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Americans are spending less on clothing

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141–150 of 344 posts

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#141

IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend: 1) US business fashion is increasingly casual. Ties, skirts, suits, coordinated outfits, scarves, leather soled shoes -- all are passe, even in button down East Coast Fortune 100 companies (other than for aspiring managers or those in banking/finance). 2) Color is passe. Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities. Thus fewer accessories ar…

Sweat Pants should be trending up then!

Indeed, they are and have been trending up for a few years now. The fashion calls it Athleisure.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#142
post #77
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "But in Sweden we dress down compared to other countries." That's very surprising to me. To me, the Swedish think more about their looks than any other country.

In a business environment. Compare https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sweden+business+office&t=ffsb&iax=... with https://duckduckgo.com/?q=germany+business+office&t=ffsb&iar... . The people in the Germany pictures are more likely to be wearing a dress shirt. The people who wear a business jacket in the Sweden pictures are less likely to be wearing a tie. My experience is also that people (or at least managers) in the UK also…

Wearing a suit is only weakly correlated with dressing well or caring about your looks. Someone wearing jeans and a t-shirt can appear better dressed and more caring about their looks than someone wearing a suit.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#143
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're lucky it fits you. the only sizes i see at thrift stores are L-XXL

Large is pretty standard size for tall men. Pretty much required over 5'11.

I'm 6'2" and 180lbs and large still fits baggy on me most of the time. Which is annoying for gifts because most people think the same way and gift large or extra-large clothes without gift receipts so I end up having to drive them over to the salvation army.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#144
post #134
post #54

>Apparel is being displaced by travel, eating out and activities—what’s routinely lumped together as “experiences”—which have grown to 18 percent of purchases. [..] That now tops all clothing and footwear expenditures. I have a completely blunt theory on that. People learn that pictures of them smiling in their bathing suit in the Maldives or with that exotic plate of food attract more 'likes' than the pictures of th…

>/r/fi: mutual funds *low cost ETFs

Thanks for the correction. What I really meant to say was index funds including ETFs. I totally messed up on that one.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large is pretty standard size for tall men. Pretty much required over 5'11.

I'm 6'2" and 180lbs and large still fits baggy on me most of the time. Which is annoying for gifts because most people think the same way and gift large or extra-large clothes without gift receipts so I end up having to drive them over to the salvation army.

Large, non bespoke shirts off the rack, are longer. Which is required for taller people. I have the same issue, which is why I look for fitted shirts in large. 6'1 175lb.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#146
post #8

European here: when visiting my company HQ I was surprised how casual Americans dress for work. I am not saying devs should wear suit and tie, nothing like that, but even my bosses boss* was wearing what looked like a rumpled sweater with worn out jeans. And I don't mean like fashion statement rumpled and worn out, more like the "great depression" crumpled and worn out. Jules and Vincent in their new t-shirts would f…

Where in Europe are you? In the UK people dress in darker tones in winter. I think this is partly because coats are expensive, so most people only have one or two and thus choose colours that are easy to match. I think it is also partly because the landscape in winter is quite dark. In summer you'll see much more colour about. IME the US does tend to be more conservative in terms of fashion than Europe.

Personally I dress in darker tone because I have got to known myself as extremely clumsy and always have stain of foods on my clothes. Having Dark clothes means they dont show as compared to a white T-Shirt.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large is pretty standard size for tall men. Pretty much required over 5'11.

Depends where you are? I'm in the UK and 189cm tall and I always wear medium.

Then somehow your mediums are very long. Medium is just way too short stateside. While it fits the chest, it doesn't lengthwise.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#148

IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend: 1) US business fashion is increasingly casual. Ties, skirts, suits, coordinated outfits, scarves, leather soled shoes -- all are passe, even in button down East Coast Fortune 100 companies (other than for aspiring managers or those in banking/finance). 2) Color is passe. Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities. Thus fewer accessories ar…

> More people are working from home... Your office is not representative of the entire US workforce, dear.

More people are working from home: https://nyti.ms/2lQqCDK

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish more people follow your lead.

Have you been to thrift stores lately? They're pretty crowded, at least a lot of the time. I think a lot of people are doing this. Income inequality might also play a role; 20-somethings unable to get a good job are much more likely to buy used than new.

Thrift stores in one option but folks can easily find used clothes on eBay.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#150
post #101
post #58

With the exception of shoes and jackets I buy all my clothes at Goodwill. It's awesome! Every couple of months I spend around $20 dollars and I always have nice new tee shirts, button ups, pants etc. You wont believe how many nice clothes people simply give away. Plus it makes me feel great knowing I'm contributing to reuse and giving money to a company that helps employee less fortunate people.

you're lucky it fits you. the only sizes i see at thrift stores are L-XXL

Sizing is often my issue as well, except that it's usually more about either "outdated" cuts (baggy where now more tailored/fitted is fashionable) or where decent looking stuff in my fairly average size is often snagged, leaving only the very small or very large sizes behind.

Still, I occasionally find some decent stuff and I still hit up the Goodwill anytime I'm out running errands and pass near one. It's just a matter of luck so the more often I look, the better my odds.

I tend to have less luck with the common stuff like nice wool pants or well-fitting button down shirts but I've gotten some really nice jackets and at three pairs of Allen Edmonds shoes ($250-350 MSRP) for $20-25 each with only a cleanup and polish needed.

It's nice because even though I'm still buying the occasional $20-40 shirt, I've got a few pairs of shoes that are much nicer than anything I'd be able to justify buying at retail.

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