It's always a bit bothered me the way wizarding clothing was taken in the movie and art. I feel like Jkr started with one idea then got tired of figuring it out pretty quickly.
Here's what we know, wizards have sometimes no idea how to wear muggle clothes. Particularly older wizards. This seems logical as adults in general struggle to keep up with the fashion times as once you stop growing, you have less reason to spend money buying new clothes.
It's stated (I think in the books but maybe it came from pottermore or jkr) that wizards largely stagnated in fashion in the 17th century (I looked up the century for this post and found it on pottermore, so who knows if its proper book canon, but I think it is).
However, the largest inconsistency with this general idea is the imagined Hogwarts uniforms and what children wear. Now to some extent, one would expect that children would dress differently.
Plus, robes would be wholly inconvenient and ultimately I believe most wizards would wear clothing that wouldn't flash their underwear, so they are always wearing trousers and a shirt underwear. So theres something there that might be able to pass as muggle.
17th century does not translate well to modern clothing.
In other words, the idea that it stagnated is somewhat hard to believe.
Granted, wizards and witches do live for a longer time then normal. We know Dumbledore to be 150 or so at the time of his death, and he died from a cursed object. So if we instead believe that wizards largely stop keeping up with muggle fashion when they go to Hogwarts, assuming they aren't from a wizarding family, then we are probably instead looking at wizarding fashion being stuck in the 19th century at the earliest for the vast majority of wizards. (Alternatively, I've discussed the fact I think the first Wizarding War took a massive death toll on the wizarding community and wiped out the vast majority of grandparents off the map, despite the fact evidence indicates wizards live to be over 150-given that Dumbledore is still spry-see my other post on wizarding age. While wizarding fashion stagnated in the 17th century to fall behind muggles, I think there maybe have been a revival or change in fashion during or after the first Wizarding War simply due to a mixture of more people hiding in the muggle world and the oldest people that survived and now control things are now Dumbledore's age at oldest (though I tend to believe most are closer to 100, the first Wizarding World really did a number on the population's average age).
This is a bit closer(but not really all that muc to how wizarding fashion is often imagined in both movies and art. It's a bit more practical as well, then the fancy weirdness of 17th century fashion.
Ultimately, wizards wouldn't need a lot of the fashion conveniences of mass production and zippers that muggles do. They have magic to make clothing fit and while certainly everyone wouldn't be good at doing so, that's why they have professionals to do so for them.
On top of that, women and men would wear some form of trousers for broomstick riding and other magical reasons. Colors are often loud and played with, as we hear many professors wearing a wide range of colored robes, as I imagine that most of the clothes underneath are simple colors and simple all around. Female robes may have frills, ruffles, and bows. Men and women may wear a bow tie(or whatever they called those things in 19th century fashion) which may explain references to ties (or is that only in the movie? Who knows). I think it's highly plausible robes may have cuts similar to the Jackets above where it is shorter in the front and longer in the back. But I imagine that more for someone like Lockhart. Most people would use robes which covered their whole body.
Needless to reiterate, I don't like how modern fashion tends to be depicted or how similar to muggle. I think wizarding fashion is largely simple, where colors tend to be how they individualize clothing, if canon is to be trusted. If anyone knows anyone who does fanart with some more unique fashion choices, I'd love to see it, as I know little about fashion (if my Google images didn't make that evident) so I'd love to know what other people imagine that is different from what the illustrated books and movies depict.
Note: I AM NOT saying that fanart which depicts the world with modern clothing is not legitimate or beautiful. I merely want to see some examples that I feel are canon compliant because I feel I just never have. I love all of you who do fanart, whatever your chosen clothing options <3
