Why Americans dress so casually
Canada Goose Online Imperious fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) dumps her coat on the desk of new assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) in “The Devil Wears Prada.” (Photo credit: Barry Wetcher) Canada Goose Online
canada goose black friday sale Look around you, and you’ll likely notice a sea canada goose outlet shop of different outfits. You might see similar articles of clothing even the same ones worn by different people, but rarely do you find two pairings of tops, bottoms, shoes, canada goose outlet and canada goose outlet jackets accessories thatareexactly alike. canada goose black friday sale
uk canada goose outlet That wasn’t always the case, said Deirdre Clemente, a historian of 20th century American culture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose researchfocuseson fashion and clothing. Americans were far canada goose outlet sale more formal, and formulaic dressers, not all that long ago. Men wore suits, almost without fail not just to work, but also at school. And women, for the most canada goose outlet parka part, wore long dresses. uk canada goose outlet
Deirdre Clemente (Aaron Mayes/UNLV Photo Services)
Clemente has written extensively about the evolution of American dress in the canada goose outlet reviews 1900s, a period that, she said, was marked, maybe more than anything else, by a single but powerful trend: As everyday fashion broke from tradition, it shed much of its socioeconomic implications people no longer dress to feign wealth like they once did and took on a new meaning.
buy canada goose jacket The shift has, above all, led toward casualness in the way we dress. It can be seen on college campuses, in classrooms, where students attend in sweatpants, and in the workplace, where Silicon Valley busy bodies are outfitted with hoodies and T shirts. That change, the change in how we dress here in America, has been brewing since the 1920s, and owes itself to the rise of specific articles of clothing. What’s more, it underscores important shifts in the way we use canada goose outlet store uk and understand the shirts and pants we wear. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose I spokewith Clemente to learn more about the origins of casual dress, and the staying power of the trend. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. canada goose
Let’s start by talking a bit about what you study. You’re a historian, and you focus on American culture as it canada goose outlet nyc pertains to fashion. canada goose outlet black friday Is that right?
I’m a cultural historian. I’m a 20th century expert, so don’t ask me anything about the Civil War. And my focus is clothing in fashion. So I’m a little bit of a business historian, a little bit of a historian of marketing, and a little bit of a historian of gender. When you kind of mix all of those things together, all those subsections of history, you get what I study.
So that scene from “The Devil Wears Prada,” when Meryl Streep criticizesAnne Hathaway for believing she isn’t affected by fashion, it must resonate with you.
Well you canada goose outlet uk know, it’s just so true. People say, “Oh well, you know, I don’t care about fashion.” They go to the Gap, they go to Old Navy, and they all dress alike, they wear these uniforms. The thing that I really harp on is that, that in and of itself is a choice, it’s a personal choice, because there are many people who don’t do that. In buying those uniforms, you’re saying something about yourself, and about how you feel about clothing and culture. There is no such thing as an unaffected fashion choice. Anti fashion is fashion, because it’s a reaction to the current visual culture, a negation of it.
cheap canada goose uk How would you characterize the way Americans dress today? What’s the contemporary visual culture like now? cheap canada goose uk
canada goose factory sale https://www.canadagoosepark.com Well, I would certainly say that there are, above all, so many more choices than there have ever been before. canada goose outlet uk sale There’s canada goose outlet online uk also a tendency like never before to alternate styles. People will one day dress very conservatively and then the next day wear something much more dramatic, much less formal. canada goose factory sale
Canada Goose online There’s a clear trend toward individualization, as opposed to homogenization. There are so many different kinds of social and cultural personas that we can put on, and our clothes have become extremely emblematic of that. What do you mean by that? Canada Goose online
canada goose uk shop There’s this fashion theorist who wrote in the 1930s about how in capitalist societies, clothing serves as this way to jump in and out of cheap canada goose socioeconomic class. Now, he was writing at a time when people were still really trying to jump up, and could feign wealth. You could buy a nice looking suit and make it seem like you were a lot more wealthy than you actually were then. But in the second half of the 20th century, what we’ve seen is people doing just the opposite. canada goose uk shop
Americans have come to dress casually in a way that is very interesting as a historian. When you look back at old pictures of students, it’s jarring. We canada goose factory outlet used to dress so formally, just to go to class.
canada goose clearance sale Are there points, chronologically, that stand out? Times that were particularly important for the migration toward less formal wear? canada goose clearance sale
canadian goose jacket I think there are two key points in the 1920s. The 1920s were really important for this shift. canadian goose jacket
canada goose uk black friday In the 1920s, when women really broke away from dresses and matchy matchy suits, and instead began to use sweater vests goose outlet canada and other outfits, versatility entered the minds canada goose outlet online of buyers. At that point, people began to mix and match, wear more sweaters, more gored(which is a kind of skirt). canada goose uk black friday
Bythe late 1920s, very few college men wore suits canada goose outlet new york city to class. The rise of the sports coat is an incredibly underlauded change in American culture. Because once boys started wearing sports coats instead of suits, men’s outfits became more versatile, they moved away from ties, they wore all sorts of different things, like sweaters, with their jackets.
canada goose uk outlet If so much of this was predicated on shifts that happened in the 1920s, was there nothing impactful that happened thereafter? canada goose uk outlet
canada goose coats on sale Pants on women. You cannot talk about the rise of casual dress without talking about the rise of pants of women. You first saw it in elite women’s schools, canada goose outlet in usa such as Wellesley and Vassar. Once women were wearing pants and even jeans on campus and to class, which happened starting in the 1930s, canada goose outlet toronto factory things really began to change. canada goose outlet store Even though it wasn’t yet happening on co ed campuses, because of the mix of genders, and formality that persisted around that, it was still a big deal. canada goose coats on sale
buy canada goose jacket cheap World World II was alsorevolutionary for dress. The war brought about a whole culture of dress that didn’t exist before. Women wore what they wanted, official canada goose outlet because it didn’t matter they were on their way to the victory garden or because they were working at factories, where practicality was more important. buy canada goose jacket cheap
canada goose store So in the aftermath of World War II, more casual outfits became commonplace? canada goose store
Yes, although there was a slight backslide in the late 1940s, where wesaw a bit of reluctance around it. In 1948, Christian Dior put canada goose black friday sale out a new look in the United States, which featured long skirts that were tight waisted. That was a Parisian couture influence, though, and it didn’t stick. Women either weren’t really buying it, or wearing it. It had about a two year lifespan, and then the college girls migrated toward the freedom of articles like pants and less cumbersome dresses. They had experienced these, and they weren’t going to go back to more uncomfortable clothing.
Then in the 1950s, you really start to see stay at home moms wearing casual wear in the house shirts, pants, jeans, even canada goose outlet canada T shirts. And it really took off from there.