So after quite a few years of being extremely anti-suit and fashion, I have actually become very interested in fashion over the past year or so. I have been learning some interesting things that I actually didn't know (for example a sport coat with trousers is not a suit, although similar). Anyways, I have been reading an interesting book lately called Style: The Thinking Man's Guide to Dress. In it, one of the things discussed at the start of the book is about the views of fashion held by rightwing and leftwing people.
Basically, many on the right, those who are very practical, hardworking, socially and fiscally conservative, etc...will disdain fashion and dressing up as they view it as meaning the person is suspect. America is supposed to be a land about creating, building, and producing. Art, fashion, and so forth, are luxuries. People who indulge in such things are thus suspect, viewed as not really being serious or practical. Also, a man for whom fashion is an interest can be viewed as somewhat effeminate, which the conservative right doesn't like.
On the other hand, you have the leftwing, who can also disdain dressing up as they view it as meaning one is part of the establishment, something they tend to disdain. It also denotes class, being a member of "the rich" or of thinking (as they see it) that you are better than others.
What made me question this though is that the conservative columnist George Will wrote a column some time ago lamenting that so many Americans do not "dress up." According to him, it is a sign of a pervasive psychological national immaturity. Here is a link to his article, along with another by writer Daniel Akst that also laments denim (jeans):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041502861.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123751483315591559.html
Will and Akst both denounce the dressing down of so many people in society and yearn for when we all dress to look good. Now the thing is, Will (and I am guessing Akst) are conservatives. In other words, they are supposed to be among the people for whom concern with dressing up is something to be looked down upon, meaning a person is not paying attention to what's important in life. They look down upon it as they see it as meaning a person is lazy, undisciplined, and general just not caring about much.
What I think it really shows is how both views can be taken to an extreme. Liking to wear nice clothes all of the time and be well-groomed and professional-looking, does not mean one is a panzy who has no practical skills and isn't a hard worker. Just the same, just because you like to wear jeans all the time doesn't mean you are lazy and aren't a hard worker either. A lot of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Will mentions in his column for example, got that way through hard work and brains.
That said, I do agree that some people who dress up all the time probably are preppy and some people who dress down all the time are lazy slobs, but one cannot draw wide-ranging conclusions based on a person's dress I think.
As an interesting side note, in America, we actually have two types of conservative. There's your blue-collar, socially conservative, NASCAR-watching, conservatives (many of whom are Democrats whom the Democratic party, due to its social liberalism, has had a hard time keeping in the party), while the others are your more elitist, country-club, Blue Blood-type conservatives. I would imagine that the former would be more the type who view dressing up as preppy and meaning one isn't practical or hardworking while the latter type would be the ones who view dressing down as meaning one is lazy and not a hardworker.
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