To wonder why there are so many scruffy people these days

[Quirrelsotherface]

I've been looking through old photographs lately, from the 20's through to 60's probably, my grandparents era. What I absolutely couldn't get over was the amount of people who were so well dressed back then! There were group photos, photos of streets with lots of people in the background and to be honest, I couldn't really pick a scruffy looking one out of any of them. Not particularly affluent areas, just everyday public. The clothes, though, look expensive and well cut, the men in hats and the women with beautiful haircuts. Beautiful coats and shoes.

Why then, these days do we not have this pride in appearance that they had back then? Walk out now in any town and smart people are really in the minority.

AIBU to wonder why this is?

True. My grandad was always dapper well into his 80s, my grandmas were also very well turned out. I think it was a quality over quantity mindset - they had a few well tailored items rather than wardrobes full of Primark.

The eras people are talking about from 20’s-50’s goes into 2 categories

1. Women who didn’t work much or at all and no manual labour, stayed home raising children, arranging flowers and had time and money to pin their hair/shop for snazzy dresses, dress up for their husbands and portray a lovely picture of womanliness.

1. Poor people who only had nice clothes for Sunday’s and probably the only time they had a photo taken, women more likely to be working manual labour jobs and probably looked pretty scruffy for the standards of the day

Why would anyone want to wistfully go back to those times? Seriously?

And you can’t use 60’s, 70’s and 80’s as an era of smartness as this is when leggings and tracksuits were first invented!

They did not have the choice of primary. If you make your own clothes and are reasonably good at it, they are always going to fit better than mass produced clothes. And clothes that fit well do look better.

I'm personally glad to live in a world where we don't have to look well done up all the time. I would have hated to be a woman living in a world where I always had to look put-together, made up and perfectly coiffed in order to be 'respectable'.

I blame elastic.

If you look at tops and skirts in "cheap" shops now, there are no zips or fastenings, just elastic.

Elastic encourages not only slobbery but obesity, too. You never feel over-full in a pair of jogging bottoms!

As a little girl in the sixties I have photos of me going to church in a little pleated skirt suit, white gloves and a head full of ringlets, achieved by sleeping with my hair in rags. I used to wear a vest and a slip under my other clothes to school. Everywhere was colder then though with less central heating.

My mum (housewife) was always very fashionably turned out in little dresses and heels. Though at home she existed in housecoat and slippers. My Dad (Collier) had his suits made to measure from the tailor in the village. He had lots of 60s/70s casual wear though; slacks and open neck collared T-shirts., big gold chain, sheep shin coat

I don't know about the 70s because I wasn't old enough to buy my own clothes then, but jeans certainly didn't cost £40 a pair in the mid-to-late 80s - not high street brands, anyway.

@ScreamingValenta I have to say I agree with the pp, decent jeans were very expensive. I remember when stretch jeans came out they were upwards of £30 and looked fab so they were worth the outlay. I don't remember there even being high street brands, you had to go to a "jeans shop" and get them there - our local one took them up for you as they were always 6" too long, they were great. My favourite brand was Pepe.

Yaaay to elastic.

Garments weren't mass produced back in the day. And stretch fabrics only came in the 1970s so everyone wore woven fabric that had to be ironed.

My grandad used to have a gardening suit. Now that's taking dressing smartly to the next level.

If you go out wearing a dress people joke and say "where you going all dressed up?". I think it's a real shame tbh

I guess it depends on where you live, but I was thinking the exact opposite today, because I noticed that all the women in town were wearing dresses - I'm sure a lot of them were cheap Primark ones, but it would have looked good in black and white! In the 2000s where I lived as a teenager no one wore dresses - people wore skirts sometimes, but an actual dress was considered ridiculously over the top. 'Jeans and a nice top' was essentially a kind of uniform for going out - now it's all dresses. In general, I see fewer people wearing jeans now, whereas they were once so ubiquitous - I had a male friend in sixth form who wore trousers not jeans and everyone considered this deeply eccentric and old-mannish. I don't see the university students I teach wearing jeans very often, but I see a lot of skinny, often coloured, trousers.

Elastic encourages not only slobbery but obesity

I've heard it all now!

PS: elastic started being widely used in clothing all the way back in 1929...

It’s not just casual dress though - it is downright scruffy. Poorly dressed rather than less formal. Especially in the summer.

Noticeable if you compare us to Europeans as well. I think they have a tendency to wear black and synthetics but they do make more of an effort to ensure they have enough clothes on.

Elastic encourages not only slobbery but obesity

Yeah, fuck all those people who cannot manage buttons, zips, bands and the like, they're just fat fucks . I've heard it all now.

It is Italians I see that really dress up. Do and I visited a resort last year with a mix of Germans, french, Italians and British. We played a game of guessing the nationality based on how they were dressed, when we heard them talking we found out our guesses were nearly 100% correct. British, especially British men were the worst dressed.

I am a fat fuck. Shrugs. Nobody else's business.

Munches another chocolate. Thank fuck for elastic.

Elastic is fabulous! Love synthetic wicking fabrics, too, terrific for hillwalking.

most people,only have formal, posed photos of family up until the 50s/60s when cameras and developing became more affordable so they will be more dressed up because having your photo taken was an event. Even shots on the beach will have been taken by a roaming photographer and bought at his kiosk later in the day.

My family was a bit of an anomaly as my dad and his best mate were both very keen amateur photographers. Wherever we lived Dad would rig up a darkroom so they could develop and print their own photos as that was the only way they could afford it. They prided themselves on taking unposed, candid character shots and I can assure you that my granny in her booties and wrap around pinny labouring over a mangle with a Woodbine fag hanging out of her mouth looked far from well dressed. My young mum with her hair full of rollers hidden under a headscarf in her C&A polyester mini dress wouldn’t have won any best dressed prizes either.

I even have elasticated laces on my walking boots so they don't come untied on routes, bliss!

we only washed our hair once a week when growing up and when I became a teenager and wanted to wash it more often, my mother was of the opinion that it was "bad for it" to be washed every other day

I wasn't allowed to wash my hair when I was on my period . . . .

Yeah right Amanda.

I love an elasticated waist. I hate jeans. I made the comment about elasticated waists encouraging obesity and I stand by it. There are of course people who cannot manage fastenings, but by and large people wear pyjamas and jogging bottoms because they are comfortable and forgiving. And it is perfectly true that you don't realise you've put on a pound or two (or twenty) if your waist band is not tight.

Although I am still in my gardening gear ( cut up t shirt, denim skirt and knackered shoes) and went went to the local top and then popped into the shops.So I’m no better.

Theemojiformerlyknownasprince

Interesting post, thank you! 🙂
As an curious lay person, I’ve been wondering for years what the Groucho Marks eyebrows thing was about, and how it we might be able to see retrospectively why people do it. What would be your take on them, can I ask?
Is it just the same idea as tattoos?
That is, We can’t do anything more to clothes so now we need to move in to our bodies?