Fashion and trends are a strange phenomenon. Dating back almost as long as the birth of the nation, every twenty years or so brings about a drastic change in clothing styles. However, 1992 up to the present has ushered in few profound differences aside from technologically. How can a period that has given life to personal computers, cell phones, mp3 players, email, social media and ‘i’ everything also be such a stagnant time for something as rudimentary as textiles and buttons? Not even mass globalization has managed to have much of an effect on burgeoning cuts and colors.
Many use the obvious Madonna/ Lady Gaga comparison as a way to showcase just how little has changed pre-Clinton administration. The fact is, such examples are everywhere. As entertainment magazines push their Nirvana 20th Anniversary issues off the shelves, one pauses briefly to realize not much has shifted post Cobain’s tragic death. Pretty Woman and Jurassic Park could, and have been re-released with different characters and a glossier sheen today without any distinct complexities or decade-revealing clues. Julia Roberts is no different than Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde: a classic underdog who achieves unlikely dreams with the help of one of two people (usually the leading men) who believe in them. Jurassic Park is Avatar without the recent tech-savvy. One might argue that My Fair Lady and King Kong were part of the same vein as the former. Concerning basic plot line, this is a fairly accurate statement; however, it is inconceivable that anyone would mistake either of the oldest films as occurring in any other time period than they did. Such is not the case regarding the previous examples—it is as if no time passed between them.
There has been speculation that the lack of distinctive change in pop culture, namely music and films, can be attributed to the lengthy careers that stars have attained through studio deals and iron-clad contracts. Yet, has this not always been the case to a certain extent? If someone was an icon fifty years ago, they were in the spotlight for longer than their 15 minutes. Popularity sells and thus will be in demand for as long as it is what the public wants. Before Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, there was Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson, and earlier Frank Sinatra and John Wayne—not to mention the female leads! What’s different is the length of time the same exact acting style and appearance are remaining desirable on a mass level. Earlier actors and performers had to mold to what the trends insisted. The best example of the new age, Groundhog Day style mentality is Jennifer Aniston. Nothing about Aniston, from her silky straight dirty blonde coif to her self-deprecating, if not downright awkward ‘pretty’ girl humor, has been tampered with since her days as Rachel Greene on Friends. Clearly Jen has benefited from following the age-old ‘if it ain’t broke’ mentality shared by many of her counterparts.
The newest form of innovation involves nothing completely original, but instead borrows from a myriad of old styles, themes, concept and successes. Hip-hop, even from its earliest days has been an art of collaboration and heavy sampling. The heightened popularity of house music, remixes, djs and performers like Girl Talk—who have built their fame entirely on piecing together samples of other artists’ work—speaks for itself. Maybe there really is not anything new under the sun, but does that mean everyone in the fashion, design and entertainment industry should completely throw in the towel? Perhaps the jeans and t-shirts sensibility is the only place left to turn to for comfort and predictability amid the rest of the tumultuous political and economic landscape. Designers working throughout the 1980s and prior to that time were creating in a vacuum; the nation’s socioeconomic landscape was much simpler. Along with the internet and ipads came a constant connect and awareness which holds power but also instills a weariness and at times, a fear. Pair such a widespread knowledge with a world that moves equally fast, and people on the whole no longer yearn for progression in every facet of life.
Some arenas have been best determined more stagnant, and it naturally follows that clothing—something which tyrannical leaders or the DOW cannot force us to change—would stay much as it had been before: before technology started to outrun the human intellect. Even the way in which Americans protest the negative changes occurring around them is on replay, as the Occupy movement bears a striking resemblance to the late 1960s and 70s counterculture era. And the ultimate irony? As fashion and culture lay scarcely touched, style enthusiasts seem more involved and enthused than ever before in the publicity and hype of that which is ‘nouveau’. Perhaps blogging and twitter accounts have made it all too easy to share our opinions; and yet, who are these authors but messengers of what has been labeled cool and desirable by corporations.
The Targets, Victoria Secrets, Starbucks, IO Metros and Banana Republics: these are the brands by whom trends are ignited and just as easily, stifled. When such a small pool of stores holds as much influence as these and other mall/ strip mall giants, it only makes sense that corporate heads would push to maintain that monopoly by constantly reassuring the public that their way is the best way and needs no renovation. Are comfort and economics edging out the genuine newness that Americans have always been known for; or, is it maybe just the fact that the status quo pleases the masses for the time being and no one is suffering for it? Cliches aside, time will truly tell where fashion ventures or does not venture.
Here's to you J-Aniston...don't think that just b/c you're boring I haven't seen every episode of Friends 20 times. I watch for Phoebe and Joey, but still...
Thanks to Miss Brittany Koole and Vanity Fair magazine for her/ their suggestion to write on such an engrossing topic; for some of her very own wisdom and wit, do see:
'To be titled at some point when I'm feeling creative...'. As always I greatly encourage any and all comments and feedback. Y-O-U are my W-H-Y! Here's to a wonderful weekend--it's almost here so power on :) Merry almost Merry and I'll see some of you cuties soon!
XO XHOE,
Carls-in-Charge
