It has become the style to dress while eating out, even in nice restaurants. Why is this and when did it start? When my wife and I go out, we always wear our best. I think it makes the experience more fun. Have we not lost anything by specifying all formality? – Michael, Palm Beach, Fla.
It is not only in restaurants that the dress code has become more relaxed; It is almost everywhere. People do not dress for the theater, the opera, work or travel. Sometimes airports look more like gigantic guests than transport hubs. And it has been like that for a while.
This lack of formality, or interest in occasional wear, has led to some complaining, especially among those in the baby boom generation who see it as an erosion of public standards. I think that the right way to look at it is as an expression of a much larger and more important social and cultural shift. One that has taken place for decades and essentially says that we all have the right to dress the way we want. It is a shift that reflects the prioritization of the individual over the institution.
Linda Przybyszewski, a associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, wrote a whole book on the subject called (Natch) “The Lost Art of Dress”. She follows the phenomenon back to the sixties, when a generation of young people started to ask young people received rules and conventions. Before that, she said, the rules of what they had to wear were actually part of the curriculum for home economics.
There were lectures about the difference between appearing in public, for which formal, covered clothing was needed with accessories such as hats and gloves, and private (less formal) clothing. As well as this is what you are talking about to use clothing to distinguish between working time (more tailor-made, messed up appearance) and evening/fun time (color, more frivolity). Dress for events such as the theater, or even go out to eat, was considered a sign of respect for the artists or the chef as a way to have fun.
Mrs. Przybyszewski even found a pamphlet from the 1950s published by the US Department of Agriculture entitled ‘How to Buy Shoes’.
Yes, the government was always involved in determining public clothing. No wonder then the anti -war protests of the 60s broke out, they include a fashion uprising.
But once that had happened, Mrs. Przybyszewski said: “There was a step -by -step effect” that took place due to the arrival of Casual Friday and was exacerbated by the Lockdowns of the Pandemie – at what point each pretension of a dress code almost went out. (To be honest, informal clothing or jeans everywhere, is an own unspoken clothing instructions.) That is how we came here.
The irony is that the lack of general formality can also be why occasions that dress up today, such as weddings and galas, get so much attention. But if history teaches us something, it is that what was once out comes in again. So it may be that a new generation is about to discover the pleasure to dress up to go out. There is nothing better for self -expression than peacocks in Felery, but if that happens, this will be their choice, not a convention that is forced them. What a good thing is.
(Also keep in mind: only because a garment looks casual does this not mean. There are beautifully made jeans and hoodies.)
In the meantime, consider yourself an example.
Your style questions, answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa answers the fashion-related question from a reader, who you can send her at any time via E -Mail or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.
