By Stanlee Kleiner
From 1960s bell bottoms to parachute pants of the ‘80s, it seems as though past fashion trends are always finding their way back into our closets and it’s no different this season. The mix of current styles come together in harmony for a similar purpose across audiences – comfort.
“The overall comfortable look for females is back in style as an accepted look,” says Kara Wenzel, a teacher at McDowell. She said she has seen trends of the past both in person and online. This hasn’t always been the purpose for these trendy pieces though. Actually, many of our current comfortable clothing trends have grown in popularity a number of different times for different reasons.
Cassidy Bogue, a junior at McDowell, looks at the styles around her, and believes that people “definitely have gone back to what people were wearing in the ‘80s and ‘90s.” Cargo pants have grown in popularity through social media. These pants were originally designed for military workers in the 1930s. Years later, in the ‘90s these utilitarian pants became mainstream amongst the hip-hop community.
Other styles of pants that are not shocking to see again are boot cut and flared pants. These pants have similar origins, originally being worn by sailors in the early 19th century. The pants were later popularized in the ‘60s and ‘70s amongst the hippie movement and have resurged in other decades before now. Wide legged bottoms are comfy, and their ability to be styled with other trending items right now, like platform shoes, make them a versatile and flattering look.
Platform shoes, once again, have an extensive fashion history, first becoming popular in the middle ages and then again in the seventies with the disco influence. The footwear returned in the nineties as well, but this time in a much more casual form: combining platforms with the comfy-shoe leader, the sneaker, in the form of Converse platform shoes as well as slipper boots also known as Uggs.
Although we continue to see influence from these styles of the past, these trends usually are often rejuvenated with new innovations, new ways of styling and new interpretations.
“Younger generations are adding their own twists to old trends by adding a slight variation to a particular trend of fashion,” Wenzel explains.
While looking at all these trending styles and the years of repeated, redone, and reinvented fashion, people can not help but see a pattern. When explaining her thought process as to why trends repeat, Bogue expresses that people “find something from back in the day and they’re like, oh, let’s do that again! And then someone makes something new out of it.”
The reinvention of trends over the years is something that continues to happen within the fashion community. People strive for something they see as new or different, even if it is something that has been done similarly in the past. While that is an important reason that trends repeat, it is definitely not the only one.
Styles repeat for a multitude of reasons. One of those is the “20 year rule,” the fashion cycle that so many designers and brands follow. Like clockwork, trends almost always seem to come back into style about 20 to 30 years after they’ve gone out of style. When choosing inspiration for what trends to bring back, big brands often look to create a feeling of nostalgia. Making people reminisce on the times these trends were popular in the past, even drawing attention from consumers who may have not even been around when these styles originally trended.
“Fashion trends repeat over the years because some styles bring nostalgia to people. The older fashion trends seem retro to younger generations and they want to try out that particular style,” Wenzel explains.
Media and pop culture has continued to prove the impact that it has on fashion and the fashion industry for many years. Wenzel explains how social media sources, such as TikTok and Instagram have a strong influence on what people tend to gravitate towards stylistically nowadays.
“In today’s world, fashion trends are inspired by famous people and what people are wearing who have a lot of Instagram followers or are trending on various apps like TikTok,” she said.
