Holding up the bar in the 1930s. Maybe we don't need to dress to quite this degree in 2019, but it's a damn sight more sophisticated than what society has allowed itself to devolve to -- think cheap black pants, dusty square-toed shoes, and the ubiquitous pilled fleece with a company logo sewn to the chest -- in the last 30 years of so.
Here's what others have to say on the topic of dressing better than what has become the accepted average most places, and why doing so is necessary:
The Psychology of Dressing Well
The Influence of Clothing on First Impressions
Enclothed Cognition
The Cognitive Consequences of Formal Clothing
Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn't Just a White Coat
Dress, Body, and Self: Research in the Social Psychology of Dress
Dressing for Success and the Achievement of Your Dreams
What Your Clothes Might Be Saying about You
How Clothes Influence Our Performance
Wearing a Suit Makes You Think Differently
Business Casual Has Turned Workwear into a Nightmare
Business Casual Is Turning Into Business Whatever
Have We Taken Casual Workwear too Far?
Business Casual for Men (March 2018)
15 Habits of Well-dressed Men
Of course, it's your call to make when it comes to how you want others to see you through your choice of attire, but allow me to make a couple of related observations.
Dressing better, the perception of comfort, and economic sensibility need not be mutually exclusive after all. Perhaps if more people made the effort to dress even a tiny bit better than has become the accepted norm for most, they might feel better about themselves and their lives, gradually reducing the sheer number of people on anti-depressants.
Who knows? There might just be a link between schlepping around in bagged out sweats, cargo shorts, grubby khakis -- or some kind of earth tone top with too much scarf looped artlessly around the neck ala Oprah, leggings, and Crocs/Uggs for the ladies -- and how we feel about ourselves.
People might be surprised by how their general mood, outlook, behavior, related choices, and lives change for the better when they clothe themselves better. . . along with a wee bit of color and pattern. A few steps in the direction of 'Positive with a capital P' can hardly be a bad thing in our otherwise anxious and negative era.
With that in mind, shouldn't we hold ourselves to a marginally better standard even when we're off the clock? It's a topic that warrants some serious thought.
-- Heinz-Ulrich
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All opinions are welcome here. Even those that differ from mine. But let's keep it clean and civil, please.
-- Heinz-Ulrich