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Why did clothing become boring?

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Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#71

Post by bluGill »

itishappy wrote: post #46
achierius wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

With mass production attractive patterns were cheap for the flour companies - they were already pattering the sacs with the brand name so it was almost zero extra cost to put more pattern on the bag. If patterns actually costs them much they wouldn't have done it. People who have a choice between two $1 bags of flour will choose the nicer on for the nicer clothes they can make - but if one bag as $1.05 they would choose the cheaper one.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#72

Post by pm215 »

ljm wrote: post #65
gspencley wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those layers were still designed to serve a purpose - largely keeping warm Yes and no. Something that people often take for granted is doing laundry. The invention of the automatic clothes washer and dryer changed things dramatically . Before automation, laundry day for a household of 4 was a huge, laborious, and often multi-day task. Not only did garments need to be washed by hand, but there was a lot of attention…

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 rea…

I think a big part of why UK washing machines aren't in bathrooms is our electrical regs, which don't allow plug sockets within three metres of a bath or shower. Most UK bathrooms aren't big enough for that, so you end up having to do awkward workarounds like giving them a hardwired connection and/or boxing the machine into a cupboard. (I used to own a flat where the only space to put the washing machine was the bathroom and had to get it boxed in...)

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#73

Post by quantadev »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #58
quantadev wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There's nothing wrong with the vanity of choosing a fanny pack over pockets or another bag these days. I support your fashion choice. Especially if you prefer your fashion to be functional. I do, too!

You're correct that I care about utility, but incorrect that it's vanity/fashion.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#74

Post by imp0cat »

quantadev wrote: post #49
herbst wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly, and rightfully so. It just looks weird having it around the waist.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#75

Post by TheGRS »

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??

Personal tastes and preferences and opinions aside, clothing is a pretty important aspect of communicating. Easy reference point is Mean Girls: On Wednesdays, we wear pink. In that scenario its simply a means of communicating conformity and support for the group. Seasonal tastes change because tastemakers set them, and people who want to be in the zeitgeist follow suit.

And even in sub-cultures where one is just trying to communicate their distaste in fashion, there are usually unofficial dress codes. At nerdier conventions I typically see screen t-shirts riddled with pop culture references, or standard issue polos + khakis that communicate a sort of "I'm professional and I don't want to overthink my wardrobe". They're also the only place I see utility kilts, which definitely communicates something.

Einstein famously had several copies of the same outfit, because he didn't want to think about dressing, but he found one that worked for him. And I've seen several engineers copy this approach - communicating efficiency and I'd argue at least some desire to emulate an Einstein.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#76

Post by bluGill »

eesmith wrote: post #53
quantadev wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 co…

You think kids now care don't use fanny packs because "someone in Hollywood declared Fanny Packs to be out of style" back when you were in high school in the 1980s? How amazingly influential this mysterious someone was, to influence things some 35 years later! Certainly more then how the beatnik and hipster styles of the 1950s influenced your generation of HS students. Since purses are another obvious solution, I pla…

Fashion trends come and go and come back again. So that fanny packs are out of style again doesn't surprise me.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#77

Post by quantadev »

eesmith wrote: post #53
quantadev wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 co…

You think kids now care don't use fanny packs because "someone in Hollywood declared Fanny Packs to be out of style" back when you were in high school in the 1980s? How amazingly influential this mysterious someone was, to influence things some 35 years later! Certainly more then how the beatnik and hipster styles of the 1950s influenced your generation of HS students. Since purses are another obvious solution, I pla…

[flagged]

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#78

Post by quantadev »

bluGill wrote: post #76
eesmith wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think kids now care don't use fanny packs because "someone in Hollywood declared Fanny Packs to be out of style" back when you were in high school in the 1980s? How amazingly influential this mysterious someone was, to influence things some 35 years later! Certainly more then how the beatnik and hipster styles of the 1950s influenced your generation of HS students. Since purses are another obvious solution, I pla…

Fashion trends come and go and come back again. So that fanny packs are out of style again doesn't surprise me.

They've only come back in the form of shoulder slings. The "Waist Wear Phobia" is still very real.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#79

Post by MisterBastahrd »

gspencley wrote: post #56
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…

> Those layers were still designed to serve a purpose - largely keeping warm Yes and no. Something that people often take for granted is doing laundry. The invention of the automatic clothes washer and dryer changed things dramatically . Before automation, laundry day for a household of 4 was a huge, laborious, and often multi-day task. Not only did garments need to be washed by hand, but there was a lot of attention…

Ask anyone in New Orleans and they'll tell you that Mondays are for red beans. This is because it was laundry day, and one of the easiest, heartiest, and least labor intensive things that you could cook for a long time with minimal supervision is a pot of beans that only got better the longer it cooked.

Re: Why did clothing become boring?

#80

Post by _DeadFred_ »

atoav wrote: post #26
dimitar wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you can make the case that people don't have to dress a certain way because we are much better insulated (metaphorically and literally) from the environment. And there are of course no sumptuary laws. So clothing can be more fun, if people want to of course - look at how music subcultures have incredibly varied ways of expression through clothing - metalheads, hiphopheads, punks etc.

I think you hit gold there, todays lack of interesting clothes is in my eyes related to two things: - market logic made work clothes boring (think about guild clothing, the only interesting thing I see from time to time is the chimney sweeper) - less people are inclined to feel part of a subculture and/or express that in their fashion choices As someone who was a teenager in the 2000s, back then I had at least 6 diff…

Young people today have as many self imposed rules as my grandmother used to have. Rules about being cool. Rules about gatekeeping. They would 100% be calling people out for wearing white during the wrong season back in the day, only they'd call it clowning on them as if it's any different.
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