I feel many cases of those kinds I have seen have something to do with neglience, laziness, abandonment and all that.
maybe something that might begin with beer belly.
it should originally be of a different nature from inclination for comfort.
and it's not what you'd see at the end of evolution.
or maybe those are the types to whom a manifestation of their style might not have been so related to choosing what to wear, to begin with. and the time comes for them to return to the roots of what they should have been doing.
or they might have worn it not for its own sake but for something else.
I, for one who in infancy had a convulsive fit when compelled to wear something that disaccorded with a heart, will not have the stage at which they'd announce "graduation".
I wish the only reason for can't-go-further to be death, like a precedent of Miles's life.
I don't know what exactly those designers'responses mean.
but, even if those are the sign of inclination toward comfort, I don't take it as a sign of any decline, as I said.
and yes there can be when they'd move backwards.
the way of our progress is usually spiral. it's rare that it describes a linear vector.
even though it looks as if it was right back where it had started, it's not where it used to be anymore, when you see it vertically: it's the same point raised up. it's different in altitude.
for example an old technology can often be brought back to life to be the most up-to-date one by being combined with a new device that did not exist yet then.
it's like taking a step back, and two steps forward.
according to someone who accompanies him at times, he doesn't seem to dress himself in an obvious way. the style could be similar to say renault 21 turbo or lancia thema 8.32, sort of deceptively anonymous.
I guess he is still a hardcore seeker of individual style, however hidden the claws may be, otherwise he would not wear a silver foretooth all the way.