It is fairly realistic. We draw the line between "casual" and "formal" considerably closer to "casual" than was generally the case in the first half of the 20th century. Dierdre Clemente, in Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style, argues that the casualization of our clothing came about as college students adopted a style deliberately distinct from the way that their parents dressed. Sweatshirts, beat-up shoes, ankle socks instead of stockings, no hats, faded denim ... these students, generally middle-class, grew up and brought these clothes with them into the wider world, making them acceptable for adults in very informal settings, and then in everyday life. Clemente also theorizes that it spread both up and down the scale due to the growing interest in taking on a middle-class identity even in the elite.

Clothing that was relegated to athletics in 1910 was worn to the student lounge in the 1930s, to class in the 1940s, and to the dining hall in the 1950s. By the 1960s, nearly everyone under the age of sixty owned a sweatshirt.

Before "college style" became mainstream, the goal was to look respectably prosperous and neat, even for casual streetwear.