Just a thought on the mind set of men and women at the turn of the last century.

[JRB]

My grandmother has a picture of her grandfather clamming in the low tide shallows of Greenwich bay, RI with several other men. They are all dressed in white linen jackets and trousers! My father told me they were also wearing white shoes as well. I'm all for wanting to look your best when out and about but that seems like major overkill to me.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Dinner last night at The Southern Inn in Lexington, Virginia, proved to be a pleasant surprise in more ways than one-- not only were we able to get a table at 8:30 without having booked, virtually every gentleman over 30 was wearing a jacket. Those not in jackets were attired in what is sometimes called "smart casual"-- not a tee shirt or baseball cap in sight. Now whether this is due to Lexington being the home of both Washington and Lee University, as well as the Virginia Military Institute-- two institutions renown for graduating ladies and gentlemen-- I couldn't say. The final surprise was the meal itself-- absolutely superb food and first class service.

"Is this the end of an era," I wondered. "Or (more hopefully) the beginning of a trend?"

[O'Callaghan]

I think one of the reasons for greater formality in the past was ironically lack of money. Men were often expected to wear a suit even in quite menial jobs, and many or most couldn't afford a separate wardrobe for different occasions, so they owned a number of suits, perhaps only two if they were poor, or one if very poor, and each suit was gradually downgraded to be worn for less formal occasions as it slowly wore out, until eventually it might be worn for digging clams or WHY, and a new suit was only bought very infrequently if you were an ordinary working man. Frayed cuffs would be taken up, for example, to avoid purchasing a replacement.

This is quite well explained by George Orwell in one of his books. Possibly in the Road to Wigan Pier, but I'm really not quite sure which book it is. The people he described might have owned two suits and nothing else to wear atall, as I recall.

IOW, they didn't wear suits all the time because they loved formality, but because they couldn't afford anything separate for their leisure hours, but had no choice but to wear an old suit that they could no longer wear to work or to church. Of course, that doesn't apply to the more well-to-do, but the latter were more or less forced to wear suits or be taken for paupers.

[ronstew]

IOW, they didn't wear suits all the time because they loved formality, but because they couldn't afford anything separate for their leisure hours....

If they had leisure hours....