On Fashion

America is a casual country. It's apparent, when you start traveling, that you see people in other countries display a formality that is not part of American society anymore. A good illustration is this Tik-Tok video about this young Japanese woman who loves America. Because she can be casual.

The casualization of the Western wardrobe has been going on for decades. It just happened much slower in the past. Today's business suit was casual attire – just watch S1 and 2 of Downton Abbey to see that shift in action.

I definitely am not suggesting some sort of return to 1900-1950's fashion where you have to wear a suit or long dress every day.

However, the hyper-casual nature of post-2019 fashion is going way too far in my opinion. It's not lindy. There has always been fashion for certain occasions, whether it's work, home, church or going out. All these categories are collapsing now. People just wear one thing for all occasion. And that one thing is usually juvenile. I think it's a real shame that adults have regressed our standards to match those of children/teenagers.

It's now commonplace for people to wear street clothes into work. I see teachers at school wearing jeans and a t-shirt, people showing up to an office in a hoodie and distressed denim, and wearing beanies and caps indoors. You go to a public building like the mall, library, museum, etc. and you'll find people in pajamas.

Business Clothes

John Fetterman is a United States senator who proudly wears shorts and hoodie even in the Senate.

there was something disappointing about walking into the Capitol in a pair of basketball shorts and a hoodie, his de facto uniform. But this is what everyone wears now. It seems strange that no one cares about wearing clothes that fit their role in society. The word Senate comes from the latin word Senex meaning "old". These are supposed to be the advisors to society who create laws. Instead, he's just going to the gym. It doesn't feel right.

Three Reasons

For most of history clothes served as statements of function and rank within societies. Clothes didn’t make the man, they signified the man already made, usually at birth—as king or commoner, tinker, tailor, soldier, beggar-man, prostitute, priest. That all ended in the 20th century.

I propose three reasons for why casualization has accelerated so fast in the last few years.

1) Comfort replaced fashion

2) We moved from a "scarcity of clothes" era to "clothes are cheap and plentiful" era and we are not going back.

3) The cult of the youth

Why Did Comfort Replace Fashion?

One of the most profound cultural changes of the 20th century: "the rise of casual dress. As Americans, our casual style uniformly stresses comfort and practicality — two words that have gotten little attention in the history of fashion but have transformed how we live. A hundred years ago, the closest thing to casual was sportswear — knitted golf dresses, tweed blazers, and oxford shoes. But as the century progressed, casual came to encompass everything. Americans’ quest for a low-key style has stomped on entire industries: millinery, hosiery, eveningwear, fur, and the list goes on. It has infiltrated every hour of the day and every space from the boardroom to the classroom to the courtroom. Our country’s casual style is America’s calling card around the world. Casual was made in America."

Athleisure is a great example of the comfort over fashion preference. Athletic clothes tend to be pretty comfortable and lightweight. Athleisure, which is a market that didn't exist 15 years ago, is now worth $331 billion and growing at 9% YoY.

Blue jeans spread to other countries. But there has been a bigger push for casual clothes since 2005. An acceleration. Two industries have really shaped this choice. The technology boom of the 2010s and the influence of sport/streetwear.

Athleisure, which is a market that didn't exist 15 years ago, is now worth $331 billion and growing at 9% YoY.

There was this trend in the 90s where regular people wore sports jerseys in public. That doesn't happen much anymore. Instead, we want to wear what the athletes themselves wear. Which is usually very comfortable. Athleisure is the epitome of comfort wear.

Related to Athleisure is the technology boom of the 2010s which created millionaires who dressed in hoodies and t-shirts. Being rich used to come with a certain fashion aesthetic. That has changed. Now, there are many instances of the rich people dressing like they are college kids. The most famous of this is Zuckerberg. Formal dress in the workplace even seems to be looked at as low class, especially a tie. Fashion and class are always intertwined.

There is a long tradition of staff (wait staff, servants) usually one step behind in the evolution of dress. Footmen in 1920s wore white tie as those being served switched to tuxedos. Then tuxedo-clad waiters served business suits. And on it goes. Servants in gold brocade and powdered wigs when the family were wearing the latest "undress" fashions from the Prince Regent's circle or post-revolutionary France.

The person selling me a car looks like this.

While the richest person in the world dresses like this to go to work:

If the rich and elite of a society dress a certain way, that's going to trickle down.

Tech has always looked suspiciously down on appearances and aesthetics. It is an industry about technical results. Take a minute to reflect on modernity's conflation of the ornamental with the superfluous. A bishop on rolling blades is no longer a bishop.

Tech's delivery of comfort in the workplace is a new trend. America is quick to jump on new trends, for better or for worse. Notice the full fledge embrace of smoking by the United States. It is much higher than in other countries we assume were more "smoker friendly". America likes to take new things to the extreme, but then expels at an even faster pace than places. It's a very high variance place.

How Much Do You Want to Spend for Clothes?

In antiquity, individuals came in droves to soak in Bath’s hot springs—and to use “curse tablets” to get revenge on people who stole their clothes. Clothing theft was a problem in Ancient Rome because clothing was expensive and difficult to acquire. Clothing was typically made by hand and had to be purchased from merchants.

That's how clothes were for most of history. They weren't cheap. They were locally made and you were screwed if someone stole them from you. Then globalization happened, and it got sped up by fast fashion. Some place in China or Bangladesh makes your clothes, and they look good. And they cost like 50 or 100 dollars. That's great, right?

The average middle class person does not want to pay full price for clothes. The availability of cheap clothes made with questionable labor standards has made people lose touch with what clothes should cost given the work required, the cost of materials, and fair wages. To lose touch with how clothes were made for most of history.

The biggest consumer base for fast fashion is the middle class, and many companies can't pay more because the middle class refuses to pay a lot of money for clothes.

It's not even really about the money. It's about the principle. America has a lot of upper middle class people. They'll spend $100 on bottles of wine, fancy electronics, trips, etc.

We've moved into a "clothes are plentiful" era and we're not going back.

The Cult of the Youth

America, which started as an offshoot of European society has become it's own nation with its' own identity. This identity became to form in the late 20th century. One of the characteristics is the promotion of youth. No one wants to get old, to consider themselves old or to look old. There is an active campaign to fight aging at all facets of society. This includes plastic surgery, clothes, fitness, health, and even life extension obsessiveness.

In almost every society, the old are given higher status than the young. In America, that isn't necessarily the case/.

The great ancient Greek writer Theophrastus wrote a book on 24 characters, one of them includes a person who does activities that are inappropriate for his age.