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Why did clothing become boring?

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Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#41

Post by Shared404 »

iammjm wrote: post #25

Why did clothes ever become NOT boring in the first place? Clothes are above all something that warms/protects/hides us from the world. Aesthetic contemplations are really just an afterthought. Also, "fashion" is one of the stupidest things ever, like oh hey, you should now replace your perfectly good clothes every season because someone says so??

I don't think clothing is any more boring than computers or photography or painting or drawing or running or cooking or martial arts or reading or woodworking or cars or makeup or any other hobby. Which is not to say all of those interest me, but is to say any field is going to be interesting to some but not to all.

For my case, for most of my life I hated thinking about clothes, hated anything other than big hoodies/jeans/jackets, saw it as purely utilitarian. Eventually after some soul searching and realizations/some new medication, I have discovered that I quite like using my clothing to express myself, my mood, what I'm doing, and so on.

Fast fashion is very dumb though in my opinion. No reason to be wasteful and throw things away, but there's a middle space that can be very rewarding to explore - the first time I put on a skirt was quite literally life changing.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#42

Post by achierius »

itishappy wrote: post #40
iammjm wrote: post #25

Why did clothes ever become NOT boring in the first place? Clothes are above all something that warms/protects/hides us from the world. Aesthetic contemplations are really just an afterthought. Also, "fashion" is one of the stupidest things ever, like oh hey, you should now replace your perfectly good clothes every season because someone says so??

> Clothes are above all something that warms/protects/hides us from the world. Not sure that follows. Most places have a climate that would allow us to get by without clothes if we so desired (at least for part of the year), but few do. On the other hand, farmers and their families used to use flour sacks to make clothing, and when the flour companies realized this they started making patterned sacks. Flour companies…

Note that the "wearing flour sacks" was not some perennial tradition of farming families: it was a necessity of the times, i.e. the Great Depression / dust bowl, where many many farmers were forced into destitution.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#44

Post by space_oddity »

saaaaaam wrote: post #17

I think there are a couple of important things missing from this article. One is that until relatively recently clothing served a very different function to that of today. In Europe, in our grandparents’ or even parents’ childhoods - as late even as the 1970s - housing and transport was very different to how it is now. Clothing was largely purpose-specific; people had far fewer clothes than today but those clothes ha…

How the purpose of clothing has shifted over time, and I think a lot of it boils down to the balance between utility and status

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#45

Post by space_oddity »

iammjm wrote: post #25

Why did clothes ever become NOT boring in the first place? Clothes are above all something that warms/protects/hides us from the world. Aesthetic contemplations are really just an afterthought. Also, "fashion" is one of the stupidest things ever, like oh hey, you should now replace your perfectly good clothes every season because someone says so??

It’s wild to think about how something so simple - just a way to shield ourselves from the elements - has become this huge cultural phenomenon

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#46

Post by itishappy »

achierius wrote: post #42
itishappy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Clothes are above all something that warms/protects/hides us from the world. Not sure that follows. Most places have a climate that would allow us to get by without clothes if we so desired (at least for part of the year), but few do. On the other hand, farmers and their families used to use flour sacks to make clothing, and when the flour companies realized this they started making patterned sacks. Flour companies…

Note that the "wearing flour sacks" was not some perennial tradition of farming families: it was a necessity of the times, i.e. the Great Depression / dust bowl, where many many farmers were forced into destitution.

I'm sure it's a bit of both. Feed sacks weren't worn by the affluent, but it would have been cheaper to use unpatterned fabrics. People went out of their way to select attractive patterns and match them with each other.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#47

Post by eesmith »

markedathome wrote: post #36
eesmith wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just how young are you? Your 501s are an echo of Steve Job's wardrobe, "black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by Issey Miyake, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers", quoting his Wikipedia entry. Elizabeth Holmes was one follower of that style. I can assure you that tight jeans came into being many years before cell phones, even if you date from the first demonstration version in 1973. Fanny packs wer…

Much comedy was born of the "bathe wearing your jeans" and lying on the bed trying to get tight jeans over the thighs, especially during the late 80s. Then came leggings and lycra woven into jeans that now allow slipping tight jeans on without too much fuss.

On the flip side, from 1972 at https://archive.org/details/mensupermen0000coop/page/22/mode... :

"Today youths ... wear clothes which disconcert their elders, including tight jeans to emphasise a bulging crotch. They spend most of their time strumming on guitars or trendy-looking girls who look as though they’ve just crawled out from underneath a rolling stone. Secretly these girls will worry about tight jeans making a man impotent."

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#48

Post by quantadev »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #37
quantadev wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is fanny packs have utility. Even Batman has a utility belt. I call my fanny pack my "Utility Belt" in fact. Batman didn't wear beads. lol.

So do many other bags. It feels weird to hear someone talk about the death of fashion, and in the same post, attack people's fashion. If you want to wear your beaded fanny pack with sandals, more power to you.

I think you're missing the main point of vanity versus utility, in my light-hearted semi-humorous post.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#49

Post by quantadev »

herbst wrote: post #24
quantadev wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh they were definitely in style. They were/are a great way to carry stuff. Just look at all the yoga-tight pants on kids today with front pockets bursting at the seams. lol. These kids would LOVE to use fanny packs, but are too scared too.

I am so surprised everybody calls them out of style. Youth around here (German speaking countries) just throws them over the shoulder. This slowly creeped from 'dealer on the corner look' to the default norm.

Right I'm aware of the 'over the shoulder' style happening in Europe right now. People recognize the utility of a fanny pack sized bag, but would never dare to wear it around the waist, for fear of being ridiculed.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#50

Post by quantadev »

eesmith wrote: post #32
quantadev wrote: post #4

In modern times clothing became boring precisely when Mark Zukerberg first revealed video of his walk-in closet having nothing but racks of identical gray T-shirts in it. Legend has it that from that day forward no striped or colored shirts have ever been seen in Silicon Valley. Then all socks went from white to black, oddly enough. The other clothing tragedy that happened around the same time-frame was that someone…

Just how young are you? Your 501s are an echo of Steve Job's wardrobe, "black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by Issey Miyake, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers", quoting his Wikipedia entry. Elizabeth Holmes was one follower of that style. I can assure you that tight jeans came into being many years before cell phones, even if you date from the first demonstration version in 1973. Fanny packs wer…

I was in High School in the late 1980s, so yeah we had some pretty narrow ankle pants for sure, but what's funny about today is the comical pairing of super tight up top too, along with a massive phone jammed into a front pocket that looks like you'd need crow bar to get it out. The obvious solution is a fanny pack, but the kids are trapped by circumstance because fanny packs are out. lol. Perfect Storm of fashion comedy.
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