After a good ten minutes of deep thought on the bus (and thirty seconds of staring and self amusement at two old people), I've come up with a reasonable theory regarding why some old people dress so bleeding weird.
First off, I'd like to establish a few assumptions. These may vary based on your own views, but the same rules basically always apply, no matter what you assume here, the result is just a bit different than my example.
* Note: this isn't universal, it only applies to those old people who dress exceptionally odd.
- When we think of a time period's (decade's) most memorable / stereotypical clothing, we don't usually think of clothes worn by toddlers or clothes worn by people over the age of about 30. So our first assumption is that the clothes we define as being a decade's most prevalent are the clothes worn by those from the age range of 14 to 29 in that time period, give or take a few years.
- Think of how you dress. You're not dressing like you did 10 years ago, are you? (Yes, there are of course some exceptions here, but let's think generally). You basically go with the flow of what's reasonable attire for people like you (you probably dress fairly similar to at least one of your peers). My assumption is that people continue to dress with the times until they are about 40. Give or take a few years.
- At around 40-50, certain folk decide to just to quit dressing up to the times, and they wear what they've been wearing for many years, keeping to that type of clothing.
The theory: people dress with the times until they're around 40 and they stop dressing with the times from then on. Since you're used to seeing 70's clothes (for example) worn by someone from age 14-29, seeing them on a 60-year-old is just weird.
Example: a person who is about 35 years old in the 70's will continue to dress like everyone else is dressing (let's say, flashy pants, bell bottoms, etc) until they are around 40.. That means they've stopped dressing up-to-date in 1975. Well this person is 65-years-old now, still dressing like a freak in the 2000's, and that's why he/she looks so bloody odd.
Real-Life Example: I saw a 70-year-old woman wearing patterened bright blue tie dye pants, and a hairy, old man of about 70 wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandles with socks. (So this is consistent with, say, a hippy and a surfer from the 1960/70's)
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bozon, you completely missed what i'm saying. i have no problems with anybody of any age dressing however they wish. all i noded was a pattern i've noticed: people wearing what everyone else is up until a certain age, and sticking with what they're wearing. it looks weird to see anyone dressing in clothes that are three or more decades old. plain and simple. if a young person does it, it looks retro, and if an older person does it, then everyone passes it off as just an old person dressing weird. either way, it stands out from the norm. i'm not calling old people who dress lively weird, i'm saying that what they wear looks weird. |
