Silence&Motion
Senior Member
The way people present themselves publicly has been trending toward informality for a very long time (at least a century) and is pretty consistent across all of Western society. It used to be unthinkable for a man to walk around outside without a hat. Formal dress codes have hung around in certain work places and a few esoteric leisure places (golf clubs, the odd restaurant, etc.), but they are disappearing quickly.
My guess is that it is mostly due to the disappearance of a strong working class/professional class divide. Dress codes allowed establishments to basically ban working class people. Sure, the odd working class couple could have put on their "Sunday best" (because they only good clothes they owned were for church) and try to get a table at a fancy restaurant. But they likely would stick out like a sore thumb and probably find the whole experience very uncomfortable.
As Western countries experienced a general rise in prosperity and education in the 20th century (along with the steep decline in the cost of clothing), public appearance stopped functioning to distinguish the elites from the masses. Dress codes now strike most people as weirdly regressive and status conscious. There is still a "country club" class who inhabit worlds where dress codes are more common, but they are dominated by elderly, corporate conservatives who don't enjoy the social privileges they once had decades ago. Few professional class people today aspire to join the country clubs.
Obviously, elites still distinguish themselves from non-elites, but the way they do so is subtler and more complex. Marks of distinction function best when their intentions are fully obscured (including to the wearer of distinction him or herself).
