What's driving the style melting pot? - YouLookFab Forum

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What's driving the style melting pot?

shiny

Veteran

Spin off from Angie's thread: I have been thinking about the factors that may be driving this trend of "anything goes" ... the melting pot of styles ... where it seems few things are out of fashion now... it's all in how you wear it and how it suits you.

1. Fashion blogosphere - as inspiration, as recognition that women come in all different shapes, sizes, tastes. Is the fashion blogosphere now driving the trends, rather than designers dictating them to us? Is this a spin off of social media trends, where it's all about the individual & personalization rather than the masses?

2. Flash fashion - makes it easy to churn out a variety of trends that can come and go.. in a flash. Is this a driver or is this an enabler or is this a consequence? Chicken or the egg?

3. Maturing market - as we ladies mature, we grow comfortable in our own skin and more immune to passing fads ... we wear what we love. And often that may be for nostalgic reasons. We wear what flatters regardless of trend. We create the trends rather than following them. Oh yeah, and superlux appeals cuz it's downright cozy comfy and practical...

What would you add?

General

16 replies

Latest reply was from darlin girl

Anonymous

I think that just as sure as we all get rid of all the things that we're told are outdated or out of style, the Powers That Be bring them back so we have to replace what we got rid of. And sometimes, those things are from a not-too-distant past. Of course, I'm in Category 3 (Maturing Market), so you can completely disregard my remarks if you want. At my age, superlux is becoming increasingly more important.

jenanded

Veteran

Can I add fashion cycle fatigue... I am over feeling annoyed when I get one look under control and weeks later there is a new look. Annoyed that we are being treated like bunnies probably. We need a nice pace of new and shiny things which is different in my mind. Great post!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Very interesting points, Jennifer. I'm sure they ALL play a part in our current fashion melting pot.

I'll add that our age of Casualization and the need to be Practical - Sporty Luxe and now Boho Chic - has added to the strength of the melting pot. I LOVE the variety. It's brilliant, and focuses on INDIVIDUAL Style as you suggested in #1, as opposed to Mass Fashion. (Important: I have to preface that by saying that there is no style without fashion. If there was, everyone would be stylish, which is not the case).

Gaylene

Veteran

Interesting thoughts, Shiny. I agree with all your points and I'd add the collectivity of social media which provides support for whatever style or look person wants to embrace.

What a person wears has always been used as an outward manifestation of identification. Before social media expanded our options, our "tribes" (to use Rachylou's term) were largely the result of real-life geography and physical nearness. Social media, however, provides an endless array of virtual tribes that can be accessed at the click of a button. No matter what we choose, we can find others who will reinforce and support our choices--providing us with endless array of like-minded "friends" who will aid and abet us in whatever suits our current fancy.

To me, it's not a melting pot as much as a endless mosaic of small "tribes"--each with sources, designers, and "finds" that belongers can access to identify themselves, and which anyone can opt in, or out of, regardless of nationality, geography, social status, gender, or background.

Joy

Veteran

I also think it may be because more women (and men) want to look unique and not like everyone else. If too many are wearing a trend, they want something different. That speaks to Angie's comment of the importance of individual style. It's great that there are choices for everyone.

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

It's true that everything comes and goes so quickly these days, undoubtedly a result of online media and faster production cycles.

There is also so much recycling of old ideas. Very little of what comes around seems truly new to me. It's like when you hear ideas for Hollywood movies and it goes like: Boy meets girl, but think Batman meets Princess Leia in a steampunk universe.

Perhaps I'm being forgetful, but I think the last thing that seemed to not be a rehash of old ideas were the photo-real or digital prints we've seen from Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto and the like.

I am always happy to have a range of choices. I do remember some years in the past where I just couldn't find an item I wanted (e.g., blazer, jeans) that was flattering to my shape/style. Now there's room to pick what works and leave the rest aside.

I like Gaylene's point about the style tribes. We are a little tribe on YLF, but one of my favorite things to do when I go to Boston is look at the style tribes in the Back Bay ... groups of four or five kids all with the same look.

Jeweled

Veteran

I think another factor is the huge trend of small or even tiny businesses creating niche garments.

For example, there are a ton of businesses like this on Etsy.com - creating and selling everything from steampunk coats, to rainbow cloaks pieced from recycled sweaters, to rockabilly pinup-girl outfits, to dramatically elegant accessories.

If you want to wear (or make & sell) garments that are different from the mainstream, there's never been a better opportunity for it.

rachylou

Veteran

I think there's also what I call the 'DJ' factor. Arrangement, reuse, producing are now considered arts in their own right.

Dimity

I agree with Gaylene's 'endless mosaic'. We want to fit with our tribe while being sufficiently different to feel unique. You're right, it's all to do with the styling and I think our basic drive to find that uniqueness makes this happen.

K.M.

Veteran

I agree with you on the blogosphere and the rise of "street styling"--people who are not formally employed in the fashion industry (or media), but which are being featured more and more, whose voices are more influential... so much so that now you open a fashion magazine and the bloggers and street style stars are now featured there! So visions for fashion are not coming only from top down.
Still, of course, there's a hierarchy--it's not like it's completely democratic.
But maybe--sometimes I wonder--it's because we're in a moment of transition where old trends subsist and new ones are lapping up, and so perhaps we're just a few years away from being back into a more strict fashion code (if only as a reaction to such freedom).
When I look at photos of the early to mid-90s I'm struck by the variety of things people wore--bootcuts and straightlegs coexisted with tapered ones, oxfords and chunky shoes alongside pointy mules, big baggy tee-shirts and baby tees. Another era of transition?

shiny

Veteran

K.M., that's a particularly intriguing angle. You may be right. Chaos --> Order cycle?

Gaylene

Veteran

Thought-provoking, K.M., about this freedom and variety being characteristic of a transitional period in fashion, but can the genie be put back in the bottle? I think the blogosphere and social media have knocked all kinds of social and political hierarchies askew. Hierarchies work when the groups involved understand their place and the rules for interactions between the groups. Authority and influence which come from the top only works when those at lower levels accept the staus quo. I have a hard time envisioning a scenario whereby all those bloggers and mini tribes agree to give up their independence and allegiance to each other to fall under the influence of a fashion "elite". What I see are designers and fashion "elites" scrambling to find a way to become part of a new scene because the rules of the game have changed.

Vildy

Veteran

I'm going to disagree about not everyone having style. I like better what
Angie said in the discussion of Sveta's proposed purchase of red low heeled shoes, that style is in the wearer. So I take that further and truly believe that every person has style, though it may be one that not many others would care for. I'm reminded of the old circus term "styling." That's where you do your piece and pause to raise one arm in the air as if to say, "There! I have performed and now await your recognition." Even if the performance was anything but extraordinary. You can see some of this posture in the older man Ali in What Ali Wore. I read he was once a circus performer and then I understood his posing posture. Style, in my eyes, is about being confident in how you look and behave and/or (much more self-effacing) being so comfortable in what you naturally do that you are oblivious to its effects on others. I think style is about going about your business, whether you solicit or are indifferent to others' gazes. It's the old hippie "having your being."

Anonymous

I always chuckle whenever I think of middle and high school aged young people who go out of their way to dress differently than their parents (or anyone else who's older than they) and pride themselves in being different, yet end up looking like carbon copies of each other. It happens in every generation, so it's not a new thing, and I doubt it will ever change. Yes, you see this in older folks, but not to the extent that you do in teens. They dress to fit in with their peers, moreso than any other demographic age group.

kkards

Veteran

i'm going to take a contrary view. i think its that retailers are still scarred by the recession and are unlikely to step out too far. so they retrend old best sellers and mix in very small bites of new to see if anything will stick.

darlin girl

I think I appreciate the melting pot. I like the great variety that is out there. It is important to know that not every person looks good in all styles and if we are a slave to trends that's not necessarily a good thing. It's lots more fun to dress for your mood and get the most out of your wardrobe for a longer period of time.