Why did clothing become boring?

Clothes are an important part of how we communicate with each other. It's an important part of the human experience, right up there with art and music.

By having this opinion (and I assume dressing plainly) you are sending your own message to people about what's important to you.

I wonder how much this relates to the placement of a washing machine and/or dryer.

It's typically in the kitchen in a British household, unless you have a house with a utility room or an old outdoor toilet (growing up, my house had an external downstairs toilet but it was just used for storage and the washing machine).

When I moved abroad though it wasn't unusual to see the washer/dryer in the bathroom.

> But the reason people wore those layers was not always necessarily to stay warm. In fact, the layers were worn in the summer in hot climates as well as during winter in cold climates.

This still holds up today. Can't speak for anywhere else but in the UK people will go out in 30ºC weather in an anorak or puffer jacket with a hoodie and tee underneath. The exact opposite of us northern British types who go out in winter wearing just one light layer at 5ºC (tee + jeans, top + skirt).

What I find interesting is that where traditional clothing has managed to maintain some sort of foothold, it’s almost invariably in women’s clothing. This is largely a superficial observation and is likely becoming increasingly false as time goes on and is based almost entirely on media representations, but I think someone more skilled and knowledgeable than me could find the boundaries of this observation against reality.

> Is your type, dating wise, someone who is warm and dry?

My type is someone who has enough excess wealth to support my kids. Of course what this means is different for different animals, and in the case of humans different styles of raising kids, and different genders. In our modern world we don't think like this, but in 1700 a man could rape a woman and she would have no choice but to bare the child (if one happens), and then society would raise the child (in some cases she could drop the child off with the shakers or similar) - the important point is in this case the man only minimal cost to the child but there are a lot of costs on the woman. Thus women generally need signals that this man will stick around to feed her an can afford, that while the man needs to know the women's body will result in a baby being (as opposed to all too common dies at birth).

Warm and dry is the very minimum you can ask in a potential mate - anything else will die before the child is born and thus you don't pass those genes on. However if you can find someone who has enough free time to not only be warm and dry but also well decorated that implies they have plenty of excess time making warm and dry clothing for the child who then won't freeze to death. Of course different climates have different warmth and dry needs.