bashing the trendbashing
it seems to me that one of the mainstays of the fashion world, and of the fashion blogging world is following and tracking trends.
what’s new? what’s now? what’s in? what’s out? who’s wearing what? who looks good? who looks bad?
it is interesting, yes.
but with some, it’s about rating, making judgments, making pronouncements, offering opinions of this sort:
-“i’m SO SICK OF SEEING _____ [fill in the proverbial blank], i could PUKE.”
-“everyone’s wearing that, it’s SO OUT NOW….[this new trend] is in now, people.”
-“i’m totally not wearing [that trend] anymore, everyone’s doing it, and i just don’t want to be associated with it anymore.”
what is that all about, really? i want to know…what is the psychology behind this?
-is it about wanting to be seen as au courant? is that really important? if so, how important?
-is it a defense of your personal style, not wanting to be “copied”?
-is “copying” offensive? is it inherently “wrong”?
-can you really prevent “copying” or the “copping of (a) style or look”?
-is new better? is original better than that which is ubiquitous?
-will the world end of someone cops your look? wears what you love?
i want to delve into this more…i yearn to know, to discuss this feeling, this push inside of us that makes us want the novel, the new, the original…
so many fashion movements of the past decades have had connections to the past…we are, as a culture, often looking back and finding inspiration in that which has come before. the bulk of designers look at what has happened, filter it through the lens of the present, and deliver something “new”, either on a conscious or subconscious level.
fashion is cyclical. what’s “now” today, will be “out” tomorrow. and give it some time, and it might be “in” again.
people in positions of power (magazine editors, fashion industry people, etc.) want things to change…they have a financial and personal stake in the trendmill. new styles equal new opportunities to make profit off the sale of the latest “look”. if the trend changes from season to season, year to year, they provide consumers with the motivation to purchase, lest those consumers appear “behind the times”. we live in a culture (in the west, primarily, but it other locales increasingly as well, with globalization) that is about consumption…good or bad.
BUT, here’s the thing, TRENDS are really all SUBJECTIVE, though culturally driven. mostly…it’s just ARBITRARY.
you don’t have to listen to the pronouncements, the dictates.
if some of it makes sense to you, awesome!
if it doesn’t, who cares?
will the world end if someone laughs at us for being behind or in front of the times?
i believe these words to the bottom of my heart:
EVERYTHING and ANYTHING, past or present, is UP FOR GRABS, up for consideration, is a fashion possibility.
ON THE RIGHT PERSON, anything can work. i mean that. ANYTHING. in or out or otherwise.
trendSETTING is about calculated, thoughtful risks.
and it is for these reasons, more than anything else…
that i willfully, purposefully suggest this:
let’s, once and for all, bash the trendbashing.
anybody with me?
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April 20 2007 | Posted in fashion musing
April 20 2007 at 3:19 pm
AmberYeah I’m with you. As my style has developed, I haven’t had many cheaply available trend options (because of my size) and because of that, I feel like I”m not as bound by or caught up in the trends. I like to look at my body shape, pick things that flatter me, that express something about me through color, shape or pattern, and then I try to personalize the look in some way. I vote that people find out what works for their body shape and capitalize on their strengths. Go from there!
April 20 2007 at 4:48 pm
jitterbeanI have the same issue with people who bash trends as I have with people who call things “overrated.” Calling something “overrated” tells me nothing about what YOU think of it, just that you think too many people like it. And what does that have to do with anything? It doesn’t express an opinion at all. I think people want to look cool or rebellious by rejecting the mass opinion, when really they’re just being reactionary and not thinking for themselves any more than people who blindly follow trends.
I completely understand the desire for a unique fashion style. And I suppose if you’ve really made yourself distinct by wearing top hats or something, it would be a little distressing if top hats came “in” and everyone thought you were following a trend, when you were really pioneering! At the same time, tops hats were in at another point in time, so I think there are rarely pioneers of truly new ideas, just pioneers of reinvention. And the world certainly wouldn’t end; top hats would go out again, and you could keep being your top hat-wearing, stand-alone self.
I think people also complain about trends because they’re illustrations of unoriginality, but unoriginality abounds in fashion. It would also be really hard for EVERYONE to be original, and it’s not what some people are good at/interested in. So of course people are going to copy. I think everyone starts out by copying; it’s how we learn everything in this world, from talking to math to art. Your trend followers of today might be your fashion mavericks of tomorrow.
April 20 2007 at 6:13 pm
NancyTell it sister! Amen. Sorry, got all evangelical there, but I really couldn’t agree more with everything you said. Huzzah for people who cultivate their *own* style, whatever that means, and whatever works and makes them feel good and fierce and their best self. what trends do for me is to introduce me to proportions and shapes I might not have thought about before, opening up new avenues. but those are to take or leave as they fit into or broaden or otherwise inform a core personal style.
April 20 2007 at 6:51 pm
jenniferi’ve never appreciated anything about the style or fashion world that has anything to do with criticizing something else. yes, maybe i wouldn’t wear it, but that’s the wonderful thing. no one is making me and no one can.
i blame stacey and quentin; those people are so spiteful.
April 20 2007 at 8:39 pm
KatI agree with you completely. To me this whole phenomenon reminds me of people who will like an unknown or fairly unknown band and if said band becomes popular they stop listening to them. It makes no sense at all, its almost like cutting off your nose to spite your face. If you like something go with it, if you don’t, then don’t.
April 20 2007 at 9:12 pm
CaseyI’m totally with you. No longer do I find myself looking at trends and deciding to follow or not because of their “status”. Rather its about what I find aesthetically pleasing, works for my body, or amuses me!! I feel anymore that slavishly followed trends are for those who don’t feel they can step outside the arbitrary “boundries” that fashion dictates. So many people I see/know just blindly follow what the stores sell, not taking much time at all to find their own sense of style and what *they like*. Its why people are constantly telling me that I dress so uniquely (not to sound proud or anything… but its true!) is because I no longer really care. To me fashion is more about dressing to reflect a mood, my inner self and my vision of what I want people to perceive me as on any given day.
As to the “copying” thing, I think that people just like to complain about things and I actually find it quite immature. I’ve always been flattered by friends who like to “copy” an idea or style I’ve been wearing. This is mostly because I think no style is inhearently “original”–its been influenced or picked up from somewhere or someone else. I draw a lot of inspiration from past decades of fashion, so in a way none of my “ideas” are original. Everyone comes to style with their own history and aesthetic leanings, thus every “look” is given a slightly different spin by each person. A perfect example of what I’m trying to get at is how your style has influenced mine! I used to pretty much wear all black until I found your blog and saw how freely you viewed the use of bright colors and wild patterns in your own dressing. I started using more of those in my wardrobe too and now cannot imagine going back to “boring” (lol!) black! Copied or influenced? Its all how one views it in the end and the spin one puts on their perception of “styles”.
Interestingly I find myself more and more just flipping through the fashion magazines and deciding not to buy them. What fashion dictates as “in” or “out” no longer really interests me at all. I”d rather spend my time and money looking at art, fashion history books and listening to music that influences my mood as to how I dress. Oh, and Anthropologie catalogs are a never-ending source of artsy-inspiration.
lol.
I’m really looking forward to reading the comments as this discussion continues… its such an interesting perspective. I say down with trends and up with style!!
April 20 2007 at 9:13 pm
risacriticizing trends just because they are trends reminds me of when i was in high school and i would stopped listening to a band if it made it onto the mainstream radio stations. back then, it was important to me to be different just for the sake of being different. then i grew up a bit and realized that if music is good (to me), it is good and it doesn’t matter if it’s a top 40 hit or its an obscure release from an indie band. the same is true with fashion. if it’s good for me, it’s good. it shouldn’t matter if no one else is wearing it or if everyone is…
i don’t mind trendbashers who are truly not into fashion, but what really irks me is those who are into fashion, which usually means that although they might deny, they themselves are following trends.
April 21 2007 at 7:12 am
LineI think you’re right, it is all totally financially motivated. I don’t really buy fashion magazines anymore (apart from Lula!) because I always get that horrible, nagging feeling afterwards that I’ve got to buy something. Plus the editorial content is usually really dull.
April 21 2007 at 2:20 pm
Miss ShooI too couldn’t agree more. I’m a person who follows no trend, but I still indulge in magazines, and their editorials. None of it has any impact on me, because I’m pretty much set in my ever-changing ways. I tend to dress for me, and if someone likes it or finds it a faux pas, or passe — then well that’s their right. I spend less time on trends, and more on style. I’m really very old fashion in, I prefer for my clothes to be an extention of me, tell a story, but you’ll still have to dig a bit deeper to truly know me. I wish more felt like that.
In the end, you put it far more eloquently than I could’ve.
April 21 2007 at 2:51 pm
mjI follow trends just to see what new ideas are being introduced in fashion. I’m hesitant to join in, though, because I hate the idea of disposable fashion and want to make sure it won’t be something I get tired of after three months of wearing. My personal style goes through cycles- sometimes they match up with fashion cycles, and sometimes they don’t.
April 21 2007 at 3:52 pm
allyI totally agree. I think dissing things like leggings, tunics or 80’s style asymetry….you name it…is just silly and adds to fear-based fashion choices that most people make. And those are never interesting. No matter what the look, somone can pull it off. I’m convinced of this.
And what if something isn’t a good idea? Shouldn’t we be allowed to make mistakes? Is that part of playing and being whimsical?
Sometimes I get nervous when something I love gets played out– it saturates the public sphere and recontextualizes something so it becomes harder to wear comfortably.
I used to love the combination of pink and black. Or stars, or hearts on things. Or even skulls, but I’m so tired of seeing these things played out in really infatilized ways on the high street. I’ve had to try harder to make them mine.
April 22 2007 at 6:01 am
MelissaYES!! AMEN!! Totally with you!! love your site!! RIGHT ON!!!
April 22 2007 at 6:40 am
Sonia LunaI agree with the general sentiment here … blindly following trends is just not for me, I haven’t bought a fashion magazine is years, simply because I use to spend too much money on them and now I rather buy a second hand book which will last much longer and feed my brain! Obviously, as I don’t live in a bubble, I get influenced by trends all the same,: a shape that is current, colours, but they have to suit my overall style and personality and I would never wear something just because it is “in fashion” right now, and if I love something and it goes “out of fashion” (hate that expression, by the way) then who cares, I’m certainly not gonna stop wearing it … what’s gonna happend: the fashion police will come get me?
April 22 2007 at 9:48 am
sarah- trends and trend bashers are both part of the same system, which for the most part, should not divert any large amount of energy or attention
- fashion is used both to distinguish from and to identify with other people/groups/ideas. just as one person may need to be current and astute to achieve credibility, someone else may need to imitate and conform. it’s not what people wear, it’s why.
- originality lies not in doing what has never been done, but in doing what you have to do. i feel that if you do what you really feel, no one can reproduce it.
April 22 2007 at 3:33 pm
SusanI am not a huge follower of trends, but rather, I just try to stick to what I feel good in and in stuff that at least makes me look neat, clean and like I paid attention to my appearance.
I wasn’t going to buy into the leggings/tunic thing because I was paying attention to the, “I wore it the first time around”-mantra (from the late 80s-ish, early 90s era, I think). Ah, but I like the look and it can be flattering. And I don’t care that the major fashion houses introduced the look and I am buying into it. No big deal. It’s only clothing and trends are made to be tried and discarded.
But I do wish I had not succumbed to the Duran Duran-style haircuts in the 80s like everyone else. That was definitely not a good idea. Let’s just say my brother’s decision to call me Mushroom Head was not inaccurate.
April 22 2007 at 6:46 pm
lebonbonIm with you all the way sister!
April 23 2007 at 1:40 pm
MaryI have a blog all about trend-bashing (http://ripittoshreds.blogspot.com/) because I hate everyone mindlessly wearing the popular thing. At the same time, I love trends, because they introduce new things I haven’t even considered wearing. Trends should inspire people to personalize what’s popular, or ignore them if they don’t work, never to follow slavishly or wear blindly because they saw someone else do it.
But we don’t live in a cultural vacuum, and I don’t think it’s always possible to ignore the history of a trend when wearing it. Clothing is a signifier, and I personally can’t take it totally out of context and judge it purely on its own, especially when the clothing is super-trendy. But if more people took fashion out of a current/not current thing, and just wore what was flattering and creative, we wouldn’t have to take pains about whether out clothes are trendy or not.
April 23 2007 at 4:55 pm
jennineoh dear… i can hardly muster the energy to trend bash, it’s much more fun to be inspired. i think part of it, a large part is insecurity, fear, uncertainty, external feedback loop… insert self-help reason here_____
it may be just a part of learning how to cultivate style, loving a look, hating it, wanting to be accepted, rebeling. It takes time and maturity to sort that stuff out. Besides, after seeing a number of cycles come and go, it ceases to be relevant to the actual things that matter in life. I read in Vouge once, “Fashion is at best a lovely distraction.” I can’t remeber what it is at it’s worst… but i’d probably say… a distraction.
April 23 2007 at 10:16 pm
soon leeFor every trendbasher, there’s a genuine style lover. Takes all kinds to make the world. I vote for opinions over indifference anytime. http://soonlee.wordpress.com
April 26 2007 at 6:27 pm
KateI think some trends deserve to be bashed.
Oversized graphic tees seem to be huge in the UK now, after those house of holland tees were out a while ago, and with this Klaxons/new rave/neon scene, i saw a £15 topshop tee with SAVE THE RAVE on it sell for £62 on ebay. What is worse is they have one out with same graphic but saying “I started this trend”. That trend makes me want to puke.
April 28 2007 at 12:45 pm
Painfully Hip » fashion revolution! trend takedown! power to personal style![...] while i’m at it, here are a few uber-inspiring reads on similar subjects. vive la revolution! “let’s, once and for all, bash the trendbashing.” by tricia royal for bits and bobbins “i’m not cool:” an argument for safety and finding your own personal style by Gemma Cartwright for Catwalk Queen [...]