Around the middle of the last century, children dressed like their parents. Nowadays, parents dress like their children. Has infantilism become epidemic?
I'm surprised at your description "attire". The way lots of people dress today, they look as though they're going to maintain a boiler somewhere. I believe that most people couldn't care less about how they look. And they look like they couldn't care less.
No, it was the f word. I've travelled in the UK, Germany, Poland & France & slobs abound, though France, particularly French women are the best turned out of all.
The middle of the last century was when I was born and I certainly didn't dress like my parents, particularly when I was a teenager. Heaven forbid. :-)
With better health care maybe folk don't feel old like the past generations did, and are content to dress in younger styles to look and feel younger. Whereas past generations felt older, acted and dressed older, to suit.
It's about kicking off the first half of the 20th Century's ridiculous social constraints and dressing as you want when you want / eating when you want and what you want / forming relatinships with who you want etc etc. There will always be people who abuse the freedom but it is in no way a sound foundation to brand everyone as infantile.
Most of the time I dress for comfort. There was that fad a couple of years back with teenage lads showing their undies & the pants crotch at about knee level. I see that's died the death.
For heavens sake...we have to turn into our parents and grandparents do we? Right off to buy a girdle and stockings and over the knee tweed skirts and some purple hair dye...oh and must cut off my nearly waist length hair so I conform to my grandmothers taste in clothing.....Bit of an attempt at stirring the pot I feel.....was it an article in the Mail today??