charity case.

Me, I don't like the idea of being a commodity. But I'm also not paying a bundle in rent and expenses. When the choice falls between conforming and eating or being "individual" and starving...people quickly discover how much their jeans and tennis shoes really cost.