<story><title>Americans are spending less on clothing</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-death-of-clothing/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryanianian</author><text>This.&lt;p&gt;I see two things happening here: (1) American spending less on clothing and (2) Americans having less self-pride in their attire and presentation.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve spent a fair amount of time in Latin American countries, and a real sure-fire way to identify tourists is to look for people poorly-dressed or those who look like they just don&amp;#x27;t care about how they look.&lt;p&gt;E.g., despite much of Mexico being quite hot, you will almost never see a local Mexican wearing shorts, even on beaches. Tee-shirts &lt;i&gt;maybe&lt;/i&gt; but almost always a freshly-washed button-up shirt. (Or a swimsuit if they&amp;#x27;re swimming obviously.) This is true of other Latin countries too in my travels. It&amp;#x27;s really humbling to see.</text></item><item><author>rb808</author><text>That doesn&amp;#x27;t explain why people in the poorest countries dress better than Americans. People living in the slums of India&amp;#x2F;Nigeria&amp;#x2F;Brazil are more likely to have a collared shirt and dress pants than an American going to work in an office.</text></item><item><author>freejulian</author><text>All these explanations are rather complicated.  I think the simplest explanation is the best: people don&amp;#x27;t have the free money to spend on clothing.&lt;p&gt;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.</text></item><item><author>randcraw</author><text>IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend:&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x2F;finance).&lt;p&gt;2) Color is passe.  Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities.  Thus fewer accessories are needed, since all shades of gray look OK with all sheens of black.&lt;p&gt;3) More people are working from home several days a week, so nobody cares how you&amp;#x27;re dressed.  I&amp;#x27;m astonished at how fast this has changed here (outside Philly).  Probably 2&amp;#x2F;3 our cubes are empty on most days.  Five years ago, they were full, because upper management insisted we be physically present and that we follow a dress code (no jeans).  But now that management is no longer physically co-located with staff, and almost all meetings are online, nobody cares where you are or what you wear.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>maerF0x0</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;self pride&amp;quot; its a bucking of the trend of what &amp;quot;looks good&amp;quot; .&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not that I cannot afford to wear suits. Its that I dont like suits. Add in the marginal cost difference and I&amp;#x27;d rather wear a tshirt. It&amp;#x27;s the market punishing the inefficiency of requiring your workers (or date) to dress in a certain manner when it adds no true value.</text></comment>
<story><title>Americans are spending less on clothing</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-death-of-clothing/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryanianian</author><text>This.&lt;p&gt;I see two things happening here: (1) American spending less on clothing and (2) Americans having less self-pride in their attire and presentation.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve spent a fair amount of time in Latin American countries, and a real sure-fire way to identify tourists is to look for people poorly-dressed or those who look like they just don&amp;#x27;t care about how they look.&lt;p&gt;E.g., despite much of Mexico being quite hot, you will almost never see a local Mexican wearing shorts, even on beaches. Tee-shirts &lt;i&gt;maybe&lt;/i&gt; but almost always a freshly-washed button-up shirt. (Or a swimsuit if they&amp;#x27;re swimming obviously.) This is true of other Latin countries too in my travels. It&amp;#x27;s really humbling to see.</text></item><item><author>rb808</author><text>That doesn&amp;#x27;t explain why people in the poorest countries dress better than Americans. People living in the slums of India&amp;#x2F;Nigeria&amp;#x2F;Brazil are more likely to have a collared shirt and dress pants than an American going to work in an office.</text></item><item><author>freejulian</author><text>All these explanations are rather complicated.  I think the simplest explanation is the best: people don&amp;#x27;t have the free money to spend on clothing.&lt;p&gt;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.</text></item><item><author>randcraw</author><text>IMHO there are three clear causes for this trend:&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x2F;finance).&lt;p&gt;2) Color is passe.  Shades of black and grey dominate wardrobes, especially in large cities.  Thus fewer accessories are needed, since all shades of gray look OK with all sheens of black.&lt;p&gt;3) More people are working from home several days a week, so nobody cares how you&amp;#x27;re dressed.  I&amp;#x27;m astonished at how fast this has changed here (outside Philly).  Probably 2&amp;#x2F;3 our cubes are empty on most days.  Five years ago, they were full, because upper management insisted we be physically present and that we follow a dress code (no jeans).  But now that management is no longer physically co-located with staff, and almost all meetings are online, nobody cares where you are or what you wear.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dopeboy</author><text>I was in Mexico last week near Cancun and observed exactly that. I always saw the locals with jeans and a nice shirt. There&amp;#x27;s no way I could do that in 85F weather.</text></comment>