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Wearing trends the second time around (thoughts while shopping).

shoppingisfun

(website)

Veteran

I walked into a juniors' store yesterday and felt incredibly old (I'm 34). I saw...crop tops. Overalls. Long, super loose and flowy sunflower-print pants. Flowered leggings. Super high waisted short-shorts with button flies. OMG. It seems the early 90's are back with a vengeance (probably have been for awhile, but normally I do not even walk into these kind of stores, ha ha! I was looking for new boardshorts). There is no way I would ever wear any of these trends the second time around. Is this what fashion is going to come to? Am I doomed to wear the clothes that are already in my closet for the next 10 years until these trends die? Or am I just not fashion-forward enough? Perhaps ready for the rocking chair already?

Shopping

14 replies

Latest reply was from rachylou

Sharon

Veteran

Fashion is cyclical, and many trends come back around eventually. It just so happens that these ones have occurred in your fashion memory lifetime. i vividly remember wearing crop tops with high-waisted loose cropped pants in the late 80's. This season I have bought a crop top and a pair of high waisted shorts but I don't want to look like I wish I were 16 again, so I am wearing the crop over longer, looser tops and the shorts are mid thigh and tailored, and I wear them with dressy tops. So I think the key is to wear them, just not the same way you wore them the first time.

rabbit

Veteran

I'm probably not the best person to post in this thread since I'm often years late on adopting trends (I'm in my early 40's now), and was that way the first time around, lol. Generally though I don't try anything that just doesn't look good to me (it usually doesn't look good to me on teenagers either, so at least I'm consistent).

But I do browse the junior's racks a lot when I'm shopping, and I think it's more about wanting something that looks interesting and has elements that appeal to me. So I might like a certain color that's come back on trend, or a style of heel or a print. I'll also try to take in general information about changes in silhouettes and fits and waistlines that I might not have noticed happening, and I kind of test these out a bit as best I can with the clothes I have at home to see if it's something I might want to get on board that flatters my shape.

I also find a huge difference between the quality and execution of a trend at a fast fashion junior's store at the mall vs. designer collections online or higher end department stores (that I usually can't afford). Sometimes just looking at the higher end interpretations will make something click in my mind. Oh THAT's what they were going for, yeah I can see how that could work for me if I can execute it at a lower price point.

Anonymous

I'm around your age, so I know what you mean with all the '90s stuff coming back. It's kind of scary to realize you've been around long enough to see things cycling around again. And weren't a lot of those trends reinterpretations of '70s looks anyway? So I guess they're right on schedule to show up again.

On the other hand, maybe this means my love of little flowered dresses worn with clunky boots will make me look on-trend for the time being. But no more overalls for me, ever.

kkards

Veteran

I'm wearing a flannel shirt today, this is the 3rd time they have cycled into my closet. But today I am wearing it with white skinny jeans, certainly not how I would have styled it in either of the last 2 cycles. So yes, styles will come back, but in slightly different ways. Of course, whether or not we chose to wear them is up to us.

doubleh

Veteran

My grandmother was a fount of brilliant advice. A particular is "If you remember it from the first time, you shouldn't wear it the second time." I mostly take that to heart. (I remember I was in sixth grade wearing stirrup pants and she told me she'd worn them long ago. I was AMAZED something so "fashion forward" had happened before.) I agree with rabbit that the interpretations seem to vary with price point/style direction of store.

I think I might try the crop shirt trend again, but in the flowing layered sense and will steer clear of anything Kelli Kapowski. Also the neon! Lord. I am old (older than you) and I can't even walk into the junior stores anymore without seeing spots for the rest of the day.

Oh, but I am totally on board anytime they want to start bringing back the swimming costumes of the 20s that went to your knees. For both women AND men.

shoppingisfun

(website)

Veteran

@doubleh, I am with you on the swim suits!! Especially as my body gets older. Oooog...

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

I am 55 and happily re-embrace trends the second, or third time around. But if I save things from back then, I usually can't wear it. The revised trend may evoke an earlier trend, but it is crafted in a way that is updated. I also think it's fun to figure out how to adopt a trend to myself at a different age. For example, the cropped tops don't work on me any longer if worn with a bare midriff, but if I pair them with high waisted pants and a layered top underneath, it works. Also if I stick to a more minimal color palette and quality fabrics, it can look age appropriate.

The other thing to do is look at the way trends are re-interpreted by designers. If you look at the Collections being shown during Fashion Week right now, you can see how some "old" ideas are being recycled in sophisticated, more age appropriate ways.

catgirl

Veteran

I will wear trends the second time around, but only if they suit me - generally the first time around I was just worried about fitting in and not about my own style or shape.

Gigi

Veteran

I think that eventually trends have to come back, because there's only so many things you can do, for instance, to change up a pair of pants! If things don't come back, we'd be stuck with the same boring stuff forever. I agree with what other posters have said: when the trend comes back, it is usually updated and not exactly the same as it was before. For instance, the bootcuts that are around now aren't like the ones in the seventies (at least to my recollection). And the way in which things are styled in the updated version makes a big difference too. Even if someone were to wear a pair of bell bottoms straight from the seventies but paired it with updated tops instead of a horrible multicolored polyester shirt, she would portray a whole different style than her seventies counterpart.

It can really be an obstacle to developing your fashion when you see stuff come back that you remember from the past. Speaking of aforesaid bootcuts, I had terrible memories of seventies fashion and wouldn't touch the modern version with a ten-foot pole as of maybe six months ago. But people on the forum convinced me to give them another try, with a "mini bootcut" or "baby bootcut" style that wasn't so flared. So I did...and now I love them! Never say never. :^)

Gaylene

Veteran

Well, given that I've been on the planet for over six decades, I'd have nothing in my closet if I refused to wear trends from my past! I agree, though, with Denise, that the key is sophistication. Most of the stuff found in fast fashion outlets IS geared towards a younger audience so wearing items as a teenager might can definitely look awkward on an older woman. But the same trends, worn with more attention to fit, quality, and styling can often be surprisingly good on an older body. Instead of wearing my bootcuts with T-shirts and platform sandals like I might have done in previous decades, I now wear them with a cashmere sweater, sleek boots, and a solid gold cuff. I couldn't have afforded these items in my twenties and thirties, nor would I have been able to pull off this look with the confidence I'd have needed to make it look as good as it does now.

MRL

Veteran

I have also been around long enough to see trends for the third time. The first time around, I wore EVERY trend ( I was young enough to pull that off!). The second time around, I tried to adapt the trends somewhat and not be as extreme. Now that I am seeing some things for the third time, I plan to choose only the trends that I really like and are flattering to me. I do enjoy changing things up and letting my wardrobe evolve, but for me it's now about looking current and not overly trandy.

MsMaven

Veteran

If I remember right, it was Judith Krantz who said, "If I didn't wear fashions the second time around I wouldn't have any clothes at all."

That's kind of where I am. I will never forget the shock of seeing a patchwork print longish skirt on a mannequin a few years back--I had a skirt exactly like that one in 1969! It made me feel a bit strange.

The same think happened when little "Audrey Hepburn" dresses came back in the 90s. I used to sew my own dresses, so I got some fabric and a pattern, and . . . um, I don't have an Audrey Hepburn body anymore.

I have the feeling a big change is coming in the fashion cycle--as Angie pointed out in regards to wider, looser pants. The last few years have been tough for anyone whose been around the block a few times. I'm hoping the change will bring back some oldies but goodies that are adapted to modern times.

Caro in Oz

Veteran

What CL & Gaylene said. I think sometimes it isn't the trend that is the problem but the cheap looking interpretations of it.

rachylou

Veteran

I have three thoughts on the subject:

Trends are fun for me. I like them. It's like Pajama Day or Senior Shirt day in high school. A "let's all do this" thing / have a theme party for fun. Ideally, you could pull from your closet to do the look, IMHO.
I think the "style of the day" is a little different from trends. How pants are cut, where the waist is, where skirt hems are. To me those are longer lasting and you have to go with those, if you're going to walk into a store and get some new pants or something off the rack.
Teens and adults do tend, actually, to wear/be sold the same "style of the day" - but they do it very differently from one another. Adults require a gravitas from their clothes that teens don't.