On college campuses, fashion is something that many students value just as much as their education and sometimes even more. This is a time where they have the freedom to express themselves however they want, and often, clothing is the outlet of choice. However, unlike the past where we can pick out an iconic style for each decade, it is now hard to put modern style within any sort of boundary. Decade fashion is coming back with a vengeance. Any day walking through the campus, you can see people dressing with a various decade as inspiration. So my question is how are people going to dress up like us when they go to a 2010s themed party?
This is a serious question. Our style of clothing now is often just a reminder of fashions from the past. A few years ago 90s grunge pushed into the scene, and is still very evident now with the converse, high-waist jean shorts and pants, the flannels, the bulky jackets, as well as many other elements. However, this is no longer the only decade that has seemed to make a comeback, with the noticeable reemergence of bellbottom jeans and flowy tops, t-shirt dresses and collars. Which brings me to the word vintage. Vintage has been all the rage. Going to a thrift store or other vintage outlets is a major move for us Millennials.There is even a Macklemore song dedicated to this phenomenon. This vintage style is based off the clothing our parents wore as teenagers in the 60s and 70s. According to my mom, her clothes were ugly and she did not want to keep any of them. So what does this say about the style now?
A lot of these trends came with the “Hipster” movement that started a few years ago. They are the unique people that choose to do stuff outside of the norm including dressing in older fashion. However, this “hipster fashion” has overwhelmed the fashion world and is no longer outside of the norm. The “hippie” style that has also showed up with the flower crowns, flowy clothing, and bellbottoms is also a result of Millennials fixation with concert culture. When we go to a concert, it seems like we are putting ourselves in a make believe Woodstock. These are not the only trends that are happening on college campuses, but they are the ones that are seen regularly among different social groups. Some of these trends have been highly contemporized while others are just taken straight out of their decade. Are we just going to be defined by the past?
I myself have clothes that are predominantly influenced by other decades, but now I wonder if the fashion world is having trouble coming up with drastically new ideas. Business contemporary looks seem to be emerging in several stores. Is that what we are going to be heading towards next? For now we are stuck with a mixture of decades to describe our fashion, and hopefully this is a topic of interest for people of the future when they look back instead of just being a boring repeat. I look forward to the clothes we will all be wearing 20 years from now. We might be surprised with how much they change.
