Why Do Americans Dress so casuall
Americans Dress – I study one of the most profound cultural changes of the 20th century: the rise of casual dress—the “why” and “when” of our sartorial becoming comfortable with the standard collar.
As Americans, our casual style places an equal emphasis on comfort and practicality. A hundred years ago, the closest thing to casual was sportswear – knitted golf clothes, tweed blazers, and Oxford shoes.
But as the century progressed, simple included everything from worker wear (jeans and lumberjack jackets) to military uniforms (khakis).
Americans’ quest for low-key style has fueled entire industries: millinery, hosiery, evening wear, fur. It has infiltrated everywhere, from boardrooms to classrooms to courtrooms.
American casual dress. Why? Because clothes are freedom – to choose how we present ourselves and blur the lines between man and woman, old and young, rich and poor.
The rise of the casual style weakened the millennium-old rules that prescribed noticeable luxury for the rich and casual work clothes for the poor.
Until a century ago, there were few ways to hide your social class. You wore it – literally – on your sleeve. Today CEOs wear sandals to work.
Despite the variety of choices in the clothing market today, many of us gravitate to that vast, beige field between Jamie Foxx and the girl wearing pyjama bottoms on a plane. Casual clothing is the uniform of the American middle class.
T-shirts, sweaters, jeans and wrinkle-free shirts provide a “middle class” look to anyone who wants to wear it.
And almost everyone in America wants to wear it because nearly everyone considers themselves middle class.
In wearing cargo shorts, polo shirts, sneakers and baseball caps, we are “outing” our identities as middle-class Americans. Our country’s casual style is America’s calling card to the world – where people make it their own.
It is seen in young boys wearing Steelers jerseys on the Ivory Coast and Levi’s jerseys on the black market in Russia. Casual is diverse and ever-changing, but it was made in America.
The introduction of sportswear into the American wardrobe in the late 1910s and early 1920s redefined when and where specific clothing could be worn.
The broader acceptance of sportswear coincided with the consolidation of the American fashion industry.
By the late 1920s, firms produced designs, worked with manufacturers, and marketed specific types of clothing to particular demographics.
The second milestone towards casual was the introduction of shorts into the American wardrobe. The popularity of cycling in the late 1920s led to the need for culottes and shorts – usually above the knee and made of cotton or rayon.
Shorts remained the typical time and place for women (gardening, exercising, and hiking) until the Bermuda shorts craze in the late 1940s, when women legitimately replaced plaid wool shorts.
In May 1930, at the all-male Dartmouth College, the editors of the student letter challenged their readers to “bring forward their treasured possession—whether in line with or in line with old flannels” so that men “proceed to the highest pleasure” can”. Complete freedom of the foot. ,
The Shorts Protest of the 1930s brought out more than 600 students in old basketball uniforms, tweed walking shorts, and newly created cutoffs to introduce shorts to the American men’s wardrobe.
Americans went with more self-build options in the 1950s than ever before. Fundamental to this freedom – in addition to the suburban department store boom and onslaught of the media – is the “unisex” of our wardrobe, the third milestone on our quest to go casual. Women didn’t wear pants until the 1930s.
And it wasn’t until the early 1950s that pants made it mainstream. In the 1960s, there were still discussions and rules about women in pants. (Americans Dress)
I study one of the most profound cultural changes of the 20th century: the rise of casual dress—the “why” and “when” of our sartorial becoming comfortable with the standard collar.
As Americans, our casual style places an equal emphasis on comfort and practicality. A hundred years ago, the closest thing to casual was sportswear – knitted golf clothes, tweed blazers, and Oxford shoes.(Americans Dress)
But as the century progressed, simple included everything from worker wear (jeans and lumberjack jackets) to military uniforms (khakis).
Americans’ quest for low-key style has fueled entire industries: millinery, hosiery, evening wear, fur. It has infiltrated everywhere, from boardrooms to classrooms to courtrooms.
American casual dress. Why? Because clothes are freedom – to choose how we present ourselves and blur the lines between man and woman, old and young, rich and poor.
The rise of the casual style weakened the millennium-old rules that prescribed noticeable luxury for the rich and casual work clothes for the poor.
Until a little over a century ago, there were few ways to hide your social class. You wore it – literally – on your sleeve. Today CEOs wear sandals to work. (Americans Dress)
Despite the variety of choices in the clothing market today, many of us gravitate to that vast, beige zone between Jamie Foxx and the girl wearing pyjama bottoms on a plane. Casual clothing is the uniform of the American middle class. (Americans Dress)
T-shirts, sweaters, jeans and wrinkle-free shirts provide a “middle class” look to anyone who wants to wear it.
And in America, almost everyone wants to wear it because nearly everyone considers themselves middle class.
In wearing cargo shorts, polo shirts, sneakers and baseball caps, we are “outing” our identities as middle-class Americans. Our country’s casual style is America’s calling card to the world – where people make it their own. (Americans Dress)
This is seen in young boys wearing Steelers jerseys on the Ivory Coast and Levi’s on the black market in Russia. Casual is diverse and ever-changing, but it was made in America.
The introduction of sportswear into the American wardrobe in the late 1910s and early 1920s redefined when and where specific clothing could be worn.
The broader acceptance of sportswear coincided with the consolidation of the American fashion industry.
By the late 1920s, firms produced designs, worked with manufacturers, and marketed specific types of clothing to particular demographics.
The second milestone towards casual was the introduction of shorts into the American wardrobe. The popularity of cycling in the late 1920s led to the need for culottes and shorts – usually above the knee and made of cotton or rayon. (Americans Dress)
Shorts remained the typical time and place for women (gardening, exercising and hiking) until the Bermuda shorts craze in the late 1940s, when women legitimately replaced plaid wool shorts.
In May 1930, at all-male Dartmouth College, the editors of the student letter challenged their readers to “bring forward their treasured possession—whether fitted or conformed to old flannels” so that men could “proceed to the highest pleasure”. Full leg freedom. ,
The Shorts Protest of the 1930s brought out more than 600 students in old basketball uniforms, tweed walking shorts, and newly created cutoffs to introduce shorts to the American men’s wardrobe.
Americans went with more self-build options in the 1950s than ever before. Fundamental to this freedom — in addition to the suburban department store boom and onslaught of the media — is the “unisex” of our wardrobe, the third milestone on our quest to go casual. Women didn’t wear pants until the 1930s.
And it wasn’t until the early 1950s that pants made it mainstream. In the 1960s, there were still discussions and rules about women in pants. (Americans Dress)
That decade saw “unisex” seismic changes. Women adopted T-shirts, jeans, cardigans, and button-down collared shirts, and for the first time in nearly 200 years, it was fashionable for men to have long hair.
Wearing casual clothing is essential to dress and live as an American or dream of living edgy, loose, and carefree.
Deirdre Clemente is a scholar, public historian and educator. She is the author of Dress Casual: How College Kids Redefined American Style and served as a historical consultant for the Baz Luhrmann film, The Great Gatsby.
She wrote this for What It Means to Be American, a national conversation hosted by the Smithsonian and Zocalo Public Square.
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