Maybe this is everyone’s experience as they get older, falling out of fashion and balking at the latest trends.
BUT. I really think there’s something uniquely terrible about this moment in (clothing) history.
I can appreciate elements of fashion from pretty much every era…from jazz age glam to swinging cocktail dresses and just about everything from the set of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, to the pencil skirts and cat-eye makeup of the 60s, to 80s punk and 90s heroin chic, to the dELiA’s catalogues of my coming-of-age and the midriffs of the 2000s.
But these days I dread shopping. Why are shirts cut like pillowcases and dresses cut like potato sacks? What’s the point of a sweater knit so loosely the wind blows right through, or a neck cut so wide the sleeves fall down your shoulders? Speaking of, why are the shoulders/armpits in a women’s “small” cardigan roomy enough for the Rock?
It all seems so frumpy, and not even functional. Aren’t clothes meant to accentuate the body, rather than hide it? How are you other non-Gen Z women adapting to current fashion?
P.S. I will admit that having higher rise jeans is nice. It took me a while to get on board, but now I can see how the low rise skinny jean gave us all chicken legs ;)
this happens every generation. trends and styles change and people who came before it find it harder and harder to relate to them. in reality you just dont want to bother keeping up with modern trends that young people are into now or are too insecure to, so you’re projecting it as distaste to trends of the younger generation.
personally, I think young women got it right these days. clothing for women seem less restrictive and young women seem to value comfort over the rigidness of previous generations’ high glam styles.
Maybe. But I can see the appeal in many other eras and styles that I didn’t grow up with and have no business relating to…
Is it “insecure” to want a garment that fits the human form and doesn’t bunch / ride up / fall off my shoulders / let in the breeze? This doesn’t even have to do with fashion from an aesthetic perspective, it has to do with function and comfort. (Lord knows, I gave up on “glam” fifteen years ago…)
It’s a bit insecure to look at what young people are wearing these days, not think it’s a good fit for yourself, and conclude that there’s an issue with what the young people are wearing.
it’s perfectly fine to have preferences in the fashions and styles you grew up with even if that’s not what the kids are wearing these days. no need to yuck the yum of the youth.
There’s also plenty of fashion from each of those eras op wouldn’t be caught dead in. Garters, girdles, torpedo bras, bee hives as tall as Jesus, shoulder pads…
Hahah this is true!! Maybe it’s easier to remember the trends that aged well.
I think of shoulder pads as cringe, but apparently those are making a comeback … https://www.thelist.com/465500/the-truth-about-whether-or-not-shoulder-pads-are-back-in-style/
Everything old is new again. Everything.
Maybe it’s a bit like when people talk about the “good old days” of xyz music genre, and how music was better back in (insert year) compared to (current year).
The only songs from the 70s/80s/90s that still get play time are the top 10% songs from those eras and everyone forgets about the other 90% of crappy music that played on the radio.
Perspective of a 50 year old man. You should wear what you like. I have long believed “fashion” is a money printing machine. I won’t say it preys on insecurity because that is condescending and ignores the fact that many people love following fashion, getting new clothes, etc. But I do think the pace of change is specifically designed to turn over cheaply produced inventory and ensure people don’t wear the clothes enough to wear them out.
I have been wearing basically the same clothes for years. If I tear out a knee I buy new pants. That kind of thing.
My wife needs to wear business attire and fairly dressy stuff (blazers, etc). She is always buying new things and donating clothing.
One of us is spending an order of magnitude more on clothes.
I don’t begrudge this, she makes more money than me and has to dress that way because of her job.
The point I’m trying to make is to stay current and fashionable is pa kort of her purchasing but she also just wears stuff out very, very quickly. It’s the way the clothes are made.
The marketing and poor quality (weak seams, thin fabric, inconsistent sizing, etc) is all designed up maximize profit.
You have to remember every single point you made is objective opinion. It doesn’t make your taste wrong but it also doesn’t make your opinion correct. And yes, you are doing the thing all people do as they get older. You deserve a bit of an Ok Boomer for this post not being able to see the objectivity of personal taste.
“Objective opinion” seems like an oxymoron, no? Did you mean the subjectivity of personal taste?
I didn’t think this needed to be said in the context of casual conversation/griping…but no, I don’t consider my taste in clothing (or music, or movies, or books, or food) to be objective fact that overrules every other person’s perspective.
If I post about how pineapple on pizza is amazing (which it is) and all you pineapple haters are missing out, that doesn’t mean I literally believe that everyone with taste buds will enjoy the taste of pineapple on pizza.
This is just my personal reaction to having trouble finding comfortable, flattering clothes beyond athletic attire. And I thought there might be other 30-something-year-old women on the internet with similar frustrations who could offer a pointer or two.
I mistyped and meant subjective opinion.