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Americans are spending less on clothing

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Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#331

Post by memorymappings »

randcraw wrote: post #88

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…

Yeah also people have other things to spend money on now. Young people my age invest in fashion but also invest in experiences and food. The cost of clothing is going down as well so it's easier to acquire a fashionable wardrobe for cheap now and use the remainder on food experiences etc as far as free cash flow goes to spend on things outside of the required.

Also the internet, I can now even though it's freezing in NY, compare prices for a goosedown North face jacket from 5 different places and save $40 or so before I order one online. Competition drives price down. Clothing like so many other retail genres, is just apart of the retailpocolypse.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#332

Post by Mandatum »

protomyth wrote: post #153
slowmotiony wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Germany was like that. I work as a IT consultant in a financial institution and we all have to wear suits here, even though most of the people have never seen a client in their life - they just sit behind their desks and do their daily work on a PC. So they do so - in a suit. I really don't know why Germans do this to themselves.

> I work as a IT consultant in a financial institution and we all have to wear suits here, even though most of the people have never seen a client in their life I had to wear a suit at a place that it would be illegal for the client to interact with me. Logic and dress codes aren't always friends.

Our auditors tend to wear large orange lanyards and badges.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#333

Post by nasredin »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #330
ryanianian wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not that I cannot afford to wear suits. Its that I dont like suits. I think you prove my point (and it's not a bad thing!) Sociology is interesting. A suit is traditionally a sign of "I invest in my clothes and therefore I have self-pride." (It's also a sign that you don't have to do hard/dirty labor.) It seems culturally America has decided that this is out-dated and are choosing to focus less on clothes as a…

I'm sure some people wear clothing to signal status, but that shouldn't be your primary reason for choosing one article of clothing over another. A man wearing pants and a button-up shirt looks objectively more appealing than a man in a t-shirt and shorts. Suits and business casual clothing are designed to accentuate the physical features of the person wearing them. The way the "V" of a button-up shirt opens up at th…

>They just look nice.

Location may factor in here. They may look nice in NYC but they probably wish they could wear whatever they wanted (Zuckerberg) in Southern California.

Only lawyers and bankers dress fancy everyday here. And not even all bankers.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#334

Post by nasredin »

drharby wrote: post #230
briandear wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I am curious — what are programming clothes? I actually think hiking clothes would be awesome to program in — comfortable layers, freedom of movement, durable.. a suit makes no sense for programming; restrictive collars, a tie (!!) and a propensity to wrinkle when sitting. I think you might have sparked a business idea! Clothes for Coders. Couldn’t be any more ridiculous than when Tiesto released a shoe for DJing…

Varies from people. Hell i can program in my underwear provided i dont have a draft

Huh. During a recent heatwave I wrote code the way C Gods (K&R) intended - with absolutly minimal clothing.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#335

Post by MandieD »

dalbasal wrote: post #79
toomanybeersies wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should not be buying 2 suits and half a dozen shirts per year. I wear tshirts daily and I don't even buy half a dozen tshirts per year. I have some that are over 5 years old. Spend more than the bare minimum on your clothes, and they will last you a long time. A suit should last you at least half a decade.

I never had that kind of job. Estimates based on people I know. Most suit people I know like to have 4-5 at any given time. They also like to have the crisp look of new clothes, more noticeable in formal clothes than hoodies and t shirts. Also suit fashions tend to be fairly specific. My old suit (11 year old 3 button pinstripe that everyone had then) that I haven't worn for years looks ridiculous now, being 2-3 gene…

Women's office clothes are the worst: fragile, ill-fitting off the rack, difficult to tailor unless they were really expensive, and pretty much dry-clean-only (even the tops).

I had to dress "business casual" when I taught English part-time for a much lower wage than I get in my current IT job, where putting a scarf or beaded necklace on top of a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans now makes me more dressed up than my colleagues in their printed t-shirts and athletic shoes. I save at least 100 EUR/mo not having to wear and maintain a business casual wardrobe.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#336

Post by deanCommie »

sedachv wrote: post #291
slowmotiony wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Germany was like that. I work as a IT consultant in a financial institution and we all have to wear suits here, even though most of the people have never seen a client in their life - they just sit behind their desks and do their daily work on a PC. So they do so - in a suit. I really don't know why Germans do this to themselves.

> I really don't know why Germans do this to themselves. Yes, wearing a well-fitting, tailored suit made out of fabric with a good hand appropriate to the weather is a horrible (horribly comfortable) experience to subject yourself to. Having plenty of functional jacket pockets for all of your belongings is a special kind of hell.

How about having the CHOICE to do this?

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#337

Post by Lordarminius »

rb808 wrote: post #199
freejulian wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All these explanations are rather complicated. I think the simplest explanation is the best: people don't have the free money to spend on clothing. This is evidenced by the following facts: 1) Wages have been stagnant 2) Cost of living has been increasing well beyond the stated 2% rate of inflation.

That doesn't explain why people in the poorest countries dress better than Americans. People living in the slums of India/Nigeria/Brazil are more likely to have a collared shirt and dress pants than an American going to work in an office.

I'm from Nigeria and the idea that the poor among us dress well is news to me. If anything, dressings standards have fallen year in year for the past decade. People simply do not have disposable income.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#338

Post by EliRivers »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #176
EliRivers wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

clothes last for ages now They can do (as indeed they always could) if you pay for it, although in my experience the majority of clothes bought don't last ages; modern materials (from the sixties onwards, I would say - polyester and related), manufacturing techniques and the easy attitude of consumers in buying clothing that doesn't last have all contributed. Certainly anything you buy in a high-street chain, be it t…

Let me tell you a secret - it’s the drier. Clothes last far longer when you hang dry them. You’re right that fast fashion has reduced overall quality, but you can still get more wear out if them if you avoid the drier.

"Drier", eh? I've seen them. I aspire one day to own such a thing :) A little over 50% of UK households have one, compared to 85% in the US, so they're common but by no means ubiquitous.

Re: Americans are spending less on clothing

#339

Post by utellme »

FranOntanaya wrote: post #115
utellme wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I'm feeling just opposite on your phrase "clothes last for ages" if you speaking about its quality. 10 yr old jeans looks ugly but their endurance is much better than modern ones has. And if you wash your clothes so often, it should last few months before became completely garbage.

That'd be survivor bias. My average jeans a decade or two ago would start tearing off at the buttonhole or taint seam after a year or so.

Are you talking about product of same manufacturer?
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