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?

I think because people generally like to wear practical and comfortable clothes. That's more important to me certainly than looking "smart". I can't really understand why looking smart is preferable to casual comfortable clothes. I also can't grasp why anyone would care what others are wearing as long as they are clothed and the clothes are practical to the setting. It's really not important in the grand scheme of things.

@CendrillonSings wtf are you talking about !?!? Everything good is elitist! No one has ever said that!

I like being judged for being scruffy clothes wise (not dirty or smelly) because it saves me wasting valuable time out of my very hectic life on such shallow people.

This is life. Judge away.

Blame the shops. Most of them all sell the same look. You have the lazy look, the social media lemming look, or the outfits that will age you look.

It's just as bad when you need to buy something serious (like a wedding dress) and they're mostly all sleeveless and make a woman look worse.

@Quirrelsotherface

I'd say it was a fairly generic, unoriginal rebuke. I thought you were better than that?

Re my post about being judged about my appearance in Sainsburys with half the garden in my hair

Yes I would, as it takes 5 minutes to put a brush through your hair and tie it neatly back. 10 minutes max if you're also removing shrubs

It actually took me more like 15 minutes to remove the brambles and twigs, another 15 minutes looking for a brush and another 20 minutes to brush my hair which is down my back and has never been neatly tied back since I went to school.

My arms and face were caked in soil and my clothes were filthy. By the time I would have got myself presentable to go to the Supermarket it would have closed.

In all fairness, you probably shouldn't go the supermarket if you are caked in dirt and likely to trail it everywhere.

It is only soil, the stuff all food comes from

I would probably never go in a Supermarket again. I do a dirty job and the thought that I would have to spend 2 hours each day getting myself clean enough before I can go out and get a loaf of bread or a ready meal is depressing.

But if you trail soil all over the floor, someone else has to clear that up. Fair enough if the dirt is firmly stuck to you and going nowhere else, I suppose. Then be as grubby as you like. Personally I wouldn't go into a shop if I was dirty.

I don’t trail soil and I do a job that if I didn’t go into shop in my work gear by the time I would have got home, showered, washed my clothes and dried them and sorted myself out I wouldn’t actually go into a shop at all. Sometimes we sleep on site so there might not b facilities to get all dolled up to go to a shop.

We don’t all work in an office or do work that doesn’t bring us out in a sweat. Or have access to a shower.

But there again i have renovated so many houses it has probably made me very cynical I do know what you see isn’t the whole story.
After seeing the insides of someone’s house I would say the more immaculate a person is the more they are hiding something, when you see someone looking quite smart pushing a trolley round a supermarket just because they are clean and tidy doesn’t equate that their house is.

I did do a house years ago where the couple were beautifully turned out for all accounts but as well as not being able to make mortgage repayments they didn’t seem to be able to make it to the bathroom and used the curtains and walls to wipe their bums. Or they just liked to smear their excrement all over the walls

Or the teacher who drank herself to death who was always immaculate yet lived in a sea of vodka bottles.

Or the smart gentleman who was very tidy but had everything laid out like a scene from Psycho in the bedrooms in homage to his mother.

You can never tell when you meet someone what their home looks like

According to posters on here equating being dirty with being lazy and having a dirty messy house.

My house is white walls, oak floors, hand painted granite topped kitchen and there is not a picture or ornament or rug in site.

If it isn’t storage or for sitting or sleeping or eating on then it isn’t in the house.

After seeing the insides of someone’s house I would say the more immaculate a person is the more they are hiding something, when you see someone looking quite smart pushing a trolley round a supermarket just because they are clean and tidy doesn’t equate that their house is.

What an absolutely bonkers assumption to make! 🤣🤣🤣 You have a very simplistic way of thinking.

My house is white walls, oak floors, hand painted granite topped kitchen and there is not a picture or ornament or rug in site

In sight. Must be like living in a lab.

I thought morgue. Yes an absolutely absurd thing to say.

After seeing the insides of someone’s house I would say the more immaculate a person is the more they are hiding something

What a crazy thing to say.

What an absolutely bonkers assumption to make! 🤣🤣🤣 You have a very simplistic way of thinking

40 years of viewing 50-100 houses each year.

Just something I have noticed.

FYI I do all my houses the same and people seem to love the look

I thought you actually made a very valid point. I would also add that many of the most intelligent people I have ever met are some of the scruffiest

Just saying

@joyfullittlehippo, you’re obviously UC enough to pull that off though 😉

FYI I do all my houses the same and people seem to love the look

Grey or grey or...erm...grey?!

Where do you get grey from?

white walls, oak floors

It was metaphorical.

My dad was an HGV driver and wore work overalls all week, so would don a suit and tie for evenings out. He felt that jeans were work wear. I do think there are quite a lot less manual jobs now, on the whole, so perhaps people who dress up to go to offices for work want to dress down in their free time and the trend has reversed a bit.