Despite the recent resurgence in classic men’s style, there aren’t that many guys wearing suits today. Walk the streets of most major cities and you wouldn’t know that tailored clothes are enjoying a massive growth in sales. The uniform of most men is jeans, a tshirt, sneakers and a baseball cap.
Some guys will say they don’t wear suits because of comfort or because they don’t have to or because tailored clothes cost too much. But I think the real reasons go much deeper and stem from our society’s current thinking around authenticity and egalitarianism.
Authenticity
“The bespoke tailor’s task is to bestow a good shape where nature has not granted one.”
– The Dictionary of English Trades, 1804.
We live in an age of unbridled authenticity and look down on artifice of any kind. Historically speaking, this is for good reason. Previous generations worked hard to conceal their real selves, even from their friends and loved ones. As a result, much went unsaid and unexposed which should have seen the light of day. But now the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. In an attempt to be genuine, people of all ages, income levels and backgrounds share far too much about themselves in public and on social media. We feel we can do no wrong as long as we are being “honest.”
The way we dress follows this thinking. Tailored clothes used to cover the body in an attempt to improve the physique of the individual. There was an ideal male shape the tailor was working towards: strong shoulders, full chest, nipped waist, long legs. But today, many men wear clothes that not only follow the shape of their bodies, they in fact exaggerate personal oddities. Instead of striving for an ideal, we are faced with harsh reality, whether we want to see it or not.
Wearing shapeless and casual clothes sends a number of messages. Consciously you might be saying “I put little to no thought into my appearance,” or “I believe dress is functional, to keep me covered or warm.” But subconsciously, you are saying “A concern with clothing is superficial,” and “This is who I really am.”
Egalitarianism
Dressing well, like manners and social behaviour, used to be aspirational. Under the old European class system, the lower and working classes aspired to be like the upper class. So everyone dressed “up.” But when that system was (rightly) challenged, first after WWI, and most significantly during the 1960s, everything reversed. Instead of aspiration, we strove for egalitarianism. And that meant dressing “down,” to the level of the working class. Suits were replaced with jeans, dress hats with baseball caps and leather oxfords with sneakers.
The old social order that rightly collapsed.
We were and are striving in the right direction, of course. But we have abandoned more than just the old class system. With our dress also went our manners and behaviour. It is as if, since we no longer have to mind our manners to those above us, we don’t mind our manners for anyone. Since we are all equal, it is now seen by some as elitist and classist to dress well and aspire to gentlemanly behaviour. However, I think that’s because we are still using old models and ways of thinking around behaviour and dress.
A new reason to wear suits
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
― Ernest Hemingway
There is a third way, a way to re-introduce not only manners and respectful behaviour, but dressing well. Instead of aspiring to a higher class or income level, we should be aspiring to a higher level of ourselves.
This starts by acknowledging that clothing is not superficial. As long as you dress with intent and as a way of expressing yourself, clothing can in fact be inspirational. Instead of being inauthentic, tailored clothes can mean, as Savile Row’s Richard Anderson states in his memoir, “that you have it in you to be a better person.” Dressing with intent can actually be a tool to combat depression and hardship, as the Sapeurs of Brazzaville so powerfully demonstrate.
Instead of looking at suits and tailored clothes as something that hides or deceives, we can see them as something that inspires us by expressing our positive and aspirational sides. But dressing isn’t just about ourselves. Clothes are part of our social contract: being in public means the way we look is as much a part of everyone else’s world as our own. The way we dress can also inspire others or at least be a sign of respect for those around us.
That respect, however, is not due to wealth or social standing. Those around us deserve our respect simply because they are people. In that way, authenticity and egalitarianism can mean we strive to be not just ourselves and equitable, but better, nobler, kinder and more considerate.
And don’t forget to have a good time while doing it.
Great essay Pedro. Well-reasoned. I’ve often wondered many similar things. Here’s to kindness, decency, respect for all and working each day to be the best we can be in everyday life. The restraint of good taste is no less authentic than the exhibitionism of letting it all hang out.
Sincerely,
Your former CBC colleage,
Franz Lehrbass.
The last time a man tried to convince me that caring about what you wear is superficial, I asked him: “If the only clean clothes you had left in your closet were orange pants and a shirt with big pink polkadots, would you wear them? Or would you wait til your laundry was done?” That shut him up.
I would add that I think we see caring about appearance as feminine and therefore a weakness. The subtext often isn’t “people who care about their appearance are superficial” but “most women are superficial.” You can see this when guys call each other gay for wearing color etc.
In other news, love the sapeurs! It’s like a subculture of Morris Days!
Great point, Mabel. Guys feeling uncertain about their masculinity plays a very big part of this discussion, specifically how femininity and homosexuality are seen as purely negative.
That’s probably the best explanation I have come across egalitarianism, men wanted to dress down rather than dress up and it mirrored social change. However there is one big hole in this argument why does it only apply to men and not to women. Women dress up even more now than they did before there is no attempt to be real and dress down, so why does egalitarianism not apply to women’s fashion
Very good point, John, and one I’ve been thinking about recently. And while I think more and more women are, in fact, giving up on dressing well, I think it has to do with power and privilege: men (especially white, middle/upper income men) have the freedom to “dress how they like.” Women and other groups do not, despite our believed freedoms.
Because women, in general, care more about how they’re perceived by others. They’re also more easily influenced because they’re more intimately social than men. They judge everything, and everyone, at all times—and assume that they are being judged in return. Just look at how hard the advertising industry monkey-branched from 12-year-old boys, to tweens, to women in general over the past 30 years. All the buying power, theirs AND ours belongs to women.
Travel, education, brand named purses are all the female version of d*** measuring contest. They want to be perceived as “better than”, where as men generally assume they’re good enough until motivated by, you guessed it, women.
I thought the real reason was because most men have a stomach or are too skinny to be wearing a suit. It is like going to the beach, most men would be scared beyond belief.
A suit highlights a lot of of a man’s body shape, including their man boobs, stomach area, and waist line.
In our modern culture of every man being afraid of his own body image, wearing casual clothing without tucking in your shirt, or wearing over sized T(s) can hide a lot of this away.
It has nothing to do with uniformity and more about being afraid of expectations.
Do not forget, when you are working in a office, a lot of those features are amplified when you sit down.
I’d have to say the complete opposite is true, Raymond, when it comes to suits: the point of tailored clothing is to hide “God’s mistakes” and make you look thinner and better proportioned than you may be. Casual clothing, on the other hand, especially poor quality and ill-fitting tshirts and jeans (as you’ll often see) exaggerate overweight bodies. Then again, if you were to buy an inexpensive and very trendy (that is, very tight) suit, then yes, it will also exaggerate your oddities.
I really don’t understand this dressing down trend at all to be honest. I used to work in a department store and all the men on the shop floor wore suits, and I loved it. Even in hot weather a shirt and tie were compulsory, now we see so many office based men, where a suit would be worn a few years ago now wearing casual trousers and open collared shirts.
This ‘trend’ has also crept into TV presenters, Match of the Day for example would always require their presenters to be suited, now they wear open neck shirts. To me it shows lack of respect, not only to the audience but also to themselves and their profession. My grandad would always wear at least a shirt and tie when out in public, even if going to the shops. To me it was about self respect, something which sadly seems to be lacking in much of todays society.
In my opinion a man wearing a well fitting suit with a crisp double cuffed shirt finished off with a traditionally knotted tie is telling the world ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’, just like the Guinness advert.
Yea right. “Captain of your soul, master of your fate” and you’re wearing the same stupid monkey suit that every other fake-ola has on? Uncomfortable, and above all else HOT HOT HOT! Men can dress nicely without wearing wool jackets and constricting their necks – its time this antiquated mode of dress goes the way of the Do-do bird. Thank Goddess, that’s exactly what’s happening, albeit too slowly for most thinking people.
Its the uniform of the shyster, the liar, and the politician – but I repeat myself.
If you’re going to dress like everyone else, at least look good while doing it?
Yeah, sure, back in the day everyone wore suits. No individuality. Fine. But today everyone wears ratty jeans, Start Wars t-shirts, sneakers, and caps…while getting their skin splotched with cheap “art” drawn by untalented “artists.”
Where’s the originality it that?
There isn’t any. It’s just conformity.
Just much, much uglier.
And if your neck is confined, I suggest you visit a tailor to learn how to correctly choose your dress shirts.
Folks need to stop yapping about what men “should/shouldn’t” wear and go on about their business. I dress for comfort and cost and functionality. I like my baseball cap too. Guess what, the world is still spinning on.
I’m with “Zorba” on this one! “Hot” is an understatement! More like sweating and suffering! I had to wear a suit for many years. From a very young age I was told, “That’s just the way it is!” -Yeah, I call “BS” on that! I decide what to wear and how to wear it. I have an athletic build, so buying a suit off the rack always looked stupid on me. You try to find something that fits well with a 32″ waist and a 54″ chest! I had to always try and sneak two different suits together to get it to work. Who could afford a tailored suit when you grew up in the Bronx?! Clothes don’t make the man. The man makes the “Man”. I was ridiculed early on for not having clothes that fit me “right”. Through THAT bulling, I learned that people just want to fit in. Trust me, so did I. But you can only cry so many tears until you realize that clothes are just clothes. And, if you have the means to dress “Up”, well, then good for you! Yes, I cried when I was a kid. I acted in childish ways when I was a kid. But now I am an adult. I don’t cry. I act in adult ways. I sometimes think I’m more of a man today because of my experiences of yesterday! Compassion for others is the “suit” that I wear! I donate new, unused clothes to those that do not have.
16 Comments
Stuart Kerman
July 7, 2015 at 7:19 pm
Pedro Mendes
July 7, 2015 at 7:46 pm
Franz Lehrbass
July 7, 2015 at 8:50 pm
Pedro Mendes
July 7, 2015 at 8:52 pm
London Mabel
July 8, 2015 at 11:06 pm
Pedro Mendes
July 9, 2015 at 8:23 am
John
December 3, 2016 at 6:38 am
Pedro Mendes
December 3, 2016 at 4:53 pm
Guile
January 20, 2017 at 7:15 pm
Raymond Huynh
January 2, 2017 at 2:40 pm
Pedro Mendes
January 2, 2017 at 3:41 pm
Steve Putnam
January 5, 2017 at 2:29 pm
Zorba
July 26, 2018 at 5:16 pm
Norm
September 22, 2018 at 10:57 am
Kmonster
January 9, 2019 at 3:45 pm
JJ
March 17, 2019 at 11:05 pm
Fabulous post,Pedro.
Well said and well done!!
Thank you, Stuart, very kind.
Great essay Pedro. Well-reasoned. I’ve often wondered many similar things. Here’s to kindness, decency, respect for all and working each day to be the best we can be in everyday life. The restraint of good taste is no less authentic than the exhibitionism of letting it all hang out.
Sincerely,
Your former CBC colleage,
Franz Lehrbass.
Thank you, Franz, really appreciate it. And great last line, might have to steal that.
The last time a man tried to convince me that caring about what you wear is superficial, I asked him: “If the only clean clothes you had left in your closet were orange pants and a shirt with big pink polkadots, would you wear them? Or would you wait til your laundry was done?” That shut him up.
I would add that I think we see caring about appearance as feminine and therefore a weakness. The subtext often isn’t “people who care about their appearance are superficial” but “most women are superficial.” You can see this when guys call each other gay for wearing color etc.
In other news, love the sapeurs! It’s like a subculture of Morris Days!
Great point, Mabel. Guys feeling uncertain about their masculinity plays a very big part of this discussion, specifically how femininity and homosexuality are seen as purely negative.
That’s probably the best explanation I have come across egalitarianism, men wanted to dress down rather than dress up and it mirrored social change. However there is one big hole in this argument why does it only apply to men and not to women. Women dress up even more now than they did before there is no attempt to be real and dress down, so why does egalitarianism not apply to women’s fashion
Very good point, John, and one I’ve been thinking about recently. And while I think more and more women are, in fact, giving up on dressing well, I think it has to do with power and privilege: men (especially white, middle/upper income men) have the freedom to “dress how they like.” Women and other groups do not, despite our believed freedoms.
Because women, in general, care more about how they’re perceived by others. They’re also more easily influenced because they’re more intimately social than men. They judge everything, and everyone, at all times—and assume that they are being judged in return. Just look at how hard the advertising industry monkey-branched from 12-year-old boys, to tweens, to women in general over the past 30 years. All the buying power, theirs AND ours belongs to women.
Travel, education, brand named purses are all the female version of d*** measuring contest. They want to be perceived as “better than”, where as men generally assume they’re good enough until motivated by, you guessed it, women.
I thought the real reason was because most men have a stomach or are too skinny to be wearing a suit. It is like going to the beach, most men would be scared beyond belief.
A suit highlights a lot of of a man’s body shape, including their man boobs, stomach area, and waist line.
In our modern culture of every man being afraid of his own body image, wearing casual clothing without tucking in your shirt, or wearing over sized T(s) can hide a lot of this away.
It has nothing to do with uniformity and more about being afraid of expectations.
Do not forget, when you are working in a office, a lot of those features are amplified when you sit down.
I’d have to say the complete opposite is true, Raymond, when it comes to suits: the point of tailored clothing is to hide “God’s mistakes” and make you look thinner and better proportioned than you may be. Casual clothing, on the other hand, especially poor quality and ill-fitting tshirts and jeans (as you’ll often see) exaggerate overweight bodies. Then again, if you were to buy an inexpensive and very trendy (that is, very tight) suit, then yes, it will also exaggerate your oddities.
Very good article, well written.
I really don’t understand this dressing down trend at all to be honest. I used to work in a department store and all the men on the shop floor wore suits, and I loved it. Even in hot weather a shirt and tie were compulsory, now we see so many office based men, where a suit would be worn a few years ago now wearing casual trousers and open collared shirts.
This ‘trend’ has also crept into TV presenters, Match of the Day for example would always require their presenters to be suited, now they wear open neck shirts. To me it shows lack of respect, not only to the audience but also to themselves and their profession. My grandad would always wear at least a shirt and tie when out in public, even if going to the shops. To me it was about self respect, something which sadly seems to be lacking in much of todays society.
In my opinion a man wearing a well fitting suit with a crisp double cuffed shirt finished off with a traditionally knotted tie is telling the world ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’, just like the Guinness advert.
Yea right. “Captain of your soul, master of your fate” and you’re wearing the same stupid monkey suit that every other fake-ola has on? Uncomfortable, and above all else HOT HOT HOT! Men can dress nicely without wearing wool jackets and constricting their necks – its time this antiquated mode of dress goes the way of the Do-do bird. Thank Goddess, that’s exactly what’s happening, albeit too slowly for most thinking people.
Its the uniform of the shyster, the liar, and the politician – but I repeat myself.
If you’re going to dress like everyone else, at least look good while doing it?
Yeah, sure, back in the day everyone wore suits. No individuality. Fine. But today everyone wears ratty jeans, Start Wars t-shirts, sneakers, and caps…while getting their skin splotched with cheap “art” drawn by untalented “artists.”
Where’s the originality it that?
There isn’t any. It’s just conformity.
Just much, much uglier.
And if your neck is confined, I suggest you visit a tailor to learn how to correctly choose your dress shirts.
Folks need to stop yapping about what men “should/shouldn’t” wear and go on about their business. I dress for comfort and cost and functionality. I like my baseball cap too. Guess what, the world is still spinning on.
I’m with “Zorba” on this one! “Hot” is an understatement! More like sweating and suffering! I had to wear a suit for many years. From a very young age I was told, “That’s just the way it is!” -Yeah, I call “BS” on that! I decide what to wear and how to wear it. I have an athletic build, so buying a suit off the rack always looked stupid on me. You try to find something that fits well with a 32″ waist and a 54″ chest! I had to always try and sneak two different suits together to get it to work. Who could afford a tailored suit when you grew up in the Bronx?! Clothes don’t make the man. The man makes the “Man”. I was ridiculed early on for not having clothes that fit me “right”. Through THAT bulling, I learned that people just want to fit in. Trust me, so did I. But you can only cry so many tears until you realize that clothes are just clothes. And, if you have the means to dress “Up”, well, then good for you! Yes, I cried when I was a kid. I acted in childish ways when I was a kid. But now I am an adult. I don’t cry. I act in adult ways. I sometimes think I’m more of a man today because of my experiences of yesterday! Compassion for others is the “suit” that I wear! I donate new, unused clothes to those that do not have.