Just a few decades back, most of the population had an understanding of appropriate dress for certain occasion. Yes, the world has become a more casual place in general, people used to get dressed up to go to the airport, now the thought is that if you are going to sit in an airplane for several hours, you should be comfortable, I agree. However, I think schools (but mostly parents) should start teaching our children when it is time to dress up a bit. Most kids actually love it!
I do NOT agree that people need to be brand name whores and need to dress in whatever is popular at the moment. If you like that, great. If you don't, that does not mean you are less cool than the people that do. This is not an opinion, this is fact.
Anyway, I think if we brought our kids up with the idea that we dress nice on holiday get togethers (unless of course your family does it totally casual, that is awesome too), that we dress up for church, for ceremonies, and for special occasions, they will bring this to adulthood with them, and then teach their children the same.
Unfortunately, my husband and I go to family law court often for visitation issues. The morning of my husband puts on some slacks and a nice shirt accompanied by some dress shoes and a belt. I put on dress pants and a nice shirt, or perhaps a skirt, basically an outfit I would consider wearing to work in a business casual environment.
We show up to be surrounded by men with jeans twice the appropriate size with extremely large t-shirts and tennis shoes. Really? You are in here to either fight for time with your child or settle a divorce. I would think you would want to have the respect of the judge, and even the lawyers.
Don't let me get started on the women. Ladies, you might have a REALLY cute dress in your closet. You might think it makes your behind look amazing. This dress is NOT for court appearances! Getting dressed up for court or other important meetings is never the same as getting dressed up to go to the club, ever! Then to make matters worse, the 4 inch unprofessional heels you added to your ensemble only make you look like one particular profession, which is illegal and frowned upon in the court house.
It actually says on the hand out the family law court gives you to "dress how you want to be treated". Not that that always happens, because let me tell you, that is a whole other blog post.
I want to make sure my kids know when it is necessary to dress up a bit. They don't need to go through life looking like slobs and not being taken seriously.
