On LITB, the guys always wore suits to professional sporting events, even in the final year, 1963. Does anyone know about what year or years people started dressing casual for sporting events?

I'm curious to know the answer to this too. I've tried asking my parents (who were 5 and 6 in 1963) about the apparel on LITB, but they don't really give a very decent answer. They just say that they don't remember people dressing so formally then. I suppose I should ask older relatives...

Edited: I need to revise my post... I've never asked my parents about the subject of sporting events... just the boys dressing up to visit a girl, or dressing up for the movies incase they see a girl there (I know that happened in one episode). My parents definitely remember dressing nicely for school until the late 60s.

My guess would be the late 60's or early 70's people began dressing more casually.

I would tend to think around the late 60's. I Remember my grammar school had a dress code. 80 percent of my clothes were dress up clothes. I look in my closets now and it is the other way. Probably the hippie beatnik generation changed the way people dress. I go to funerals and many women are dressed in slacks. My granma would have a hat, hose, and look so lady like.
YOu knew a man from a woman in those days. As Archie Bunker would say Girls were girls and Men were men .

I think it did change a lot in the late 60s! My earliest memories of going to ball games were from the mid 60s, and we never dressed in suits, just casual clothes!

I wasn't around in the 60's, but what I have gathered from looking at old shows, pictures, and high school year books, and talking to my parents and other people who were around then, people started to get more casual around 1964/65. The beach craze hit around 1963 and people started wearing t-shirts (especialy the striped ones) and shorts,casual slacks,jeans,sneakers for men and shorts, peddle pushers, or capris for women. Schools had a dress code up until the early 70's where boys had to dress neatly and girls had to wear a dress(no pants). When I was growing up in the ;late 70's and 80's, we (boys & girls) wore jeans, sneaker etc to school, but it wasn't until 7th or 8th grade when people started wearing shorts to school. We all wore shorts away from school, but never to school until around that time (1988/89). I always laugh at some of the clothes on shows from the 60's especialy the tight fitted flood pants that the guys wore and those turtle neck t-shirt things that came in style around 1966 and don't get me started on womens fashions (bubble flip hair, false eyelashes).

I remember as a kid dressing up to visit relatives, and going out to eat and other social events. This would have been in the early to mid 60s, when I was a preteen. In fact, when I started high school, in 1969, we had a dress code, and this was public school no less! No jeans, and shirts had to be dress type shirts. I believe the dress code in my high school got the year after I graduated, which was 1972.

Yeah, people used to get dressed up to go out. I always remember my parents wearing dresses and sports jackets. I always wore a dress to school until 11th grade (around 1969 or so) A lot of it had to do with the hippies and all that. Before then, people really did get dressed up. I think a suit might have been a bit much, but certainlya sports jacket would have been appropriate.

On that note, i live in nyc and i went to a broadway show this past saturday night. i wanted to dress up a bit. I wore a simple skirt and blouse with my june cleaver pearls. i felt so dressed up when everyone else was wearing tee shirts and golf shirts. I kind of wish people would dress up sometimes.

Originally posted by Corvetteguy
When I was growing up in the ;late 70's and 80's, we (boys & girls) wore jeans, sneaker etc to school, but it wasn't until 7th or 8th grade when people started wearing shorts to school. We all wore shorts away from school, but never to school until around that time (1988/89).

I remember when we were first allowed to wear shorts to school too. It was when those long, loud bermuda shorts became popular in the mid 80's. My mom couldn't believe I wanted to wear something like that. Before then the only time we could wear shorts to school was on field day.

I remember when I was a 4th grader in 1968 was the first year our family had season tickets to the high school football games, which was, and probably still is, the event in a small town in Texas that brings the most townspeople together at one place. I wore a coat and tie the first game that year because my mother thought everyone dressed up to go to the football games. I saw 3 or 4 guys from my school wearing jeans and casual shirts who looked at me like I was weird. After that I also dressed casual to go to the games. But most of the adults, middle-aged and older, did dress up for those type of things.

So I agree with other posters here, that the middle and late 60's were when styles were getting away from the coat & tie and mid-length dresses. But our school system did seem to fight those changes for years. If our (the boys') hair even touched our our ears, collar, or eyebrows we would be asked to get a haircut. If after a day or 2 we hadn't done that, we might be sent away from school to get it cut, warned not to come back if we don't. The girls' dresses, there in the age of miniskirts, could not come higher than 6 inches above the fold on the inside of the knee. A friend of my sister actually had to go the office and have that measure taken with a ruler. I think it was the '72-'73 school year where some of these stricter rules were relaxed, and our hair could come over our ears and girls could wear jeans (they could wear pantsuits, but not jeans, which the boys could, before that).

Originally posted by frani
Yeah, people used to get dressed up to go out. I always remember my parents wearing dresses and sports jackets. I always wore a dress to school until 11th grade (around 1969 or so) A lot of it had to do with the hippies and all that. Before then, people really did get dressed up. I think a suit might have been a bit much, but certainlya sports jacket would have been appropriate.

On that note, i live in nyc and i went to a broadway show this past saturday night. i wanted to dress up a bit. I wore a simple skirt and blouse with my june cleaver pearls. i felt so dressed up when everyone else was wearing tee shirts and golf shirts. I kind of wish people would dress up sometimes.


I've noticed this with broaday shows as well, and also restaurants. There are always some people who are dressed up in restaurants and others who are wearing just casual clothes. I think it sort of depends on if it is an event (like a birthday party or a date) versus just wanting to eat.