Why don't people dress smartly any more?

[MilkTrayLimeBarrel]

More and more recently, I have noticed that people in general just look scruffy whether for work or leisure. My DH is a prime example of this. He always used to wear a suit and tie or trousers with jacket and tie for work - he looks lovely in a suit - this was one of the things which attracted me to him! Now it's jeans and a t-shirt for work every day (he works in an office so it's not physical work) - and he just looks as if he has fallen out of bed! He tells me that 'nobody' bothers to dress smartly for work any more. Why have standards fallen so far?

I really do prefer to dress smartly. It doesn’t need to be uncomfortable. I live in dresses with scarves, bit of jewellery, smart but comfy shoes or boots, hair simply done. Hate athleisure with a passion and only wear trainers for sport.

@kalinkafoxtrot45 I agree it can be comfortable. I suffer with bloating and a dress is much more comfy for me than trousers or anything with a waistband.

A lot of offices now have "dress for your day" which is great in my opinion. I find casual clothes far more comfortable and it saves a fortune on dry cleaning. Plus you don't need a big selection of work clothes.

I'll count the reasons.

• Make-up makes my skin feel itchy and putting it on is a chore.
• I work from home. No-one is arsed how I dress in my own house.
• I'm autistic and sensitive to texture.
• I also have fibro/chronic leg pain. High heels hurt my feet.
• I don't see the point. I'll dress up for nights out or interviews but not just to go shopping.

A couple of people have alluded to this already, but I think the change in working patterns, and the much less rigid delineation of 'work' and 'leisure' time, is a significant factor in this. If you're regularly sending emails and making phone calls in your pyjamas at 9pm, it starts to feel a bit odd if you're required to put on a suit to do much the same the next day, even if you've moved from your sofa to an office.

Personally I rarely do either super-smart or super-casual - both my work and home clothes tend to be somewhere on the smart-casual scale. That's partly because that suits my lifestyle, but also because I love clothes, and actually find putting together outfits that include both smart and casual elements more fun and creative.

I am going to a funeral next week. I have smart black trousers, shoes and a jacket which are a few years old. I could not find a blouse or shirt on the high street that wasn't poorly made, see-through, with a huge tail at the back, horrible cheap material or some sludgy grim colour. I ended up with a reasonably smart jumper.

Why would anyone care what other people wear?
Because it's nice to look at bright colours, interesting clothes/ styles. Attractive people. Something to chat about (fashion that is).
Everyone is in black so much these days - yet the shops are full of bright stuff.
Front gardens look dire nowadays - I think it's due to let properties and also the can't be arsed attitude why should I care if my house front looks dirty and scruffy. I notice cars are pretty clean these days . At least they brighten things a bit.

Because it's not important. Very smart clothes are a facade partly designed to convince people you're professional and good at your job (whether you actually are or not).
Imo any move towards judging people less by their appearance and more by their behaviour is generally a good thing. Dress up smartly if you like, nobody is stopping you!

That's why I don't like school uniform. Schools claim it makes kids have pride in their appearance (bollocks!), that it makes kids work/behave better and respect their school (more bollocks!). But schools know a formal uniform does help convince parents that the school is good and has 'standards' and that the kids are smart and well-behaved, even if none of that is true.

Do they somehow think that the gazillions of kids in other countries where school uniform doesn't exist are therefore all lacking in standards?

Bright colours don't suit me. I look better in autumnal/dark colours.

@lazylinguist oh god I love school uniform. I hated dress down days - it's never nice to have the piss taken out of you for not having the 'right' clothes. I work in a school. Still happens now just as it did in the early 80s when I was cutting about in my pretendy Addidas trainers.

As we get fatter as a population we favour an elastic ated waistband and lycra/elastane and I include myself in this. 5 years ago i could manage non stretch fitted waistband but now

AlaskaElf - imo that is the only valid argument for school uniform, but it's still not a great one tbh. In the absence of unfashionable clothes to mock, kids will bully the untrendy kid about their lame phone, PE trainers, bag, water bottle, lunch, pencil case etc. In any case, dress down days are much worse because everyone makes a big thing about what people wear because it's one special day. In my experience in French and German schools the kids pretty much all wear jeans and a t-shirt and nobody gives a stuff.

It depends, try a Cunard cruise, men were in suits checking in at Southampton! I love dressing up

I should add that I wear doc martens with business dresses though, I don't conform!

my school wore uniform and I got bullied for my coat, hair and the way I carried my bag. I always dreaded Non-Uniform Day.

Time and money.

The shops are charging £££ for shit clothes that don’t look good on most people.

one of the few women in senior management and fairly young compared to my colleagues and I look younger.

This is a fair point. It's now that I am older, and well known at work, that I have the confidence to dress for comfort.

And because a lot of work is now done by audio/video conference.

The majority of my clothes come from charity shops, so I get good quality for Primark prices. I don't know whether I'd be considered smart or not and frankly, I don't care. Being comfortable is very important to me. Currently wearing a monsoon pinafore dress and I only wear doc marten shoes or boots. High heels are a form of torture and make me want to cry.

Fine to be casual when appropriate but I think that people have forgotten how or don’t bother to dress for the occasion. IMO, for a man to wear jeans and a shirt hanging out for a wedding is lazy, and yes, I’ve seen that on more than one occasion. Or a nice restaurant and they turn up in jogging bottoms and trainers.

I saw yesterday that a pub group, I think, has banned people wearing ‘jobby catchers’. I had no idea to had to Google and they’re joggers with the elasticated cuff hence the name. 😂

My DF was a musician and my DM a model, so neither wore smart clothes day to day. Yet they used to dress up in smart office style clothing; blazers, tie etc, to attend my school parents evenings.

So i dressed up similarly for my first parents evening in the UK and the other mums turned up in their usual casual school run clothes and asked me what the occasion was, where was i going to afterwards etc. to look so smart.

I think it is a respect thing. Nowadays no one feels the need to look smart out of respect to others. Not saying it is a bad thing just an observation.

I worked in the civil service 35 years ago and it was a complete mixture from suits and ties to jeans and T-shirts. I’ve returned there recently and it’s still pretty much the same - except that absolutely no one wears a tie any more.

For my own part I never want to wear business dress again. I’ve got rid of pretty much all my formal trousers and tops and jackets and just wear jersey dresses, opaques and flat ankle boots or trainers. Or jeans and a sweater.

As work and home lines blur with no defined workwear vs home wear it’s easier for companies to encourage the relaxed work environment so people stay at work longer/ put more hours in - great for business not so much for home life

Maybe it just depends where you live because where I currently live people do still dress smart - there are also tracksuit wearers too though!

For the record I do make an effort to dress a bit more "smartly". I work in an environment where I have to wear a (horrid) work uniform, so I am literally in my "nice" clothes getting to work and coming home.. A few hours a day. Most don't bother (and I completely understand) but I do because I have reached that stage in life where I know another day is not guaranteed me, so I want to wear my nice things Now, while I can.