The blog Seasons and Salt recently brought up the idea of avoiding micro-trends and instead wearing styles you truly love:
"I attended a sustainable fashion forum today (more on that coming soon!) and one of the panelists mentioned the need for us to divorce ourselves from micro trends and to just wear what we love. I felt really encouraged and empowered by that statement, and I wonder what trends are you ‘just saying no to’ as you stay true to your personal style?"
This really resonated with me. Identifying certain styles than may be trending right now, but which I know won’t work for me, or in which I have no true interest, is every bit as helpful as nailing down what I do like and what does work for me. I also think this is something I did very intuitively when I was younger and struggle a bit more with now.
Angie’s post on bright shoes this morning made me laugh, because my pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction, and I had to remind myself to be okay with that. For years, I’ve worn primarily bright shoes, and had very few neutral shoes in my wardrobe. I got pretty darn good at matching my shoes to accessories, and at building outfits around footwear to strategically pick up the shoes’ colour. But you know what? That gets really exhausting! My evolving footwear capsule relies heavily on black and navy, plus some grey and pewter, and a pair of burgundy desert boots. My everyday bag is olive, but I have no desire to hunt down a pair of olive shoes to go with it. I did just add a small black bag to go with black shoes (and everything else), and may add a casual small bag in burgundy or navy this fall. My not-so-bright shoe wardrobe feels so cohesive and soothing, and more suitable to my wet, muddy, unpaved environment, which renders all shoes brown eventually (except black ones — they stay black!). So yeah, I’ll be swimming against the tide for a while, but like I said, this isn’t anything particularly new to me, I think I’m just more aware of it now.
The rest of my trends-to-ignore, which I decided to write down to keep myself on track:
- white jeans (did I mention the mud? the rain? my preference for black underwear? for sitting on dirty things like logs and boulders? the proliferation of too-thin white denim? not worth the hunt.)
- white sneakers (see above. also, they make my feet look big, and I don’t love light footwear against my dark hair.)
- bomber jackets (jackets with elastic at the bottom are annoying as heck to layer under.)
- embroidery (reminds me of my pre-adolescent years when the Delia’s catalog — hippy/boho clothes for teens — was super popular. don’t need to revisit that look.)
- lace-up sandals (didn’t ever do gladiators either; I’m not into footwear that’s visually “busy” with lots of strappy and/or dangly bits.)
- slip dresses (again, takes me back to middle school, when showing your bra straps felt transgressive. now it just looks silly. also, does no favours for my relatively broad, square shoulders.)
Trends, or market shifts, I am enjoying:
- wide legs
- ankle lengths
- high rises
- boxy/cropped tops
- small scarves and neckerchiefs
- midi skirts
- flat, casual footwear with everything
I spent the last decade sitting out skinny jeans, and never embraced the long-over-lean look in general. I’m very excited by the silhouette shift, or silhouette diversification, that’s underway. Happy to add a greater variety of pants to my wardrobe!
I'm wondering if other people find this a useful style lens. Are you consciously "saying no" to any trends at the moment?
