In London if that matters and what I observe is a society much less interested in dressing for each other and much more interested in wearing either the most comfortable things available and/or a very narrow range of things decreed fashionable. My grandmother, who is over a hundred, bemoaned the casualisation of dressing before the pandemic and this accelerated dramatically during it. You see this looking back at old photos, everyone looks so smart. In one way it’s great people don’t feel they have to worry about their appearance so much, and the loss of heels is brilliant for equality, but we do lose something in the process and of course people are still worrying about getting the right trainers and brands.
I observe two broad types of dress, one is a minimalist look, plain, neutral colours, wool coords or tracksuits or leggings worn with long coats and big trainers. Often quite oversized. The other is a ‘white stuff’ vibe, so colour, pattern, sometimes quirkiness, worn to size. In the main younger people wear the former and older people the latter. I think this is partly because we already become more invisible as we age and so wearing neutral things that everyone else is wearing doesn’t help. We are also less bothered about standing out, in fact we might seek it. Whereas younger people often want the complete opposite.
Older women in the main channel a neater, more matched look, we have many years of being told to seek out what is flattering. This also helps younger people distinguish themselves. Older woman in the main don’t want baggy jeans and crop tops, with crop tops are particularly unpopular. But the interesting thing is that not all young people wearing this look are tall and slim, some of them actually look pretty ‘frumpy’ if you look at them, it’s just they haven’t been conditioned to worry about this and as pps have said it’s so much about confidence.
I’m generalising of course.