Are We Dressing to the Lowest Common Denominator?

A while back, a married couple asked for the time of the morning service at my church, promising to show up the following Sunday. They did, and enjoyed the service, but an observation by the wife surprised me.

“Everyone’s dressed up,” was the essence of her comment. Even the ladies, she noticed, were wearing skirts and dresses instead of pants, something she seemed to think was refreshing. Apparently, I’ve been in my own church bubble for too long to realize that dressing up for special occasions and places is no longer a thing.

It’s a pity that it isn’t. Because the way we dress is really a subtle message about how we see ourselves and others.

Clothes, English philosopher Roger Scruton once said, are worn to preserve our modesty and protect our body from the elements. But that’s not the only reason we wear various bits of cloth cut in different shapes and patterns.

People live in their clothes and, therefore, see their clothes not in terms of any narrow sartorial [tailoring, style] function but in terms of the aims and accidents incidental to their lives. Their clothes come to represent them, in the sense of heralding the nature which they wish to claim as their own. [Emphasis added.]

Scruton offers the example of a denim suit of clothes, which many claim to wear because it is “functional.” Yet as Scruton explains,

The ‘functional [denim] suit’ acquires its character not because of its utility (for it is not particularly useful), nor because of its cheapness (for it is far from cheap), but because it both expresses a certain outlook and, in the course of doing so, anticipates the experience of the person who wears it.

What kind of experience and outlook does denim give the wearer? For the average American, I would guess it gives them a rugged, down-to-earth, independent feel – perhaps even a sexy persona (remember the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad that caused so much ruckus a while ago?!). This is all fine – that is, if we’re out working in the yard, riding horses on the ranch, or hiking on backwoods trails.

But what if we wear that same denim suit of clothes to a corporate job interview, church, funeral, or wedding? Do we want to walk into those situations with the carefree, simplistic attitude that denim clothes project onto the wearer and those who observe him?

Probably not … yet we do this repeatedly in our culture today.

Recall my opening story of the couple surprised by the dressed-up appearance at my church. That surprise is likely because today’s religious congregants often look like they threw on their yardwork clothes from the preceding Saturday. This appearance often extends to the preacher, who walks around the congregation wearing jeans, an untucked t-shirt, and sneakers. It continues into the workplace, where the button-down shirts, dress pants, and pencil skirts have given way to the yoga pants and sweatshirts so many got used to wearing during the pandemic, work-from-home era. And parties? Forget the days when everyone had a formal dress or suit in the back of their closet to wear to special occasions! We’re just doing well if we show up in something that looks like it’s clean and well-fitting!

“Who cares?” some may say. “I’m comfortable and I’m just blending in with the rest of society – what’s so wrong with that?”

Nothing … if we want to be consigned to being one of the faceless masses.

Sadly, that’s exactly what many want to do in our “democratic” society, a fact C. S. Lewis highlighted through the words of his demon creation “Screwtape.”

“I am credibly informed that young humans now sometimes suppress an incipient taste for classical music or good literature because it might prevent their Being Like Folks,” Screwtape says. He continues by saying “that people who would really wish to be – and are offered the Grace which would enable them to be – honest, chaste, or temperate refuse it. … They might (horror of horrors!) become individuals.”

While Screwtape uses music and books as examples, he undoubtedly could have added clothing to the mix, for do we not all continue to diminish our dress in order that we might “fit in” and not stand out from the crowd? Yet this is exactly what the forces of evil seek – to make us “equal,” and in doing so, bring us all down to the lowest common denominator, leveling our ambitions and aspirations toward goodness and successful living.

Screwtape points this out when he says the following:

What I want to fix your attention on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence – moral, cultural, social, or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how ‘democracy’ (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods? … Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals.

In other words, if we want to float through life as a nobody, then we should absolutely continue wearing our jeans, sweatshirts, and sneakers to all occasions – church, work, and special events.

But I suspect none of us want that “nobody” label slapped on our backs.

If that’s the case, then take the challenge. Go to church but do so in a dress or a suit. Go to work but pull that collared shirt and dress pants on before jumping into the car for the morning commute. Attend that special event, but do it dressed to the nines. None of these actions are because we’re trying to be hoity-toity; rather they stem from a desire to raise our own attitudes and radiate respect for ourselves, others, and the true, good, and beautiful things in life in the process.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

Image Credit: Freerange Stock