Why Dont People Wear Coats Anymore?

[redavis001]

Carebear-thanks for the correction

In Alaska where they should be worn!

But hey-they ain't flippin and floppin all over the place so I guess I can't have it both ways.

By the Way I hate plip-plops

Davis

 

[carebear]

Carebear-thanks for the correction

In Alaska where they should be worn!

But hey-they ain't flippin and floppin all over the place so I guess I can't have it both ways.

By the Way I hate plip-plops

Davis

I'm told the Uggs are cool in summer due to teh sheepskin, but I find it hard to believe. My sheepskin slippers are hot as blazes year round.

 

[Jovan]

Uggs are also the worst trend in the past few years.

 

[The Wingnut]

I don't think anyone's said this, however obvious it may be...it still warrants being said:

It's a lack of common sense combined with the ridiculous slaving to fashion and casual appearance. A coat just isn't 'in'. It's too inconvenient, you have to lug it around. You look dorky all bundled up. People think of scenes from A Christmas Story, absurdly over-bundled kids waddling around with silly-looking caps and scarves, arms stuck out from the built-up layers, childish fingerless mittens and striped stocking caps with pom-poms on top. Casual hardcore grunge in a hoodie as the wind rips right through you is just SO much cooler.

...literally.

Refer back to skimpily dressed teenagers on the EL train in Chicago's winter throes. Clueless. Fashoin forbids covering up. That might look more formal and diminsh sex appeal. Never mind staying warm...then again, 'casual comfort' in this case absolutely isn't. Strange, ironic contradictions.

We've really become soft and self-centered as a society...these are symptoms of the greater problem.

 

[Fletch]

Uggs are also the worst trend in the past few years.

I believe the name comes from the boyfriends' reaction when girls kick 'em off and want to cuddle after wearing them around sockless. :whistling

 

[Dr Doran]

So these, according to the other posts, are all the causes of Coat Demise:

1. New super-fabrics don't necessitate a coat but rather a thin "shell"
2. Heaters are turned way too high in offices and buildings
3. No more cloakrooms (itself a result of fewer coats? Or fewer people willing to put cloaks in there? Because of thefts? Because of a decline in civil standards? A vicious circle? Or an architectural choice? Or both?)
4. It's considered kool to not wear coats but to be cold. (However, if these people really are developing a resistance, more power to them; but I think their willingness to forgo the coats comes from the knowledge that most buildings are warm; plus, since no one walks and everyone drives, they know their car can be toasty in a minute)
5. Gangsta style demands hideous puffy jackets, not coats
6. Being bundled up is regarded as dumb; cf. "they killed Kenny!"

Numbers 4 and 5 remind me of a hideous column I saw in the horrid UC Berkeley daily newspaper a few years ago. An awful girl was giving advice to the new freshmen girls. (Or "first year students" in "nonsexist" terms.) She said, "buy flip flops and a hoodie because I guarantee that's all you're going to wear for the next four years." A self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think we are missing a #7 about coats -- but it applies to all the things that people on this site wear. Wearing anything well-cut, nicely made, or reminiscent of the pre-1968 past is regarded by many people as reactionary, conservative, anti-democratic, stuffy, wannabee elitist, or worse. You are expected to dress like a cross between a bum, a hippie, and a revolutionary guerilla to prove you are "of the people."

 

[Elaina]

I seldom wear a coat, but in fairness, I'm in TEXAS. Where my heating bill is about 30 bucks a month. I just don't get that cold.

I OWN several coats, some I really like. Just if I'm going somewhere, I don't want to be bothered with it. I also own a couple of capes and cloaks too. Not that I wear those anymore then a coat.

I had to drop by my college the other day, and I didn't want to. I went in in cool weather in flip flops (I have an EXCUSE!! Really!) pedal pushers and a blouse that I think I painted in/sewed it a few times while sewing/had for forever and a day that's hitting it's 80th anniversary (was a family member's shirt. I got it because I painted her kitchen). I was comfy, and I was going to stay comfy. I also ran out to take the hubby to work in a concert tee shirt (Jesus Jones...tell you anything?), shorts and barefoot. It just doesn't bother me.

Coats are like hats...I love them in theory.

 

[Fletch]

Wearing anything well-cut, nicely made, or reminiscent of the pre-1968 past is regarded by many people as reactionary, conservative, anti-democratic, stuffy, wannabee elitist, or worse.

Or from the other end of the social spectrum, stale, uptight, nerd/dorkesque, and hopelessly lower-middle-class.

 

[Dr Doran]

Or from the other end of the social spectrum, stale, uptight, nerd/dorkesque, and hopelessly lower-middle-class.

Isn't that picture from Diana Arbus' album? I have a copy. It's freaky. Hey, if you like that kind of photography, I suspect you already are familiar with Weegee, but if not, you'd love him. On the more morbid end of the spectrum, have you seen Luc Sante's edition of murder photos from the Golden Era? He thinks he has discovered an anonymous master of the police photography trade ... gruesome but fascinating. Kind of like the geek in that Arbus photo. But worse.

I've never made the connection between dressing decently and being "hopelessly lower-middle class" (nor have I seen it made). That seems an oxymoron; however, now that the wealthy and privileged emulate street thugs in their style of dress (as has been going on to some degree since the "magic year" of 1968 at least, but probably, at least to a much lesser degree, since the Beats), I suppose that in some eyes carefulness of attire could be a sign of the staid and unimaginative, hence uneducated, hence lower-class ... if that is the chain of connections you are making.

Why can't today's "gangsters" dress like the Italian gangsters of yesteryear ... DAPPER? Why can't today's political extremist freaks dress like Mussolini's and Hitler's -- at least with some consciousness of sartorial style?

It is a sad day for the Republic.

 

[Dr Doran]

I seldom wear a coat, but in fairness, I'm in TEXAS. Where my heating bill is about 30 bucks a month. I just don't get that cold.

I OWN several coats, some I really like. Just if I'm going somewhere, I don't want to be bothered with it. I also own a couple of capes and cloaks too. Not that I wear those anymore then a coat.

I had to drop by my college the other day, and I didn't want to. I went in in cool weather in flip flops (I have an EXCUSE!! Really!) pedal pushers and a blouse that I think I painted in/sewed it a few times while sewing/had for forever and a day that's hitting it's 80th anniversary (was a family member's shirt. I got it because I painted her kitchen). I was comfy, and I was going to stay comfy. I also ran out to take the hubby to work in a concert tee shirt (Jesus Jones...tell you anything?), shorts and barefoot. It just doesn't bother me.

Coats are like hats...I love them in theory.

"WELL I GUESS YOU HAVE AN EXCUSE THEN," he said, with an arrogant sneer.
(Just kidding. We love you.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Or from the other end of the social spectrum, stale, uptight, nerd/dorkesque, and hopelessly lower-middle-class.

I had a crush on that guy in high school -- one time he even let me copy off his math homework.

(And there's nothing wrong with being hopelessly lower middle class!)

 

[Fletch]

I had a crush on that guy in high school

Aargh. You poor dear. Did you wake up when you realized his boater was styrofoam and his bowtie by the House of Clip-On™?

(And there's nothing wrong with being hopelessly lower middle class!)

Of course not. Just hopeless.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

He is probably the nicest guy on Earth. I wish more people were like him.

 

[Elaina]

Yeah, well, my knees hurt. And none of my other shoes let me go barefoot (or darn near.) or something. Yeah.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The dude looks Lee Harvey Oswaldesque.

.

 

[Jovan]

I believe the name comes from the boyfriends' reaction when girls kick 'em off and want to cuddle after wearing them around sockless. :whistling

Or the mere reaction to how they look. :eusa_doh:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

For some reason, they look just fine on slim Japanese girls in miniskirts.

.

 

[Jovan]

I'll have to kindly disagree. Even if Natalie Portman wore those or the Abominable Leg Warmers, I still wouldn't think they look good on anyone.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

You may be right. Perhaps it's just that slim Japanese girls in miniskirts look good.

.

 

[HadleyH]

Or from the other end of the social spectrum, stale, uptight, nerd/dorkesque, and hopelessly lower-middle-class.




nerd/dorkesque????????????????? lol lol lol
that's a beautiful word Fletch!!!