If you look through old family photos from your grandparents and great-grandparents’ time, I’m sure you’ve noticed how well dressed they were.
Very few of those people were anything like wealthy, and yet they managed to present themselves with a grace and dignity that is rarely seen nowadays.
There are many such photos of my deceased family members from the 20s, 30s, and 40s that show the men decked out in suits, or other smart looking attire, with their hair carefully slicked back with brylcreem.
The ladies wore dresses and put their hair up neatly. I’m told my great-grandmother and her sister wouldn’t dare go near Grafton Street without their hats and gloves on.
So what happened?
We’re all about “pride” and “self-love” these days, but what happened to taking pride in one’s appearance and why does it seem as though more people are actively choosing laziness over self respect?
If you go, well almost anywhere now, it seems like a lot of people are wearing what could very well be the kind of attire you’d expect to see someone sporting to do some de-weeding in the garden.
For many women leggings – some of which leave NOTHING to the imagination -have replaced almost all other bottoms, and even on Sunday afternoons many women look like they’re on their way to the gym while engaged in daily activities.
The thing is though, not everyone can be going to or from the gym all the time. There seems to be something else going on here.
It might seem a bit strange if someone chose to dress in office wear most of the time, so dressing in sports wear most of the time is equally strange in my opinion.
Lazy dressing is one thing, but now it appears that some people aren’t even bothering to get dressed at all.
Last Saturday evening when I went to my local Aldi to get some food for a neighbourhood cat I feed (I know he’s using me but I can’t help myself) I saw a man wearing pyjamas while doing his shopping.
I’ve heard whispers of this kind of thing going on in the UK where some stores have banned customers from shopping in their PJ’s but never had I seen the like of it in my own area.
Perhaps I’m late to the party on discovering this lowering of the bar of acceptable behaviour.
I also saw this guy eating a bag of what appeared to be crisps and sucking each of his fingers before browsing items in the shop. I felt sick.
After wandering around the aisles a bit I noticed that this man was not alone. Indeed his two female companions – all of whom seemed to be in their mid to late twenties – were also clad fully in their pyjamas. One of them was even wearing her dressing gown.
I thought that was just ridiculous.
As someone who gets dressed to open the door for the postman to hand me a parcel in an interaction that usually lasts no more than five seconds, the idea of going out in public in pyjamas is unthinkable.
None of them had any obvious issues that might have made getting dressed challenging.
It appears I am not alone in my disgust at this slothful behaviour as two days later it appears that my tweet about the incident has sparked somewhat of a conversation with over 650,000 people seeing it.
While some comments – many of whom are from people who look like they’re not too familiar with the concept of personal grooming themselves- have told me I should ‘mind my own business’, the vast majority agree that this type of behaviour is not appropriate.
I personally feel like someone who is prepared to go shopping in their pyjamas is showing to the rest of us ‘outdoor clothes wearing snobs’, that they have no respect for themselves or for the people around them.
Speaking of snobs, none of this is about money. Decent looking clothing can be accessed at any price point. Money doesn’t buy style, and anyone can look classy on a budget with a little inspiration – and there’s plenty of that to be found online.
It’s not about time either – the amount of time it takes to put on nice looking everyday clothes doesn’t take significantly longer than it does to pull on a tracksuit.
It feels gross to wear your outside clothes in bed, so why would you wear your bed clothes outside?
Indeed the concept of ‘nakedness’ and appearing in a state of undress is something that social media use seems to have made more palatable in general.
So many young women walk around in leggings that cling to the very inside of their bottoms in a way that renders them for all intents and purposes naked. We can see every bit of their arse – it matters little that it’s green or purple.
One commenter said that it’s perfectly normal to feel like ‘you can’t be bothered to get dressed to go to the shop’. Yes – it may well be.
It’s also perfectly normal to feel from time to time like you can’t be bothered to go to work, feed yourself, be, or exercise: indulging that feeling however leads nowhere good.
During some of my most challenging moments when it felt like the pieces of my life were in bits on the ground, making sure I put my best face forward by taking care of my appearance was one of the habits that helped me through.
In life we sometimes find ourselves caught up in circumstances over which we have little control, but making even a little bit of effort to show that we respect ourselves by presenting ourselves well before the world is a habit that can lead us to bigger wins.
Like it or lump it, it’s simply a fact of life that others judge you on how you look, and dress is a huge part of that.
That’s why many high class establishments do not allow people who wear trainers, flip-flops, tracksuits, or shorts.
It’s just the way it is.
I once heard someone say that the way you dress and groom yourself (or don’t) is the trailer of your personal movie, or life.
At the end of the day, do you want your trailer to be more like Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Jurassic Park?