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Define our era’s style

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

After a week of fashion travels through the decades, I thought we might start defining style of our very own era. Just in case some internet style enthusiasts from the future try to recreate the times we live in.

I’ll start and will probably keep adding later:
- waterfall cardigans
- skinnies
- infinity scarves
- Uggs/Crocs (I know, I know, but they are on our streets)

General

17 replies

Latest reply was from Ornella

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Anything goes? Can't ignore that there are so many sub cultures with their very own fashion going strong parallel to our own.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Do you mean "the now" era, Ornella?

I think that today's fashions and style encompass three main ingredients:

1. a modern incarnation of all the decades

2. a mixture of high and low end

3. casualization

I am very on board with 1 and 2 - and delightfully fighting 3.

Lisa

Veteran

Casual! Which I am also with Angie about and want to fight.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I love Angie's first two ingredients! If that's today's fashion, I'm on board with it!

Not sure about #3. I think I will join the fighting forces.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

What about leggings as pants? *barf*

Scarlet

Veteran

Just picking up on the casual point, I don't see casual as completely negative. I think that if casual means wearing pajamas out of the house, fleece for all occasions, no shoes but sneakers (or horrible sport sandals), jeans everywhere, then yes, it is negative. But if casualization is the absence of strict dress codes, it can also be freedom for self-expression. I think casual can be fab, it is just more difficult to make it so.

Anyway, I think I get Angie's point about casualization and fundamentally agree with it, but I just wanted to say that casual isn't always bad. Along similar lines, one thing I like about our current fashion era is the anything goes element. It is much more flexible than other times where only specific silhouettes/shapes/lengths were in fashion. I really enjoy that.

Finally, I submit that some of the current incarnations of platform shoes are novel to the current period. The style actually drives me bonkers though because I think it reflects the pursuit of ever more height to the point of seriously endangering the wearer. It's too extreme.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Suz and Lisa, thanks for arming my army.

Scarlet, I go backwards and forwards on my feeling about casualization - your points are meaningful and I see the same positives as you do. At times though, I am just so very disappointed at the acceptable degrees of casualization in our day and age. We went to a fancy restaurant yesterday with friends who were well turned out. And yes - others were also well turned out. But many were in jeans, sneakers, uggs, tees and polor fleece. It actually makes my evening less nice because I am a right brained spacial person with a strong appreciation of aesthetics. And that particular casual aesthetic does not gel with the ambiance of the restaurant. The same way that an artwork can be wrong in a particular room.

This perceptive is all wrapped up in judgment I know. But rightly or wrongly, I can't help but derive great joy from attractive aesthetics - and vice versa.

(Sunday mornings are good for ranting!)

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

I'll read detailed responses later, for now I just wanted to add a bit more clarity - my question was simply about what makes our era distinctive.

If in 50 or 100 tears someone wants to recreate the beginning of the millennium, what style elements would be the distinctive ones that define the times we live in.

Scarlet

Veteran

Angie, I hear you on that. I would share your disappointment in that kind of a situation. I have a suspicion that the Pacific Northwest is especially bad in this regard, although I sometimes suspect the west coast just leads the way in what is to come to us all...

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

I think this silhouette defines our era (right now):

-skinny legs (whether leggings or pants) with very slim leg openings.
-sky high shoes. Most ridiculously high shoes I've seen over my entire 53 year life. Have you seen the shoes the ladies wear in the "Real Housewives" programs?
- big tops and sweaters

Also I would add:
- the ubiquity of denim
- lots of bling, sequins and embellishments (has been going on for several years already).

I now wear 4" shoes with platforms and that is a first for me... So I do tend to adapt to trends (maybe with the exception of bling).

I am fine with casualization as long as it is done with style! You can do fleece and trainers if you have style.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I would add big statement/logo handbags and swarovski crystals on just about everything from flip flops to cell phone covers. (I find both tacky and over the top, personally)

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

I think that in 20 years when the kids are going to a 'teens' party, they will be in platform hooker heels and super short dresses with a belt at the natural waist- plus huge false eyelashes and nude lips.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Angie, I sympathise with you. I feel this way, too. I get the same feeling in a very messy or chaotic, incoherent environment. My husband is very sensitive to noise, so as a way of explaining to him, I tell him that I have a hard time with "visual noise." I want visual music.

HelenInCanada

Veteran

Angie, I understand exactly what you mean. Going out for a special dinner at a lovely restaurant deserves a little respect, wardrobe-wise! I suppose that is why there are dress codes in some places, to keep the ambience at a certain level of dignity. From my experience in the US, though, dress codes are not the norm. I remember being shocked in Las Vegas when people were dining in fine restaurants wearing undershirts and flip-flops! I think this "anything goes, I can wear whatever I want, when I want" is taken to extremes and is partly what defines the modern era, unfortunately! Recently, I felt a tad embarassed when I took my parents out to a great seafood restaurant (won't name names!) and patrons were in everything from grubby sweatshirts to old jeans to just being all-out unkempt. Maybe it's a lack of an agreed-upon societal norm....? It's not like dressing well -or general etiquette even - on a budget, etc. - is taught in schools. We basically learn by chance through older women in our lives, fashion mags, and now the internet - if we're seeking the advice out!

Ornella, I'm chiming in to say: - An "anything goes" attitude
- Global fashion influences
- Fast fashion a la Target, H&M, Old Navy, Joe Fresh, Wal-mart. A more democratic, accessible approach to fashion!

cheryle (Dianthus)

(website)

Veteran

I have been thinking about this thread off and on today. Most decades have been defined by fairly specific fashions. I see our current state to be different as we seem to have more options. Boot cut or wide leg pants can be worn without appearing out of style even though the slimmer silhouette is more predominant. Skirt lengths seem to also be more open to individual preference. One can wear a mini, midi or knee length skirt and still look current and fashionable. Perhaps this is the start of freedom to express oneself as one sees fit rather than within narrowly defined constraints imposed by the fashion industry.

mamaKate

Veteran

Elements I think will define fashion from now:
-asymmetric hems & necklines
-ruffles on tops
-ruching, ruching, everywhere!
-peep-toe shoes - even boots!

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

Suz, "visual noise" - I like that.

I came across a book about style which stated one more thing - how fashion nowadays had become affordable and is quickly consumed, making it possible for everyone to "play the game". Fast fashion (as it's been referred to) = visual noise.