Why are formal clothes more likely to be dry-clean-only than casual clothes?
If you’re looking for the ‘bigger’ why, I’d imagine that formal clothes are made out of expensive, hard to maintain materials because those are the materials that rich people wear – Partially because of their properties, and partially because it costs so much to maintain/purchase them – Being able to throw down $50 to get your outfit cleaned every time you wear it is as much conspicuous consumption as a $200 Mont blanc fountain pen was in the 80’s, or a giant expensive wristwatch is today. See: this article on the color purple for elaboration.
