Nobody overdresses anymore. In fact, it seems the opposite is true.

There was a time when people dressed for something. Now, not so much.

When was the last time you were in an airport? I’ve spent a good part of the last fifty years flying across the country, and it feels like the standards slip a little more each time. People used to dress up for a flight. Now it’s pajama bottoms, sweatshirts, or whatever they happened to be wearing when they rolled out of bed that morning.

But it’s not just how people dress. It’s everything that goes with it.

There was a time when if someone hadn’t showered, you wouldn’t know it. Now, sometimes you do. Airports especially. You sit down, and within a few minutes you realize the person next to you skipped more than just dressing up.

It’s a small thing, but it says something. Not about money or status, it’s about effort. Or perhaps the lack of it.

Restaurants aren’t much different. It’s my general observation that women still tend to make the effort. Men, not as much. T-shirts and ball caps show up regularly, even when the person across the table clearly dressed for the occasion. It raises the question of what effort looks like when you’re with someone else.

It shows up in other ways too. Styles change, of course – they always do. But sometimes it feels less like style and more like anything goes. You see it in things that used to stand out – a nose ring here, something else there -now so common they barely register.

Speaking of ball caps, is it me or are they showing up in more places they didn’t used to? Even churches. Nothing wrong with a hat, but there was a time when certain places called for something different. Not because anyone said so, but because people understood it.

I was watching the NFL draft a few weeks ago. Some families clearly treated it like an occasion by dressing up, even getting a little creative. One group all in white gathered around their guy in black. It felt intentional, and I found myself admiring it.

Then the camera switches to a different young man getting selected. Immediately someone steps in front of the camera with his pants halfway down, showing the country his underwear like it was part of the moment. Maybe it was.

Remember when Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman showed up to Congress in gym shorts and a hoodie? It wasn’t just that he did it but they changed the rules to allow it.

That felt like more than an exception. It felt like the standard moving. For a long time, that, and the courthouse, were places where appearance still suggested the moment mattered.

It’s probably not about money. You don’t need to be wealthy to take a little pride in how you present yourself.

If anything, the money seems to have shifted the other way. Businesses are less inclined to draw lines anymore, not wanting to risk turning people away based on how they present themselves, even if it changes the experience for everyone else.

It’s more about effort. Casual used to mean something – for Fridays or mowing the yard. Now it seems to be the default.

And when everything becomes casual, it starts to feel like nothing matters quite as much anymore.