Is classy wear going out of style in the Western world?

[pasadena man]

"Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life, so you brought some sweatpants".
-Karl Lagerfeld

 

[Sam Hober]

Interestingly some men still enjoy wearing a suit and tie and hopefully this will never go away...

 

[pasadena man]

but it seems from here that at some point 30 years ago, capital-T Tech seemed to break away from the norms, dress code included, that most/all American businesses seemed to agree to, Then of course we have the invention of business casual in 1992 or so, a ploy by Dockers to sell weekend clothes to weekday warriors.
Smart take. I think there was a third factor as well, the mainstreaming of Hip-Hop during the 90's: MC Hammer, Eminem, Vanilla Ice(!).

 

[pasadena man]

Interestingly some men still enjoy wearing a suit and tie and hopefully this will never go away...

The current short term trends are disheartening. I was recently reading a history of men's fashion over the last 400 years. During that time period men were wearing something around their neck to finish off the top block and frame/draw attention to the face over 80% of the time (ruff collar, stocks, cravats, modern necktie, etc). If current short term trends continue it can look bleak for the necktie. If things revert to long term trends however, I would say there is hope. As Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) says in Jurassic Park : "Life will find a way".

 

[Sam Hober]

Pasadena Man,

There is always hope - smiling.

It is also possible that some men will always wear ties fashionable or not. Many weddings are going tieless but I think there is a strong possibility that ties will still continue to be part of many weddings in the future. So ties in the courtroom and at weddings will not be enough business for large tie makers. But for for a small niche business like ours I think we will be OK.

Not sure is this is an appropriate example but lawyers in the UK still wear wigs in court (I think).

I had a nice phone conversation with Paul Winston (Chipp Neckwear) the other day and he is 83 so he has seen lots of fashion trends and he was not hopeful about ties ever coming back they way they were before.

But he is still cheerful and very witty. I have read many of his online posts and I hope that he writes a book about his experiences.

 

[comrade]

Pasadena Man,

There is always hope - smiling.

It is also possible that some men will always wear ties fashionable or not. Many weddings are going tieless but I think there is a strong possibility that ties will still continue to be part of many weddings in the future. So ties in the courtroom and at weddings will not be enough business for large tie makers. But for for a small niche business like ours I think we will be OK.

Not sure is this is an appropriate example but lawyers in the UK still wear wigs in court (I think).

I had a nice phone conversation with Paul Winston (Chipp Neckwear) the other day and he is 83 so he has seen lots of fashion trends and he was not hopeful about ties ever coming back they way they were before.

But he is still cheerful and very witty. I have read many of his online posts and I hope that he writes a book about his experiences.

Before there was Chipp Neckwear there was Chipp. In the 80s through
the early nineties I got most of my tailored clothing from Paul, RTW
and MTM. They had a model with natural shoulders two buttons, some
shape and often side vents that was perfect for my then fairly athletic build.
I still have some of the jackets and a suit which no longer really fit. They
were superb clothes with great fabrics. When I moved to CA and didn't get to
NYC very often I no longer shopped at Chipp, which left the clothing business
several years ago, if I recall correctly.

 

[JFWR]

I was a little kid during this era you were in the thick of so this is just me on the outside looking in, but it seems from here that at some point 30 years ago, capital-T Tech seemed to break away from the norms, dress code included, that most/all American businesses seemed to agree to, including earlier forms of technology companies, like pharma or aerospace. Maybe it was internet itself, which seemed so exponentially different than any technology that had come before, that attracted all sorts of nonconventional businessmen to the Tech space? Iono. Then of course we have the invention of business casual in 1992 or so, a ploy by Dockers to sell weekend clothes to weekday warriors. And now, Tech has so much financial power that it's the 800lb gorilla that all other industries reliant on people who can do math, like biotech, weapons, finance, actuary, cars, pretty much all the pillars of the 21st century machine, are competing against for human resources and thus has to mimic.




Basically you're saying that if money were no object, we'd do some silly **** just because the laws of society and of physics do not stop us. By this same logic, we would all be using Ferraris in demolition derbies, bathing in Perrier, and feeding A5 Wagyu to our pets. A solution that provides some improvement in sensory pleasure, I'll give you that, but simultaneously much costlier while also less practical. Look, I can think of a trillion impractical things I'd do if money/resources were no object (mostly involving wearing my 100% vicuna man-thong to a cocaine and Laphroaig fueled orgy with a platoon of $10,000/hr Scandanavian prostitutes who all have MD/PhDs and are all also former Miss Universes, but that's neither here nor there) but alas, money is finite and we all have to make compromises to optimize our resources.



This you?


In this Tailoring X Gridiron collab, do you mean you're wearing your dinner suit, or something more like cavalry twill trousers with OCBD, no jacket? One's more reasonable and the other is ridiculous, but nothing's too ridiculous for SF.

This reminds me: ever watch Peaky Blinders? This guys are constantly in three-piece suits because those were apparently the only clothing options back then, and they're all riding horses, walking through blast furnaces, going to farms, firing guns, all that mucky junk. I can only imagine how filthy their clothes are, but everything seems to be dark heavy tweed at least. I wouldn't try to do any of that with something out of the Loro Piana Australis or Tasmanian books. They also change into sportswear to do things like soccer or box, so there's that....

Wouldn't the orgy be funner if they're dumb? The last thing you want is a dispute about the merits of logical positivism at an orgy.

 

[JFWR]

Pasadena Man,

There is always hope - smiling.

It is also possible that some men will always wear ties fashionable or not. Many weddings are going tieless but I think there is a strong possibility that ties will still continue to be part of many weddings in the future. So ties in the courtroom and at weddings will not be enough business for large tie makers. But for for a small niche business like ours I think we will be OK.

Not sure is this is an appropriate example but lawyers in the UK still wear wigs in court (I think).

I had a nice phone conversation with Paul Winston (Chipp Neckwear) the other day and he is 83 so he has seen lots of fashion trends and he was not hopeful about ties ever coming back they way they were before.

But he is still cheerful and very witty. I have read many of his online posts and I hope that he writes a book about his experiences.

Nothing screams to me "obnoxious asshole" then men in dress shirts with no tie. It's an awful look of the nouveau riche pricks.

In that sense, I hope ties begin to flourish again.

 

[comrade]

This reminds me: ever watch Peaky Blinders? This guys are constantly in three-piece suits because those were apparently the only clothing options back then, and they're all riding horses, walking through blast furnaces, going to farms, firing guns, all that mucky junk.

In the Victorian/Edwardian era working class men wore old or cast- off
tailored clothing when they workedI saw this in 1969 driving through Ireland-
then quite poor, seeing farmers on tractors or behind teams in ragged tailored
clothing and flat caps. The gents below clearly do hard messy labor. The peaky
blinders the same or similar social classes achieve a level of urban respectability
in their suits. In those days sporting clothes were only worn by the country gentry
and their retainers. Or the urban affluent when doing county pursuits.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

Wouldn't the orgy be funner if they're dumb?

No. Come back when you're ready.

Nothing screams to me "obnoxious asshole" then men in dress shirts with no tie. It's an awful look of the nouveau riche pricks.

Like....what? Noveau riche pricks?? I mean, aside from the fact that there's no need to get your gears so ground up about what people are wearing, you're describing the biz-cazzZz dress code for millions of white collar office drones the world over, most of whom are doing it kind of involuntarily. I don't understand what is so upsetting, unless I am completely wrong about what you mean by dress shirts.

 

[Terrence O'Connor]

Agreed that most men dress like they are at the gym, no matter where they actually may be.
Who cares, get ” dressed up“ if you like, no need to care what others are wearing.☘️

 

[anaxagoras]

The last few years changed my view of this long-term trend. First, noticing that the better-made clothing in the West End is in fact extremely comfortable. (Which I would’ve said of the old Brooks brothers/Press stuff as well, but is rarely certain even mid-range.) Second, after buying too much of that stuff over the last few years and seeking to broaden things with newer Italian casuals (tech merino e.g. and the newer elastic materials) I noticed that, for the same level of comfort, it’s pretty much the same price. Put simply, a good fleece is actually very expensive, and the cheaper ones are not comfortable.
That left me wondering, whether what has really changed is simply that a lot of people, and I am no exception, now regard clothing as disposable and are willing to tolerate less comfort and disposability for no hassle.
Of course, the existence of 500 pound sneakers would speak against this interpretation!

 

[altavista]

Nothing screams to me "obnoxious asshole" then men in dress shirts with no tie. It's an awful look of the nouveau riche pricks.

 

[comrade]

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I don't see any turkish taffy being offered.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

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That's a lot of assholes all at once but the most evil person in this room is the caterer who arranged all the hor d'oeuvres to be in full view of everyone while totally inaccessible to anyone.