Why Did People Dress More Formally in the Past?
This article is a rewritten interpretation of the original HannaBanna Clothing article, “Why Did People Dress More Formally In The Past?” . Full credit for the original topic and discussion goes to HannaBanna Clothing. Browse through old family photographs or footage of everyday life from the first half of the 20th century and you might notice something unusual: almost everyone seems dressed for an occasion . Men walk through town in jackets, shirts and hats. Women go shopping in dresses, skirts and carefully coordinated outfits. Even passengers waiting for a train can look considerably smarter than many people attending a modern office. It raises an obvious question: why did people dress more formally in the past? The answer goes much deeper than fashion trends. Clothing once played a particularly important role in communicating social status, respectability, occupation and identity. Society also maintained much stronger expectations about what constituted appropriate clothing f...