As I was sitting at the spa last week, I decided to leaf through a glossy magazine. I hadn’t read one in years, and it seemed like this kind of reading would complete my spa experience. (Everybody deserves a chance to shed the intellectual burden and be stupidified every once in a while, OK? I’ve got enough facetious comments about this in RL, so no more are needed.) In that magazine, I alighted upon a very curious article that analyzed the trends in fashion, music, home décor, cars, etc.
The article pointed out that, during the XXth century, every 20 years or so brought profound changes in these areas of human existence. Think about clothes, for example. Could you wear the same clothes and sport the same hairdo in 1976 and in 1996? In 1950 and 1970? And what about pop music? Aren’t the differences between what people listened to in 1938 and 1958 or 1958 and 1978 glaring?
Now consider the past twenty years. See any changes there? Right you are, there are none. I could easily wear all of my clothes from 1991 today (if I could fit into them, that is), and nobody would think me strange. And we are not talking about a return of the fashion from the early 1990ies. There simply was no moment during the past 20 years when fashion changed in any significant way. I have clothes that are 10-12 years old and I still wear them on occasion. And every single time, I have to tell people how old my outfit is because nobody can guess just from looking at it.
Or take music. Is what you heard on the radio 10, 15, 20 years ago really all that different from what you listen to today? Can anybody spot 3 differences between Madonna and Lady Gaga? I can barely find one.
Hairstyles, facial hair, the way the cars look – none of these things have changed dramatically in the past 20 years.
I’ve thought about it for a while and I have developed a hypothesis as to why these areas of our lives seem frozen in time. I’ll provide my answer in the next post but, for now, I’d like to know what my readers think.
Have you noticed the phenomenon I’m talking about? How do you explain it? Or do you think there is no such phenomenon?
Clarissa's Blog 
Wow! I have noticed this same thing, yes! Funny too, I was just thinking about it.
I think it’s a great topic (naturally) for discussion. It’s as if fashion and coolness, chicness, art and music creativity peaked and slowed down in the 1960-90 period, getting progressively refined, and then plateaued. Some elements of the 60’s (many actually) are still around. And that’s over 40 years ago! One could wear boot-cut jeans, beads and long hair and blend in in any crowd today. Or jeans and o logo t-shirt. It is weird, I agree. Many fashion periods have been co-opted or have become very specialized. Anything goes. But many staples are indistinguishable from those staple items decades ago. My students basically dress like I did at their age, on average. Many listen to music from earlier decades. The Beatles are popular with middle schoolers. I’m sure access (youtube, ipods, hulu) has something to do with that.
One result is that it’s hard to tell in movies and tv shows what year it is: one almost notices electronic gadgets more.
Another example: 40-50 year olds who have kids who are in rock bands etc. The kids are doing the exact same things their parents did.
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“My students basically dress like I did at their age, on average.”
– Yes! Mine do, too! And it kind of scares me to think that some of them weren’t even born yet when I was already wearing this stuff.
“That 70ies Show”, for example, is super funny. The clothes, the hairstyles, the mini-van are instantly recognizable. But can you imagine “That 90ies Show”? How would it be different from what we are living right now?
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I’m watching the Big Bang Theory right now and Sheldon is wearing a t-shirt over a long sleeved shirt and jeans, and he is talking to Penny who is wearing a purple striped tank top and bell-bottom jeans. They would look right at home on that 70’s show!! They would even fit in the late 60’s. That’s it: Time froze in the late 60’s. There hasn’t really been anything new since then. 🙂
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Actually I think the original idea, braking suddenly in the late 60’s, then frozen by the 90’s is right. Very weird!
The Mad men trends stand out as retro, because they are early 60’s – there seems to be a sharp dividing line, between the early and late 60’s.
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In terms of fashion, I think this era is more fond of ripping off previous generations compared to most. Right now at the high-end boutiques in Vancouver and Seattle that I’ve visited, there’s a lot of late 50s-early 60s fashion styles abound. I think it’s partially due to the popularity of Mad Men, partially because websites like Etsy make it easier to find chic, nice looking vintage items. So long as we don’t end up regressing to early 60s values, mores, and gender dynamics, I don’t mind. 🙂
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I think it really depend on who you hang with or where you happen to be. The local scenes change by the year, and so do fashions. I see a lot of people wearing skirts or tunic length shirts with leggings- a fairly new style, and among people my age those hideous feathered earrings are really popular. Also, headbands.
Personally, I wish the bumpit would just go away. Stupid Palin and Michelle Duggar.
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Couldn’t agree more on the bumpit. People who wear them scare me for some reason. 🙂
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The fact that you are typing on this thing speaks volumes about change. 🙂
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Shhh!!! Don’t anticipate my hypothesis!
Those Canadians always know everything. 🙂
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Clarissa: Probably because most of the wearers are conservative. If I see a woman in a long dress and that hairdo, I usually assume they are lost at my workplaces. I work at a museum on the weekends and at a library during the week.
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I’ve thought about this too. The theory was always that we were on a twenty year cycle, with fashions repeating themselves somewhat. I kept waiting and waiting to see certain fashion milestones, and they didn’t happen.
I think it’s part laziness – how many people care anymore about being properly dressed, let alone fashionable? How many adults wear trousers anymore? None – everybody’s in jeans. And the other part of the equation is cost effectiveness. It really is kind of stupid to have to change your wardrobe every few years to be up to date. When I can keep a well-made shirt for a decade, that saves me a lot of money.
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Maybe the digital era has something to do with this too? As people can socialize online, there is no great needs to change how we look in real life. All energy and efforts go into what profile, layout we have, how we talk on the internet. And then maybe there are just more areas of life/industry for people to channel their interests and talent to (eg. movies). Hence less is left to innovate fashion/music.
That’s external. Internally, is there any needs for a change in fashion? For eg. bikini was introduced in the wake of liberation of women. It seems fashion has served all purposes meant for today. So unless there are some drastic change in the way we live our lives (like in “Back to the future 2”?), there probably wont be any drastic change in fashion/music etc
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These are all very enlightening explanations that make a lot of sense. I’ll hold off on offering my own a while longer to give everybody a chance to participate.
I’m not sure what I think about this yet but we might arrive at an answer together.
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I know you’ve had harsh words for James Howard Kunstler, but he made a similar observation:
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I don’t think you are giving the kids enough credit for the ingenious idea of wearing pants around ones knees. This is definitely new in the last 20 years.
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I feel like people can get away with quite a wide variety of fashions these days, if they’re fashion-minded. If not, they stick with nondescript jeans and t-shirts. It seems like you can get more basic or comfortable than bootcut/flared jeans and a tshirt.
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Until people/groups/societies process the whole digital revolution, I think other areas will lie fallow for awhile.
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That’s precisely what my hypothesis is. Great minds. . . 🙂
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Thanks! 😀 This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
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Personally I am glad not to see big changes in fashion since buying new clothes costs time and money and in Israel among secular Jews the fashion is very suitable to the hot climate: jeans, T-shirts, shirts, summer dresses, pants, skirts, etc. I love what’s called a sportive style – shorts & sandals in summer, jeans in winter. Besides, fashion can be often ridiculous and I am afraid any changes from today will be to the worse.
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Some exceptions(although you might find them too subtle):
–I can tell what era baby pictures are from, broadly. If I see pictures of girls dressed in non super pink clothing, I immediately know it’s from the eighties to mid nineties. Super-gendered clothing is a more recent thing.
–Auto-tune is a phenomenon of the aughts. There was no auto tune in 1990s.
–Total hyping of 3D movies. There were some 3D movies when I was a kid, but that was confined to Disneyland, and it wasn’t some THING they bundled with major action movies and franchises (Avatar, Harry Potter, etc) like they do now.
But mostly, you’re right about recursive iterations in fashion and music. Politics feels the same way to me, but it could be due to my UScentricness.
Really, the biggest changes from 20 years ago is the rise of the internet and cell phones which have permeated every corner of existence.
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‘If I see pictures of girls dressed in non super pink clothing, I immediately know it’s from the eighties to mid nineties. Super-gendered clothing is a more recent thing.”
– Really? How interesting! So there has been a recent backlash, eh? I know there was a strong one in the 80ies but it’s harder to observe such things as you are living them.
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Just go into any store where they sell baby clothing. Baby clothing does tend to be gendered, but before you could get little dresses and little boy clothing in a wider variety of colors. You could always get clothing with trucks for boys and butterflies for girls, but now it’s much more obviously gendered. Even unisex toys are gendered because they are pink versions and boy versions of the same thing.
I wanted to be a princess but it was more like this Princess than these.
Little girl clothing is more uncomfortable now in general — it could be because my mother is an immigrant, but when I was a kid they had more overalls and the dressy clothing (dresses with tights and patent leather shoes) was a special occasion thing. You won’t see little girls in overalls of any color, for example.
What does Klubnikis wear?
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It’s true that when I tried finding something not obviously gendered for my niece, it didn’t produce any results. I just assumed that it was always this way, though, you know?
Nowadays, Klubnikis wears mostly dark blue and dark red, the colors of her daycare. But overall, her wardrobe is more expensive and varied than mine. 🙂 She even had a puffy black tutu. I still can’t get over the tutu, to be honest. 🙂 At least, it wasn’t pink, like originally planned. 🙂
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“Really, the biggest changes from 20 years ago is the rise of the internet and cell phones which have permeated every corner of existence.”
Maybe people have so many choices today that they are impossible to herd and control as a group, so therefore it is hard to get a new widespread fashion trend going. Who controlled the trends in the past?
I honestly think it is worth looking more closely at that early vs late 60’s divide I mentioned. Look how much change there was during that one decade! And as many others on the thread have supported, the bootcut jeans, t-shirt or other casual top, sandals, etc “relaxed” form of dressing that emerged still satisfies people today!! And remember, that was one fashion trend that *didn’t* come from the runways!!
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I think there is definitely something to what you are saying. I need to think about this more. It is true that the 60s fashion did not come from the runways. I never considered that before.
I really like comments that make me think of things in ways I didn’t see before.
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I agree this is a great discussion. Thinking about it, the late 60’s jeans thing was more than just the latest fashion trend, it was a much more relaxed, less expensive and time-consuming, often unisex and individualistic way of dressing. People threw off the control of the fashion industry and for the most part it seems to have worked- except the unfortunate trends like super-girly kids stuff.
okay I will go read that article now.
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It just means that near perfection has been achieved in fashion; there is no further need for the soulless hucksters called fashion designers to enforce their capricious will upon the populace.
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Judging from baby pictures, I spent my first two years of life in a red t-shirt, with varying rotations of shorts and leggings. I don’t think there’s one picture of me in a pink anything. One question, does anyone remember stirrup pants? They were big when I was in first grade, early ’90s.
I own one pair of black jeans, no blue jeans, and an increasing variety of ‘work pants.’
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Stirrup pants, yes! My burgundy red, velvet, ribbed stirrup pants was the very first item of clothing mu mother bought for me after the fall of the Soviet Union. 🙂 They looked very vulgar but they made me feel very grown-up. 🙂
I have no jeans and haven’t had any for many years. But I have a shitload of dresses for all seasons.
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I think the ones I remember the most were a pair that were red and green plaid. I loved stirrup pants, but hated getting them on. After first grade it was leggings, jeans and a few sets of overalls (mostly summer wear. I would’ve died of shame if I’d worn them to school.)
As for dresses, I had a few, but stopped wearing them at 10, and only ever had formal dresses at that point. I’ve been considering getting a few, but it involves a lot of effort in personal maintenance, and I cannot stand pantyhose, so wearing a dress anytime but summer is torture.
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I should add that I don’t wear skirts either.
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I was thinking similar thoughts the other day, but in the more limited form of there seeming to be no particularly interesting new subcultural/underground music or fashions going on these days. Before we’ve have hippies, mods, punks, goths, and now we have . . . the same things. There are scene kids, but I feel like that’s just a fashion that came straight from a store. And I can’t think of any new music either. But it’s all basically a matter of not many new fashions and music, which I find frustrating. I’ve always felt like some of it is that I just think there’s nothing cool going on because it’s happening (or not happening) right now, but since people older than me are making the same observations, maybe not.
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Well the 90s has been the decade of personal computers and the really fast growth of the internet. Maybe it’s trends and developments in technology that keep people busy and feed their appetite for change. Young people have stopped caring so much for fashion and cars with androids, Macbooks and facebook around.
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