12 March 2019
Valeria Rodriguez
History is repeating itself and it’s covering my body and maybe even yours.
The nature of clothing trends has the tendency to recycle itself through romanticized advertisements featuring the generations icons in outdated clothes, encouraged by leading fashion designers.
These influencers supply a sort of magic spell that manipulates some individuals to obediently follow the said trend(s) willingly or subconsciously.
When browsing the web for the definition of the noun “trend”, Merriam Webster provides the viewer with the familiar definition, “a current style or preference.”
Webster also supplies the visitor with “trend- the general movement over time of a statistically detectable change.” The key word here is “change.”
If a trend is repeated is it even a trend? A “repeated trend” doesn’t replace, it simply returns, and it surely isn’t different if it has been done once before.
I call this, “running out of ideas and creativity.”
Repeating trends of the nineties include the parachute pants inspired by MC Hammer, crop tops and the mini backpack, just to name a few.
In an article titled “7 Fashion Trends That Will be Big in 2019” Elle magazine suggested that the distinguishable hippy look of the seventies was returning only this time it was to be titled “Hippy Modernism.”
Let us join hands around a campfire, in flare jeans, with flowers in our hair and roll our eyes in unison.
Placing “modernism” after a look that has already been executed in the past, does nothing to supply fresh new ideas to the minimal options I have of wear.
It’s superfluous.
Another “trend” to look forward to in 2019, brought to you by Elle magazine is titled “Sweet Valley High.”
Just when you thought we’ve moved on from the nineties, this trend is inspired by the pastels and neon, swirling colors paired with the denim washed jeans found in tv shows like “Saved by the Bell” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Although this trend may be cute, my mom already wore it to her yearbook pictures years ago.
The BBC’s show “A Stitch in Time,” is a program dedicated to analyzing fashion trends historically that infamous royals chose to embellish themselves in.
I think we can all agree that we rarely find women dressed in wear that Marie Antoinette would rock casually on a day to day basis while strolling the gardens’ of Versailles.
This corset, pastel floral and powdered wig combination is unique to its era and only reincarnates in our generation as a costume for Halloween or masquerade purposes.
I challenge you to name a single fashion trend that this generation hasn’t robbed from another decade that isn’t Silly Bandz, the animal-shaped rubber bands once strutted on the wrists of middle school kids.
The list goes on when discussing the recycling of clothing that your parents have chilled in and your grandparents have grooved in.
For being a progressive generation, the clothes on our back have been lagging.
The creativity and development of the new ideas this generation of people have provided in politics, technology and education are far from representing in our clothes.
The clothes some of us bear on our body still represent the times before this evolution.
We’ve upgraded in many ways, but now it’s time to upgrade our wardrobe. Out with the old and in with something that’s actually new.