Society is getting more and more casual, and I love it

[Dominus]

No one will ever tell you suit and tie is more comfortable than, say, sweat pants and t-shirt.

Pictures from the 20s show every man in public was wearing a suit and tie. Even back in the 60s, people were still wearing pretty formal attire.

Nowadays, half the people at the grocery wear pajamas. 99% of the time nowadays when I leave the house I wear sweat pants.

What do you think about people getting more casual these days? I love it. I say wear whatever that's comfortable. Who cares if it's not formal?

 

[pigface]

If you want respect, or to have any credence paid to your utterances, you need to look respectable. Otherwise you're just a dismisable slob.

 

[Kahaih]

That's funny.

My biggest complaint about suits (matching fabric head to toe) is that they look like pajamas.

 

[Charon]

Def prefer casual.

 

[Kahaih]

If you want respect, or to have any credence paid to your utterances, you need to look respectable. Otherwise you're just a dismisable slob.

Still, a lot of suits don't look respectable.

A lot guys look like shady used car salesmen in suits.

 

[Charon]

That's funny.

My biggest complaint about suits (matching fabric head to toe) is that they look like pajamas.

Monkey suit.

 

[Kahaih]

Monkey suit.

Complete with leash.

 

[NotHardUp1]

There is a wide chasm between casual and inappropriate, and formality isn't the issue usually.

But, the OP looks a lot like bait to me, so that's all I will add.

 

[pigface]

Still, a lot of suits don't look respectable.

A lot guys look like shady used car salesmen in suits.

Oh, I know who you're referring to: orange, runs some tacky hotels, used to be on TV quite often a couple of years ago.

 

[Dominus]

There is a wide chasm between casual and inappropriate, and formality isn't the issue usually.

But, the OP looks a lot like bait to me, so that's all I will add.

Nope, not baiting. May be where you're at people aren't wearing PJs or sweat pants to do groceries, but here I see them all the time. I started seeing them back in college as a lot of kids just went to classes in PJs in the morning. Heck, even our biology professor almost always showed up in the early morning class wearing sweat pants and looked like she just woke up.

Yoga pants are really picking up among women in public. I remember reading about old geezers like you complaining about that. The responses have been they don't care it's extremely comfortable to wear.

Ever since I left my engineering career and pursued my own thing, I've been wearing whatever the hell I wanted when I conduct business. Sometimes, I'd go straight from the gym to a lease signing or a business deal still wearing gym shorts and tank top. Nobody cares. I haven't lost a single business deal or good tenant because I showed up in tank top.

Science fiction writers from as far back as the 20s predicted the eventual casuality of people in the future. There was a book I read written by an author from the 40s. A man's body was somehow frozen and brought back in the 21st century. There, he found people wearing whatever they wanted or nothing at all. The woman who took him in to help him adjust to the new time would go around naked because that's what she's comfortable with.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for being a complete slop. I groom myself. I shave every morning. I shower twice a day. I wash all my clothes and make sure I don't stink. My clothes are actually clean and straight. I'm just not wearing formal wear out in public.

If you don't believe me that people are getting more casual these days, just start paying attention. Every time you go to a restaurant, meijer, target, etc., pay attention. A lot of people just don't care anymore. They wear what's comfortable to them. Who cares what everyone else thinks?

 

[NotHardUp1]

No one is arguing that people have abandoned the forms of dress code, but not entirely.

And you left a profession and entered into property speculation. It's not a profession when not conducted as a business with a staff and incorporation. You merely have represented a buyer, or a landlord, in the deal. It's an individual meeting with sellers. If you're the customer, then you have no standard to meet other than your own.

But, engineering firms would not allow anyone to represent them in a business meeting in shorts and a tank, nor would most companies.

And sci-fi writers have created futuristic worlds with thousands of different social markers, but they are not predicting the necessary path of Earth, only an imagined created world. Many more sci-fi writers have depicted the future with uniforms of minimalistic sameness for the masses.

 

[Dominus]

No one is arguing that people have abandoned the forms of dress code, but not entirely.

And you left a profession and entered into property speculation. It's not a profession when not conducted as a business with a staff and incorporation. You merely have represented a buyer, or a landlord, in the deal. It's an individual meeting with sellers. If you're the customer, then you have no standard to meet other than your own.

But, engineering firms would not allow anyone to represent them in a business meeting in shorts and a tank, nor would most companies.

And sci-fi writers have created futuristic worlds with thousands of different social markers, but they are not predicting the necessary path of Earth, only an imagined created world. Many more sci-fi writers have depicted the future with uniforms of minimalistic sameness for the masses.

You are right, of course, that no engineering firm would allow their engineers to go into the office in gym shorts.

That said, I just looked through my linked-in account and noticed something. Pictures of a lot of my old colleagues... they're not wearing suit and tie. Half of them have pictures wearing casual formal, something like button shirt.

I remember just 10 years ago it was a must to be in suit and tie for those pictures, especially for official company website. So, even engineering firms are not so formal anymore. So, it's definitely in the same general direction as the rest of the general public, even if they are not nearly as liberal with the dress code.

Edit.

Back when I was still an engineer, there were times when I went into the office in gym shorts and tank top. These were either after-hours or weekends, though. I needed to do some lite work or pick up something or other. Even when I ran into other people who were there for whatever reason, no one ever cared.

 

[pwp69]

I don't know what took so long! I haven't noticed it but I don't go out. If its 50% sweat pants that would be great! I think some of us need a break from buying stuff, and this seems like a step in the right direction.

 

[NotHardUp1]

You are making exceptions and using them as indicators. They are not.

People attired in pajamas or other states of undress are not "informal," but underdressed for public. Big difference.

And going in after hours to do some work on a weekend or at night is entirely different than going in to meet with others in conferences or meet with customers. After hours and weekend work in companies has not been a dress code time for most companies for decades.

Yes, formality is less, but business casual is still the rule, even when haphazardly enforced or ignored.

But, the power of laziness is great indeed.

 

[Charon]

Just glad my job doesn't enforce a "must be clean-shaven" rule.

 

[ChristianGianni]

Just glad my job doesn't enforce a "must be clean-shaven" rule.

Same here, Merry Christmas to you Charon

 

[peeonme]

When I sold Real Estate I wore a suit and tie, I worked in an office were we sold old coins for several years and wore dress slacks (trousers) and a dress shirt. Today I would do the same. When I attend a Sunday service in Church it time for the suit and tie again, I don't go with the flow of societal norms. Society is becoming more ignorant, shall we fall in lock step?

 

[Kahaih]

So, why is a suit proper attire for a man, while women are free to dress as they please- for most any situation?

Do women get special treatment, or are they still held, in your head, to be too insignificant to consider?

Is a man wearing a suit putting women in their place?

 

[Vannie]

(matching fabric head to toe)

Camel toe?

 

[belamyi]

No one will ever tell you suit and tie is more comfortable than, say, sweat pants and t-shirt.

If by "suit and tie" is meant the American "sack and slacks", that may be so.
But a good, simple, basic suit and tie surely is TRULY comfortable... actually, almost anything but saggy sweat pants and t-shirt sacks.
Of course, one also has to deal with typically American overpricing, so I would get that what you can get for barely a couple of hundreds in Europe, in America... wait... there is Massimo Dutti or Mango in the USA too, right?