When we look back at decades past, we have a clear picture of the style that prevailed in the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Fashion trends played a much larger role in your style life back then because that was all that was available in stores. The lack of fashion variety during those decades meant that people sported the same silhouettes in the same way, which in turn made the style of those eras very distinctive. 

Today’s fashion is different. As I mentioned in a post that applauded today’s fashion, we are living in an era that is ultra accepting and encouraging of all sorts of outfit juxtapositions, colours, fabrications, and silhouettes. Never before has there been as much variety in fashion and style as there is right now. As a result there isn’t a distinctive “look of the decade”.

Today’s fashion has taken the best trends and silhouettes of decades past and modernized them. As fashion repeats itself in a refreshing way, it has also mixed up the design inspirations of decades past resulting in a melting pot where, with discretion, almost anything goes. Of course, we are still able to distinguish dated looks from current ones, and stylish looks from unstylish ones, so the “almost” in that last sentence is important. 

Today’s more liberal approach to fashion, where trends do not rule the way we dress like they used to, has resulted in a true rebirth of personal style. Now more than ever, it’s HOW you wear and interpret fashion that counts. Gone are the days when looking stylish meant dressing in one particular way. Let there be more applause. 

As I think of today’s style, and browse through street style blogs that represent personal styles from the super classic to the ultra avant-garde, and everything in-between, I actually also have a hard time coming up with distinctive items and outfit combinations that truly represent the 21st century. Style has become so diverse. It’s not as easy as saying the dropped waist flapper dresses of the ’20s, the mod dresses, bobs and patent boots of the ’60s, or the shoulder pads, oversized tops, neon and pleated pants of the ’80s. All these silhouettes will fly today as long as they are worn with a big dose of modern.

Although the variety represented by today’s fashion is a big upside, there is also a downside. It does seem to me that while there has been progress in fabric technology and eco-friendliness, truly creative newness in style and design is lacking. Today much of the newness lies in how we mix and match the items our way, but not in the items themselves where the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Reinvention rather than invention.

Do you agree with my assessment of today’s fashion era? Are there items and outfit combinations that will go down in fashion history as the look for the early 21st century? I’ll have an apoplexy if you say Uggs and T-shirts.