I'm thinking of the opening credits to Cheers and the men are in suits and the women are in fancy dresses and large hats. Today it seems society is so much more casual. I don't spend any money on hats or dress clothes. Any comparisons of then to now?
In the late 19th century, people did tend to have fewer changes of clothes and were willing to spend proportionally more on the individual pieces than people of the same social class do today - they had to, for the most part, as the garment industry couldn't quite get away with paying as little in the West then as it does now in Asia, proportionally. But where middle and upper-middle class people now are willing to buy cheaply-made fast fashion, still spending fairly little on each piece (outside of special purchases) and catching up on quantity, a late 19th century person would have more likely chosen to have few garments made better. Without polyesters and rayons that imitate silk, and with a standard of dress that prioritized a close fit, cheap clothes of the time would have looked cheap to the Victorian eye.
The Victorians did spend more than us on hats as hats were a required part of dress, but most people had one best outfit and maybe another for second-best - only the affluent were routinely buying very nice clothes. If you aren't buying dress clothes today, you may very well not have been buying them then, either.
Society seeming less casual then is a matter of perspective. Because everyday clothing now is loose and/or stretchy, tight and fitted clothing has become formal; showing skin or shirtsleeves is completely acceptable, so wearing more layers is considered daytime-formal (think a business suit vs. a t-shirt). To people in the late 19th century, showing skin or shirtfront was permissible only in formal evening dress, so wearing a long sleeved dress or a jacket with a buttoned-up vest was casual. From here, looking back, we perceive a gradual increase in casualness, but it would be a mistake to see them as having been objectively formal.
hi! there's room for more information in on this topic, particularly on the typical sizes of wardrobes and affordability of clothing for different social classes, but meanwhile, you can get a good start on these earlier posts:
How did middle-class Americans afford to wear fitted suits and ties all the time during the first half of the 20th century? - featuring /u/colevintage , and including links to 3 more posts <-- check them out!
How were all men able to afford suits in the 1920s and 1930s for casual wear? - featuring /u/macoafi
Economic historians: It's hard to visualize inflation. Can you give a side-by-side comparison of what an average person's budget might have looked like in 1900, 1955, and today? - doesn't go in depth, and particularly not regarding clothing, but provides a quick survey of prices and personal budgets
Most/all of these posts have been archived, so if you have follow-up questions, ask them here & notify the relevant user by mentioning their username