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 ;)
I really like some aspects of it. The loose billowy pants are nice for summer heat, and you can make an interesting silhouette with them. But i absolutely can’t stand the boxy cut tops. I see more and more zoomers rebelling against these trends and wearing flattering cuts. The thing with fashion in $current_year is that you can wear whatever you want. Shopping is annoying but still possible.
My suspicion is that these trends were driven by manufacturers reducing inventory during covid.
True true! It used to be easy to find styles that resonated, and now I just have to dig a bit deeper.
On the topic of manufacturers, I also read that boxy styles can be a cost-cutting technique. Because it’s easier than tailoring/tucking or making other adjustments when the human form isn’t a simple rectangle.
Size 0 models, too…it’s not just about cultural norms or fat shaming, it’s also laziness. It’s more work to tailor a garment to a curvy figure than a waifish one. (Plus, there’s the simplicity of only having to supply one size.) Which isn’t hating on anyone who happens to be a size 0 or a boxy shape to begin with! :)