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?

Casual wear is a relatively recent invention. Although teenage Americans were wearing jeans and T shirts in the 1950s most people in the UK were still wearing formal clothing every day of the year. So if you went to the beach or the fun fair, even as a teen, most girls would still be wearing a nice dress and boys a suit. If you watch vintage films from Blackpool Pleasure Beach you see everyone dressed up to the nines.

There was a time when women would been thought slovenly for not wearing gloves on a boiling summer and a corset for heavy manual housework. Think yourself lucky that we now have more choice.

There’s also a lot of romanticism in seeing stuff from the olden days. I assume the dick van dyke look wasn’t very smart comparatively back in the day but in hindsight it does look smart

Yes I don't think the old photos would have shown the stains and the darning/sewing.

Many men only had 2 suits - their work suit and their 'good suit'.

The kids clothes never really looked practical to me either.

It doesn't take much to look decent, but it's apparently too much effort for a lot of people.

It doesn't have to be much of an effort to serve home-cooked meals every night. It's not much of an effort to use washable diapers instead of disposables. It's not much of an effort to send friends and family a text every now and then. To recycle. To fix that leaky tap yourself instead of calling a plumber. There are about a thousand things on every given day that are not much of an effort, but as a working mum, I cannot do all of them. Dressing up for the viewing pleasure of others is way down my priority list, tbh.

All those woollens to hand wash in the winter!

It looks nice in the photos but I wouldn’t want to ‘go back’ to it. Far prefer having the choice to wear whatever I choose to.

Because I would rather be comfortable than impress random people. I wear jeans and t shirts and I dont wear make up or do my hair. I want to be comfy and practical - I dont want to wear a two piece suit or a dress all the time and I dont have time or money to put on makeup every day.

I've just been in Russia. The women dressed beautifully. Lovely cotton frocks that looked cool and stylish. The kind of thing we might wear to a wedding. But as everyone was doing it it looked right.

OP I agree with you, having done the same thing ie trawl through old ( ie up to 1960’s ) photos of my rather insalubrious home town, and also that of my father : if anything, an even less salubrious town in Durham.
I was struck by two things. Virtually everyone pictured is not overweight, and virtually everyone is not scruffily dressed.

Each town was predominantly working class with a demographic that was pretty hard up. The pictures mainly show people going about their daily business, so not dressed up in their Sunday best, as alleged by a previous poster; most of these photos have unwitting participants.

I guess social mores then were different and certainly in poor north east areas people had an attitude of ‘ you might be poor but don’t look it ‘ ! ( conversely the wealthy had a contradictory view ) . People today seem not to have standards in the same way, and the effect can be dismal, and terribly recognisable in some foreign locations.

Maybe because we are cleaner? It’s all good and well to have dressed that took you days to make/came from a seamstress if you only hand 3 or 4 and worse then for a week or so before washing. Likewise a lot of the fancy updos you see in 50s era photos were left in place for days and only touched up.

These days most people tend to wash clothes after one wear and shower daily. Unless you have a lot of time and money you can’t systain that and always look good.

Clothes were more expensive and fashions didn't change as quickly as they do now.

I read on here that a pair of jeans in the 1970/80s would have cost c.£40 the same as today, except it would have been the equivalent of about £100. Clothes are much cheaper and throwaway now. I know I feel self conscious of always wearing the same old stuff sometimes.

Ugh. Rose tinted nostalgia again.

I'd much rather be comfortable and casual than smart and uncomfortable. I'm glad to live in a world where (in the main) we are judged by how we behave and what we achieve rather than by how we dress.

I am so bloody tired of people going on about 'the good old days'!

fyette “Dressing up for the viewing pleasure of others is way down my priority list, tbh“

This!

Oh - and people knew how to be clean, darned, pressed and not smelly back then.

People buy shit clothes nowadays because they prioritise constant consumption over actually having nice things. Yes I know some can’t afford better but many could if they cared to do so. Also think the mass introduction of jersey has a lot to answer for-so easy, but always looks casual and often looks crap. Plus it’s socially acceptable to wear far less-both men and women have much less between skin and world. Regrettably.

When you see people in PJs and towelling robe you know that there is a dumbing down when it comes to dress. As a nation we seem to have lost a bit of pride. That's a massive generalisation but you go into some areas and a tracksuit (branded of course) is seen as dressing up. I commute into London. The clothes I wear there are completely different to the ones I wear in my local High Street, which is on Surrey/London borders. If I run down the High Street after work you get people looking you up and down because you are not in leisure wear, fluffy mules etc. If you go abroad the people generally seem better groomed, and slimmer.

I don't want to go back to the days of the sensible skirt, corset and headscarf, or a waistcoat and cravat but I do think the more you slob around in elasticated waisted trackies, the more it encourages a slobby attitude in general. Men in proper trousers can't access their bollocks which now seems to be an acceptable thing for young guys to do, they walk around with their hands inside their trackies playing pocket billiards.

Stretchy leisurewear is also attractive if you are overweight, it moves with you rather than fighting against you like more restrictive clothes would.

We seem to have a proliferation of nail bars, and hairdressers, and beauty salons. But as a nation we don't look any better than we did years ago.

We have the luxury of dressing for practicality nowadays, no way would I put on a girdle/stays, stockings, heeled shoes, a woolen coat, a hat, etc. for an afternoon of school uniform shopping. Thanks to clothes being cheaper and the availability of washing machines and tumble drivers we can own a greater selection of clothing so have the option of wearing whatever we like rather than choosing the most suitable outfit for that day/that activity from a selection of around half a dozen. We're indoors a lot more now, even shopping centres are indoors, so no need for so many layers or such heavy woolens which look nice but are stifling in a warm environment. Hairstyles and fashions have changed, very few women are getting their hair washed and set each week so women no longer need to wear hats to protect their 'do'.

Because fashion is also fun and if I want to wear denim shorts and a vest top I will thank you very much 😂

I love 70s/80s/90s fashion and can't say much of that was smart, do this isn't a new thing.

Live and let live. You only have a handful of summers to play around with fashion, let people have fun 😎

They only had wool, cotton, linen, flannel... look close up at all but the rich and you would have seen yellowing collars, sweat-solid armpits, a fine layer of grease over the lap/front of trousers, frayed sleeve ends and bottoms of trouser-legs. Clothes were really hard to clean, and prohibitively expensive to replace. The stereotype mum in the Beano or Oor Wullie whacking her child for dirtying his clothes was based on the sheer expense and hard labour of washing them, or replacing them. (The clothes, obvs, not the children).

I like being a scruff. My parents have always despaired of me.
Since I disappoint everyone no matter what I do, may as well do what I please.

I stopped giving a shit what people think of me and just dress to cover my naked body so I don’t get arrested going out in public. It’s very liberating.

Personally I just don’t care? I’m not here to be decorative. So long as people are clean and hygienic, that’s all that matters imo.

"It's the girdles - kept people upright, good for deportement - very bad for our insides"

Historical costumer/clothier here. Bullshit. Kirtles, stays, corsets and girdles were never used to squeeze waists down to damage organs. Neither were they restrictive. I've worn all of these items and have gone rollerskating, cycling, climbing, and horse riding.

Changes in undergarments came from the outer fashions and better products to make them with. Cording and reeds were replaced by baleen and steel spiral. Today, synthetic baleen is mostly used.

Tightlacing is not a thing, only amongst fetishists.