Looking at photos from the early 1900s, you will see that everyone - or if not all, most men - wore a suit in their everyday, public appearances. Today, the "austere" suit is combined with specific appearances in most Western countries, and of course in our country as well.
How is the above explained?
To understand this, we should look at the evolution of the costume over time.
So before the First World War, the black or gray suit accompanied by a "bowler" hat was the "standard" for a man, for all his appearances. After World War I, the style persisted as it symbolized the now secure, fine life that most wartime soldiers dreamed of. Even in poverty, there was "room" for a garment that symbolized optimism and hope, as a bearer of some normality.
The clothes at this particular time were influenced by the military dress code, with trousers becoming narrower, while the waistcoat became a necessary accessory, as heating was not a given indoors, while jackets became "medium".
The 1930s were marked by the Dutch tailor Frederik Solti, who invented the London-cut, with more patterns and color.
After World War II, millions of soldiers who survived and returned to their families, wore the so-called "demob" clothing, which consisted of the following composition:Jacket, trousers, shirt, coat, hat, socks and shoes. In general, Scottish tweed suits were the most sought after. In the 40s, dull colors returned, monochrome jackets preferably single-breasted for reasons of economy without the waistcoat, without pleats on the trousers and the general monochrome.
Over time, this clothing also coincided with the culture of conservatism of the post-war era, while these clothes were also preferred by workers who wanted to indicate a different status. This conservative look changed radically during the 1960s. The counterculture of the 1960s brought about a general revolution in clothing as many designers now decided to experiment with colors, textures and patterns of suits. The decade was of course stigmatized by Armani who increased the wadding and made the jackets wider.
Now, from black and gray suits we have moved to colorful ones which also mark the end of "heavy" clothing in Western countries. Exceptions of course existed before, such as the Norfolk jackets of the 1910s.
The jacket in question was designed for sports such as shooting, and became identified with American culture. In the late 1920s, American men also began wearing sport coats, instead of traditional suits in college. Gradually the combination of the sportier coats with other clothes, such as sweaters, defined what was called "casual" (or Hellenistically "relaxed").
Another step towards casual dress was the introduction of shorts in the late 1920s. Due to the ever-increasing popularity of cycling during the 1920s, both men and women began to wear shorts while cycling. When the 60s came, women wore t-shirts, jeans and collared shirts, while long hair became fashionable for men. Gradually, one could say that there was a convergence in the clothing of the two sexes. By the 90s, western dress standards were very casual and the suit became even more casual-looking.
In the 90s the radical change in suits, was the end of the absolute rule of the tie. And this loosening of dress standards became what is now called "casual business wear" , which includes polo shirts, blazers and chinos.
The "suit" never stopped being worn entirely, but instead changed and evolved over the years. Practically, today, the shirt has been replaced by the t-shirt, while the jeans have also entered the sphere of the most "good" clothing. The removal of "tough" - standard clothing in American culture, affected Western standards as a whole. After all, the "relaxed - formal" style became a fashion for the CEOs of Silicon Valley and not only.
Historian Deirdre Clemente of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas told The Washington Post that "casual is a boundary between looking like any middle-class American and also being a person who has a huge range of options available to them." "At the beginning of the 20th century, people dressed more ambitiously. They wanted to appear as if they had a higher social status than they actually had. Now we live in the ultimate 'individualization'. There are so many different kinds of social and cultural standards that we can follow or be inspired by them if we want, and our clothes have become extremely emblematic of our personalities," she said. Something that fits like a glove, of course, with the so-called "psychology of fashion".
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