This decade is one of fashions worst missteps since the 80's

[cato.]

I feel that this decade hasn't been very inspiring in terms of fashion .. especially now that with the recession and all .. I miss the fashion rush of the 80s-90s

[John_M.]

Here's something I wonder for those who feel it is such a mis-step... is it because of no real definite style? Was it because of trying to come up with some fashion hits... that ultimately end up misses?

I'm going to be honest about the whole fashion thing. If '80s style was so bad, why bring it back? Why remind us why the '80s (and even early '90s) were so ridiculously bad? Don't give me this "20-year cycle stuff." Was the '80s revived so that most of us 21st Century people would be reminded of the '80s and why we're better off now than we were back then? The '80s revival just got old fast. It's a fad, yet some love this decade like it's the best decade of all time. I've hated the '80s though I was born in 1983 (yes- I'm 25). All the specials and stuff from the '80s... like "SingStar 80s," VH1's "I Love the '80s," the Guitar Hero and Rock Band stuff about '80s rock, "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" and "GTA: Vice City Stories"... who fing cares about the '80s? That's what it comes down to- looking back at the '80s and making us remember just how far and how long we've forgotten the '80s.

On a somewhat happier and lighter note, is this more about a mismatched sense of style overall that has made this decade one of the worst in the minds of a fashion critic? I've immediately thought of the '70s as fun and funky fashion and lifestyle. I think of the Victorian Era (as far as women's fashion) as incredibly modest and lovely. The 1920s could be thought of as a sense of change with the shorter dresses and flappers. The 1960s are kind of a continuation of the '50s... except when a little get-together called Woodstock came around. I mean... is it really not a real sense of direction that has made this decade so poor in the eyes of fashion critics? I don't really understand what all of this is about as far as thinking of the 2000s as the worst decade of fashion since the '80s.

[ellesea]

Originally Posted by John_M.

I mean... is it really not a real sense of direction that has made this decade so poor in the eyes of fashion critics?

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one, as to why many think this decade has been the worst in terms fashion. Maybe fashion has become too democratic....too many styles, too many RECYCLED styles, that it does not have its own identity...own sense of a single direction.

Actually, it reminds me of Canadian politics. there is the constant argument of whether we have no national identity because we are so multicultural or whether that in itself IS our identity. And on the latter...

I think it's really however one looks at it, both sides are right. At once, this decade is a bag of recycled fashions. A plaid shirt from there, neon wayfarers from here, lace from there, gold bamboo earrings from here... But perhaps this decade is also the decade that will remembered in history as the most interesting one, as it was when everything came together. When trends really meshed, when designers thought outside of the box (or decade in this case!) and created something new.

[Mindbear]

To be succinct regarding this decade. We have NOTHING original, we innovate nothing, and that is true of music too, there are very very few bands doing anything new whatsoever, they're just using expensive equipment to make things sound authentically old, and electro is doing probably less now than it was in the 1980's. All our style has become so obsessed about looking retro in some way or another, that we're close to looking like we're having a night out at a fancy dress party. It's rubbish.

[borjacapella]

when i hear/read some of the opinions posted, i can't help thinking of what Lagerfeld has said over and over again... it goes on about how he hates the people who miss the good old days "FcK de good old days!" he says, "if it was better then maybe it is time to commit suicide!"
and lagerfeld puts it in very harsh, very lagerfeld manner... but the message is right if we leave the dramatism aside.
When one thinks all creativity is gone, and that nobody does what balenciaga used to do anymore, and all those sorts of drama... why not just loose all interest and do a dramatic au revoir à la Saint Laurent, or go "cry over taffeta" (another of karl's favourite expressions), or become an old-fashioned granny like Coco became herself in her later days against the miniskirt and the trousers in the city? wouldnt that seem more appropriate and consequent with all these harsh opinions that scream out loud the terrible loss of creativity that our generation is suffering from? go boring, retrograde! it's "the new thing"!
please excuse me as i never intended my post to come out so direct... but i can't help but being shocked by the fact that so many people are feeling so desperate for what's to come and how this decade will be remembered. i have the impression some people even feel responsible for it! it's just 2008 here! it seems that as much as globalization has helped the world to come together and share ideas and evolve together, it has also urged us all to crave for immediate answers to questions we shouldt be able to answer quite yet! how are we going to remember the current decade? who cares about it!!? carpe diem (as much as we can with what we are given)

[AMACINOM]

i feel that we have seen in these past few years, the fashion 'revival' of every decade in the past century.

[John_M.]

So would you say that since this is a new century and a new millenium, that we're kind of looking back on the past century and millenium on fashion style? Think of trying to make the past century's trends and styles interesting for this day and age. And if that's true, maybe the 2010s will have its own fashionable identity apart from this decade.

[Crying Diamonds]

Originally Posted by ellesea

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one

As do I.

There is no style for the noughties. Looking back in time you can immediately imagine the silhouettes of every decade and then it comes to the late nineties and it just sort of blurs.
I think the structured pieces are the clothes that shall define this fashion era - think neoprene Balenciaga.
But there are no trends that define the era; structured pieces are good for the runway and the rich but they can hardly be mass-produced as so they become a new fashion.
The trends these days are just regurgitated over and over.
I often wonder if there are actually any close-to-new ideas out there or if they've all been done.



I think it's time we all started to wear the uber-modern clothes the people in the fifties thought we would be wearing in the uber-modern future of the twenty-first century.


Logan's Run, much?

blogger.com

[pavementfrippery]

I do think that what innovations will be made in fashion from now on will largely be made in the area of fabrics, as cut and silhouette-wise everything has been done.

Nevertheless, the time most difficult to look at objectively is surely the one you are living in and i think it is silly to say there have been absolutely NO new styles in this decade.
When else have jeans been so tight and low, as has recently been fashion? The combination of the skinny leg and hipster cut pant has never been in before, as far as I can tell. I believe it is the very low hipster style that will come to define this decade's fashion.

[centrestage88]

one look that I'm very very glad didn't involve into a trend is the jeans tucked into gladiator shoes/strappy open toe shoes. And the finger gloves style that paris hilton tried to start!

I think when we look back at today's fashion in the future, we'll be laughing....but in good fun. Fashion is all about experimenting and having fun. And we're having fun.

[sunshinesoleil86]

I feel we, especially my generation, are bringing back a lot of questionable styles from the 60s, 70s and 80s. More often than not, I think it's the worse trends of those eras that are making a comeback through the vintage clothing craze. And then we've got the hair... news anchor hair, helmet hair - I don't know. For me, it's all going to be something we look back on and cringe over.

[disco54]

The only decade which epitomized fashion to me so well and vividly are the 70s , also because its synonomous with YSL who liberated women so much. no decade after that can even stack upto it.

[chloehandbags]

^^ ...and so you should, sunshine.

After all, what's fashion without rebellion?

What's fashion without the slightly naughty feeling the anticipation of inspiring a bit of future cringing (or even a bit of current cringing amongst later/non adopters, if you're lucky) gives you?

It's true that most cringed (and some are still cringing, apparently) when looking back at mid-to-late '80s fashions, but many would (and do) yawn when looking back at the late '90s and its inoffensive but, ultimately, achingly safe minimalism.

Does that really mean that the '90s fashions were better? Or does it just mean that they were safer and blander and that they are not, yet, so out of fashion (nothing is more out of fashion than the just-about-to-become-fashionable-again, after all, is it?) as the late '80s are/were, until recently?

Does that really mean that people who lived through late '90s fashion felt better, at the time? Just because they felt refreshingly cleansed of excess ornamentation and future cringe-proof? Apparently not - from what I've gathered, many who were young adults through both decades say that, if they are honest, they enjoyed the fashions of the mid-to-late '80s more; at the time, at least.

If one is so petrified at the possibility of looking back in horror at one's past wardrobe that it completely overwhelms one's desire to experiment, then one should, of course, feel free to play it safe. But we only have one life and we are supposed to be fashion fans, here, aren't we? Not timid librarian types. So why not try to live it?

In my (albeit fairly limited) experience, relative maturity (as you get older, you tend to care less about what other people think of you) and a reasonable understanding of fashion history normally means that one grows out of the need to (genuinely) cringe at previous decades (although, one might still feel the need to, politely, indulge someone else who is; if just to confirm that one is aware that the look in question is no longer in vogue [and is not yet back, again]!). This is because anyone with a genuine interest in fashion soon learns that it really is all merely a cycle and what disgusts one most today, will, no doubt, be the item that inspires one most, again, tomorrow.

There again, I find myself currently loving leggings and double breasted '80s jackets with shoulderpads (wide shoulders and narrow hips and legs look right, to me, now) and I even have (shock, horror!) an enduring fondness for ugg boots, so maybe (according to the general consensus on here, at least) I'm just certifiable?

Also, even if one's idea of perfect fashion does happen to only consist of unchallenging blandness and/or uninterrupted elegance and you believe that earlier decades of the 20th century provided that consistency - as others have said, the longer it is since the decade in question and the fewer photos of ordinary people there are in existence, the easier it is to, wrongly, imagine that everyone at the time was 'perfectly' attired.

BTW, by and large, I haven't hated this decade's fashion, at all - in fact, it has inspired me far more than the '90s ever did. I think there has been a lot of merit to a lot of it and the early-to-mid part was a lot of fun for me, fashion-wise. The post '03 soufflé economy and the accompanying, obscene, price-rises were quite another matter, of course, but until about A/W '06, I still liked a lot of the clothes (even if I didn't like their prices).

For me, fashion has gone through a bit of a slump in the last two or three years, though (partly due to my two favourite designers leaving the R-T-W industry), but that's certainly not enough to taint the whole decade for me and it does seem to be starting to find its direction, again, IMO.

I have, however, absolutely detested the scam of overly fast fashion - which is/was as fake and grotesque as the economy that fed it...

Drastic and erratic change merely for changes' (or profit's!) sake.....the constant attempts to push the poor old fashion cashcow inexorably forward, well ahead of its natural pace.....the indiscriminate, f*** the environment, daily shopping binges.....the insanity of a magazine adding a previous season's, barely worn, item to an 'out' list (badly written 'in/out' lists are a pet hate of mine!), merely to call it a 'must-have' again the very next season (or even, frequently, within the subsequent pages of the very same issue of the magazine! ).

But that doesn't mean that it is/has been all bad, by any means.

[mcnuwave]

Originally Posted by pavementfrippery

I believe it is the very low hipster style that will come to define this decade's fashion.

agreed. when we look back on this decade, we'll definitely see this as one of the defining fashion statements of this decade.

but at the same time, if fashion does change next decade for whatever reason, this decade will still have a look. Individualism!

[Saaar]

could you give me a photo of what you mean by this 'worst fashion period?'
i do sorta like the todays style, even though it's inspired on previous decades and not new.