or more accurately that specific modes of dress slide up a scale of discrete categories
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ie yesterday's informal becomes the new formal, formal becomes ultra-formal, and ultra-formal is relegated to period costume
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for instance the tuxedo was originally the "dinner jacket", a comfortable thing to wear with your bros in private, far too unrefined to wear in the presence of ladies
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the modern "business suit" was once the "lounge suit" or "sack suit", hardly a noble start for a thing a lot of people now consider excessively conservative
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of course by now the suit is supplanted in a lot of industries first by "business casual" and more recently by the afaik yet-unnamed jeans/tshirt/hoodie uniform
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and what by the 1880s was "full dress" (now "white tie") started as a sort of dressing up of the country gentlemen and sans-culottes outfits
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started by a middle-class englishman trying to be fashionable in high society but lacking the resources and social standing to emulate proper court dress
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I was gonna keep going but this is getting into blog post territory but basically blame democracy imo
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the natural trajectory for an aristocracy is from rude conquerors to more refined and ornate in manners, clothing, etc
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w/ positions secured by birth not might, upper class grows idle and decadent, they serve as a thing to aspire to, and their increasing extravagance sets the tone for those below
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whereas increasing informality really starts with the 18th century and you can pick dozens of examples of clothing changes that serve to flatten hierarchy, general trend toward the low
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I might write this up as a longer thing later if only because the origins of the subtle style notes on menswear are really interesting
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