Dressed for the breadline--Men lining up for bread, Manhattan, NY,
February, 1910
People still dressed well during The Great Depression.
Exactly. Thank you.
You don’t even have to go back that far. People used to dress very well for church service. Then, the “casual” look came in, and the service became casual (spiritually) as well.
Look at those old pictures of major league ballgames from the 1930’s. Men in hats, suits and ties. Women in Sunday best dresses and hats. To watch baseball.
Dressed for the breadline--Men lining up for bread, Manhattan, NY,
February, 1910
Not everyone did . My grandparents wore custom tailored clothing , they did not lack anything .
My husbands grandmother barely had enough to eat and wore what basically amounted to rags . Her father died at that time and her mother had to raise 5 little girls alone working the midnight shift as a nurse - no welfare , no food stamps , no help what so ever .
My husbands other grandparents lived on a farm they ate well but had no money to by any fancy clothing because they raised 20 children only 4 of which were their own . The other 16 were little babies that people abandoned because they could not even feed them.
It's very simple at that time people used everything they had till it could not be used anymore. What you wore depended a lot on what you had before the bottom fell out . If you lived on a farm you had little use for wearing a suit daily .