When did the Slide Toward Casual Begin in Earnest?

[V.C. Brunswick]

I don't rightly know where this thread really belongs but when did the trend toward sloppy attire really take hold?

I was at a fast food place today and noticed a large family group. The younger men (in their 30s) were all wearing T-shirts. The only person wearing a button-down shirt was the grandfather. I've also noticed that its very rare to see young men wearing button-down shirts anymore unless its business attire or part of some uniform -- in other words they only wear it when they have to.

I realize that the casual trend began in the '60s but it seems that even in the '70s and '80s, not exactly the most fashion forward decades, that button-down shirts were still a little more prevalent among young people than today.

 

[mike]

I think it's a clear, bold line for hundreds of years actually.

My apologies for the oversimplifications in some cases.

Think about the evolution of hats. Picking a starting point at random: We started with powdered wigs topped off with large hats in the 1700's. Then the social norms opted for a significantly more brass tacks direction with hard, stiff top hats and bowlers for everyday wear in the mid 1800's. Which eventually morphed into those styles being meant for formal wear only. Eventually bowlers and homburgs became the norm and then by the 30's if not certainly the 40's, the least formal of the options, fedoras, became the absolutely overwhelming majority. And then even the proportions of those fedoras lessened in the 1960's until they were barely there. And then, none too surprisingly, they were gone too.

Are we still subconsciously reeling from a collective shared memory of the dark ages? Are we still wrestling with the definition of self after the emergence of the middle class and the Industrial Revolution? There's probably a very specific beginning to this process several hundred years earlier. But I'm sadly not as informed as I'd like to be on clothing nuances from the Middle Ages through to the 1700's as how it relates to the rises and falls of various societies. I've been thinking about it for awhile though. I think there's something to my point. Maybe not much, but something. haha

Sorry if this wasn't clearer written. Why am I writing this at 3am?

 

[Tomasso]

When did the Slide Toward Casual Begin in Earnest?

Mid 90's; ushered in by the .com frenzy.

 

[Tomasso]

I'm sadly not as informed as I'd like to be on clothing nuances

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?p=929983#post929983

 

[mike]

I look forward to reading that. Thank you for the link!

 

[LaMedicine]

It can't be helped. It's what evolution of fashion is about.
Take kimonos for instance. The present day kimono originates from what was considered underwear for the aristrocratic class in the Heian era (8C-12C). These days, most people wear kimonos only for formal occasions, rather than daily wear

to

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On occasions, some people seem to think yukatas are okay in place of kimonos although fortunately, there are plenty of dress codes in place in regards to kimonos so someone will always be nosey enough to reprimand the offender.
lol lol lol

 

[Shangas]

If it restores thy faith in male fashion. I'm a young man (early 20s). I wear a button-down long-sleeve shirt 90% of the time and I wear actual trousers, too. Not jeans. And I wear shoes. Not sneakers.

I think the whole 'casual' approach to clothing started in the 1940s, and started really snowballing in the 1960s and 70s.

During WWII, people couldn't afford to have such luxuries as double-breasted trenchcoats, waistcoats or suit-coats. They couldn't afford to have waistcoats or fancy suits, because the fabric was needed for the war-effort. As a result, clothing started getting simpler and simpler. After WWII, the trend stayed the course and the changing attitudes to dress and perception of dress in the 50s and 60s (and even moreso in the 70s) meant that clothing steadily became more casual.

For example...blue-jeans were invented in the mid 19th century as worker's pants. Something tough, durable and strong for outdoorsy work like farming, ranching and mining.

These days, people wear jeans all the time, whereas 50 years ago, you only wore jeans if you were doing something dirty and needed a pair of strong pants. Otherwise, you wore trousers/pants or shorts.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

During WWII, people couldn't afford to have such luxuries as double-breasted trenchcoats, waistcoats or suit-coats. They couldn't afford to have waistcoats or fancy suits,

A common sight in postwar Europe were the Overcoat Men, demobbed ex-soldiers who wore their old army-issue greatcoats, minus insignia, with whatever pieces of their prewar wardrobe that still fit, because civilian clothes were still either unaffordable or unavailable.

Take kimonos for instance. The present day kimono originates from what was considered underwear for the aristrocratic class in the Heian era (8C-12C). These days, most people wear kimonos only for formal occasions, rather than daily wear

It is interesting that yesterday's casual often becomes today's formal. I've seen pictures of Woodstock and the protests of the '60s and have noticed that, in addition to the ubiquitous tie-dyed flower children types, significant numbers of the participants -- who by today's standards -- would actually be considered conservatively dressed.

As recently as the early '80s when I was a high school student, I seem to recall that among the boys the T-shirt/button-down or polo shirt ratio was perhaps 60:40. Now it seems to be 95:5! Also a greater percentage of the girls back then -- compared to today -- still wore dresses and skirts.

On that note I shudder to see the day when jammies becomes formal attire.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I grew up in south Florida in the '60's. Most of the people in my socio/eonomic class wore cut off jeans with tee-shirts and flip-flops or no shoes at all. I found it appalling then! But Florida being the tropical climate that it is, it was difficult to dress up in any manner without being uncomfortable and perspiring. I suffered through it, refusing to wear cut-offs.

I moved out west in the mid-'70's to Los Angeles and was surprised to see much of the same really. Around the UCLA campus and in the beach cities it was all pretty casual most of the time. I expected to see some level of sophistication in dress, but apparently that only took place in West L.A. or on Rodeo Drive.

Now I live in Phoenix and again the weather is a real obstacle to classy dressing - the summers are unbearable with sleeves, slacks and leather shoes. A large population of poor immigrant labor doesn't lend itself to snappy dressing either, I might add. There is a lot of garage sale/thrift store fashion on most street corners. Those who could afford to dress nicely generally don't - even some of my close friends. It's a combination of laziness and deep rooted low self-esteem I'm afraid. I encounter many many people who think so little of themselves personally that dressing "up" isn't even a factor of their conscious thought. Throwing on a few rags and a pair of athletic shoes or some tattered sort of sandal is all that their limited awareness requires. And, unfortunately, it is a self-perpetuating problem - as more people see others with poor self-image, their own self-image is dragged down to the next level. I did in fact see a woman in grocery store just before the holidays dressed in her pajamas with fuzzy slippers on her feet - thus giving tacet consent to others that it is permissable to shop in one's jammies.

I give up!

-dixon cannon

 

[Carlisle Blues]

It depends on the socio-economic setting of the target group you are referencing and the prevailing dress code. For example, while I am tending to my chores I wear suspenders and a billed cap. Hardly dressing up, but, for the sake of "fashion" I will not wear my more formal clothes. In fact, I have been told my style is from the "depression era". Who knows...[huh] I find it comfortable and practical....

However there's more....... the corporate world "Casual Friday"

Casual Friday began in the late 1950s originally as an attempt to raise worker morale in the new white-collar office environment. At this point only a few companies encouraged it, and it was not widely popular. In the late 1970s, when the production of cheap clothing outside the United States became more widespread, there was a massive campaign by large clothing producers to make Casual Friday a weekly event. It was the hope of these companies that they could undermine the formal clothing industries in Europe and create more of a market for their goods produced in cheap Third World factories.

Casual Friday along with dressing casually during the week became very prevalent during the Dot Com hey-day of the late 1990s/early 2000s. During the hey-day, some companies were so relaxed that shorts and sandals were permitted. After the bursting of the Dot-Com bubble, there was a backlash by many companies with the reinstatement of dress codes.


Casual Marilyn Monroe--Ed Clark's camera captures something else here: a not-yet-packaged young woman unaware of what lies in store for her.
Photo: Ed Clark/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Aug 01, 1950

 

[LizzieMaine]

As recently as the early '80s when I was a high school student, I seem to recall that among the boys the T-shirt/button-down or polo shirt ratio was perhaps 60:40. Now it seems to be 95:5! Also a greater percentage of the girls back then -- compared to today -- still wore dresses and skirts.

Jeans were not permitted in my school until the mid-seventies, and sneakers were not allowed except on gym days until about that same time. The requirement that girls wear dresses, jumpers, or skirts was lifted when I was in the second grade, which would have been 1970, but skirts and dresses were still very common all thru high school. We weren't allowed to wear nylons until junior high, and *had* to wear them if we wore a skirt or dress from then on: bare legs were prohibited on any girl over 12.

Teachers when I started school *always* wore business clothes: women in skirts or dresses and men in coats and ties. I didn't see a female teacher wear pants -- except for the girls' gym teacher -- until I was in high school, and I never saw a male teacher not wearing a tie.

Of course, we were usually quite a few years behind the rest of the country here -- I lived in a town where the sixties never happened. We went straight from 1953 to 1978.

Note in the above pic of Marilyn that her outfit is quite modest: her cleavage is completely covered, as is her navel. Such "playsuits" were quite common in the forties, but you wouldn't see them in any office.

 

[Foofoogal]

In my high school pants on girls was not allowed till 1976.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Note in the above pic of Marilyn that her outfit is quite modest: her cleavage is completely covered, as is her navel. Such "playsuits" were quite common in the forties, but you wouldn't see them in any office.

The picture was posted to show that "casual" dress was common many years ago and is not a new trend by any means. Indeed, Marylin was actually "working" the moment this photo was taken.

My example of citing "Casual Friday" is but one instance and does not speak to Marylin or my manner of dress in the fields of New England.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

These days, people wear jeans all the time, whereas 50 years ago, you only wore jeans if you were doing something dirty and needed a pair of strong pants. Otherwise, you wore trousers/pants or shorts.

Probably the earliest reference to jeans that I've ever heard is in a 1916 recording by Al Jolson of I'm Saving Up The Means To Get To New Orleans.

Down in New Orleans
I'll wear my old blue jeans
I'll find the girl I left behind me in her teens
I know a train that goes a mile a minute
You bet your life I'm gonna be right in it
On my way back home to New Orleans

 

[Edward]

On that note I shudder to see the day when jammies becomes formal attire.

Mmn, well.... they're already known to be worn out and about town in many places the world over, if predominantly (and I say this with no inflection implying judgement per se) among the underclasses. One might argue, however, that pyjamas as daywear is simply a trend returning them to their point of origin, when they were loose fitting trousers, fastened by a tie at the waist, widely worn in South Asia and brought to the wider world as a result of British colonialism in the region.

Muslim men wearing pyjama trousers, Bombay, 1867:

See further: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyjamas

Alas, those who wear them as daywear nowadays lack such sartorial flair... not to mention that such use of these garments is, imho, rather tainted by association with that ghastly Hugh Hefner man.

Jeans were not permitted in my school until the mid-seventies, and sneakers were not allowed except on gym days until about that same time. The requirement that girls wear dresses, jumpers, or skirts was lifted when I was in the second grade, which would have been 1970, but skirts and dresses were still very common all thru high school. We weren't allowed to wear nylons until junior high, and *had* to wear them if we wore a skirt or dress from then on: bare legs were prohibited on any girl over 12.

Teachers when I started school *always* wore business clothes: women in skirts or dresses and men in coats and ties. I didn't see a female teacher wear pants -- except for the girls' gym teacher -- until I was in high school, and I never saw a male teacher not wearing a tie.

Regarding teachers, this was my experience right up to leaving grammar school in 1993; across Northern Ireland - and, I believe, the rest of the UK - this would still be the norm, I believe. Well, trousers are, of course, much more common for the ladies now, but it would, at least in my no indirect experience, still be frowned upon for men to wear jeans in most schools. Of course, schools are more formally attired places on this side of the Atlantic anyhow, bearing in mind that uniform is the norm: I wore a collar and tie from the age of four and a bit (and a blazer from 11, when I started Grammar School) right through to leaving school at 19. From what I see of primary schools nowadays, printed sweatshirts are, alas, taking over from collar, tie and v-necked jersey (where ties still are worn, all too often 'health and saftey' gets trotted out as an excuse for vile clip-on substitutes for the real thing). Secondary level uniforms still however seem to incorporate a tie. A number of schools do permit pupils in the sixth form (16-18, roughly) to wear their own clothes, however, this is subject to a strict dress code which requires at minimum collar and tie, no denims. I myself think this is a great idea, as it prepares kids for a real world ofice-environment. The biggest change in recent years seems to be that many schools now permit girls to wear trousers through the Winter - an inevitable development given how widely accepted trousers are as relatively formal wear for women in the real world.

I recall non-uniform days at secondary level being, more often than not, a sea of denim, at least in the leg department. Much more so from about 1990 onwards, when the 'chinos / collar / tie / waistcoat' fad went out. The rule against wearing jeans on such occasions had been relaxed at some point in the early 80s, before I arrived, although ripped denim remained beyond the bounds of acceptability. These 'uniform-free' occasions were a source of fear and dread for many as, well.... kids can be vicious, can't they? I remember even then being largely in favour of uniform as a great leveller. My university years were my only experience of dressing casually in an academic environment (although the department for which I have worked for the past nearly eleven years is not especially formal, I tend to dress fairly formally as the norm, irrespective of whether I am actually likely to see anyone that day). Those - 1993-98 - corresponded broadly with the grunge and Brit Pop years, when casual dressing reigned supreme. I think the only students I ever saw in a suit at that time were the half dozen members of the Young Conservatives, and even they were, I suspect, bing halfway ironic about living up to a stereotype. The most 'way out' there students in terms of dress were always those at the Art College down the road; unawares as it may have been, most of them were living up to a stereotype too.

In my high school pants on girls was not allowed till 1976.

They still weren't part of the female uniform when I left in 1993, though it is possible that by now - as do some schools in England - they might have begun to permit them for the coldest of the Winter months. I don't ever recall girls being forbidden to wear trousers on non-uniform days.

 

[Doggy Darb]

It is difficult to separate a trend towards casual from a general change in fashion. Moreover, moving towards pragmatic fashion has changed what garments are regarded as necessary. My opinion is that the divergence occurred with a cultural focus on pragmatism. The Great Depression was the trigger. The effect was bottom up. It is not necessary, aside from appearances, for me to take my wife to Applebee's in a three-piece suit. In the post-war era, life was starting to focus on leisure. Leisure is by its nature casual. Fashion dictates that people conform to the most common style. This is the slippery slope.

 

[miserabelle]

I remember at my primary school we weren't allowed to wear trousers, I think they started letting the girls the year after I left which was in 1999. My first headmistress was quite traditional too, the ladies who worked at the school had to wear heels, and skirts... I've been back recently and some of the things the teachers wear to work are so scruffy! One of my old teachers now wears a tracksuit and trainers to work which looks... less than professional.

x

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Here's Frank Sinatra Jr's take on the subject...

..after all, he should know, right!?

"I rue the day that the Beatles were unfortunately born into this world. They are, in my mind, responsible for most of the degeneration that has happened, not only musically, but in the sense of youth orientation politically too. They are the people who made it first publicly acceptable to spit in the eye of authority." lol

You tell 'em Franky! See you in Branson!

-dixon cannon

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Teachers when I started school *always* wore business clothes: women in skirts or dresses and men in coats and ties. I didn't see a female teacher wear pants -- except for the girls' gym teacher -- until I was in high school, and I never saw a male teacher not wearing a tie.

From kindergarten through part of second grade I attended a Christian private school where we wore gray military-style uniforms. At age five I thought I got drafted into the Marines! We even had inspection on Fridays. But the funniest part of the whole thing was that our first grade teacher used to wear bell bottoms and halter tops! This was in 1969-70.

 

[dhermann1]

La Medecine has it. Yesterday's underwear becomes tomorrow's outerwear. But as it does so, I suspect it changes in a way that makes it more durable, more discreet and probably more fancy. I'll bet you could trace this back to the Romans and Greeks, too, if you tried.
Even what we consider "proper" mens wear traces its origins to Beau Brummel. Around 1800 he scandalized British society by wearing riding attire indoors, in social situations. The vent in the back of a man's suit is there so the tails can flop over the back side of a horse.
What I hope I never see, however, is the day when cotton jersey briefs are proper attire for the Nobel Awards ceremony. On the outside, I mean. lol