Fashion has gone out of fashion
In the UK the more tight style of t-shirt and trousers, influenced by 60s mod and 60s/70s pop style in general, came back into fashion in the mid 90s. The most interesting thing about that is that it never went away again... not so far anyway. That's now more than 20 years ago, and that 60's/70s tight style is still normal for young guys (some of whom werent even born in the mid 90s).
We are in a very odd time for fashion for two aspects:
1. That styles last for so long now. Until the mid 90s they normally changed every 3 or 4 years, sometimes quite drastically (compare the big difference in hairstyles from 1964 to 1968). Nowadays we see no or next to no change...even over 20 years. Although I’m kind of happy about the style now, as i like 60s style, it seems a bad thing that no other style from the street up has come along, and certainly this is very unusual in post war pop culture.
In the UK the more tight style of t-shirt and trousers, influenced by 60s mod and 60s/70s pop style in general, came back into fashion in the mid 90s. The most interesting thing about that is that it never went away again... not so far anyway. That's now more than 20 years ago, and that 60's/70s tight style is still normal for young guys (some of whom werent even born in the mid 90s).
We are in a very odd time for fashion for two aspects:
1. That styles last for so long now. Until the mid 90s they normally changed every 3 or 4 years, sometimes quite drastically (compare the big difference in hairstyles from 1964 to 1968). Nowadays we see no or next to no change...even over 20 years. Although I’m kind of happy about the style now, as i like 60s style, it seems a bad thing that no other style from the street up has come along, and certainly this is very unusual in post war pop culture.
2. The other interesting point is how most young people now have almost no awareness of the style categories or origins of the clothes they are wearing. The average young Japanese male worker, just to take one example, now is dressed head to foot in a 60s/70s influenced style…but with no awareness of that at all.
The shoes are 60s long thin winkle picker style, the jackets and coats are short, tight, ‘bum freezer’ styles that originally were French and Italian style and become cool in London in the early 60s… the trousers are mod style tight and lay just above the shoes in a ‘boot cut’ style….and the little briefcase/bags are 60s/70s style…’skinny fits’ shirts of mid 60s style, with mod type buttons and collars, etc.
But if you ask them about it (as i have!) 95% of them have absolutely no idea of any of that. They just wear it cause its fashionable now. That is a marked difference on the past. If you had asked a London mod in 1963, a skinhead in 1971, a punk in 77, etc 'what's with this X style you wear?' you would have still be there 15 minutes later while they went into all the details...
This decline in clothes awareness also seems to be a bad thing. Most people now follow fashion sheepishly, rather than changing it themselves as was more than case in the past.
in my case when i was 17 and getting deeply into 1960s music and fashion it spurred me on to read about it and research it and check old photos and movies etc, and learn about the styles… in a way that after 5 or 10 years of it means that you become a mini-expert. So, why do most young people now - despite the time and money they spend on consumerism - know next to nothing about the fashions they wear?
One element that people say now is that modern technology has created a generation with a short attention span. That is a common idea, but i wonder how true it is. I dont see a fundamental difference in some kids seeing a pair of shoes on instagram, to some kid seeing shoes in a pop magazine in 1967. Yes the young kid now can see many other images simply with a flick of their finger on their iphone. But couldn't that young kid in 1967 also just flip over the page of the magazine? The lack of attention' aspect MAY be true, or it may just be a popular myth. I wonder how we can measure if it has actually decreased or not?
Another common idea is that the ease of hi-tech gadgets makes us appreciate stuff less. Now we can download a whole rare RnB album, in seconds. In the mid 60s the kids had to know some merchant sailor who had brought over some rare RnB albums from the USA. Or hunt around the shops for that much sought after paid of shoes. Or get the suit tailor made, etc. Now its all easily available and so we value it less. That sounds reasonable.
But, we could look it from another point of view: since a wide range of music and fashion is now more easily available shouldn't that INCREASE the amount of people who get into it? There are now less barriers of time and expense therefore more people should be doing it, no? More young people should be exploring a wide range of fashions, that thy can easily check online. The average 20 year old should have a wide ranger of musical knowledge. Because they can, while relaxing in the comfort of their own room, listen on youtube to a rare psychedelic song from 1967, then Bob Marley's and the Wailers first single, then a WW11 big band tune, then an acid house song from the late 80s, then the new song by Lady Gaga and then a Frank Sinatra single from 1953. They could do all that, easily, in inside one hour, for next to no cost. Yet, somehow 90% of them don't.
As to the lack of young people creating their own styles now: it's possible that people feel they have 'done something' by just online commenting or posting (like me now!), so they dont need to create other stuff as much. But, on the other hand, the easy availability of technology can also be a vehicle for creative expression which should result in more, not less, youth style activity and range and even attention span.... so it seems to me that other issues going on are here, beyond mere technology.
Another comment often made in relation to fashion is that there are plenty of young designers doing interesting things. I agree with that. I was 'in' the fashion designer scene in London before in the late 90s and early 2000s, filming it and sometimes modelling too (just because friends asked me too model their clothes, im not keen on modelling either!) and there was a LOT of energy at the grassroots level, with various folk having distinctive styles (like the clothes style or or not, they had energy to do stuff, and that is the key point here). BUT, their energy had very little spread out into mass youth culture.
So, a key thing in fashion nowadays is that styles change very slowly, almost to the point of complete stagnation. Certainly far less rapidly and radically than they used too. If we look at what young folk wore in the streets and bars in London 20 years ago its pretty close to what folk wear now. There are some small changes, but if we took a photo - on the same camera - of, young folk drinking in London in 2001 and another of them now, it wouldnt be easy to say which was which. But if it was 1960 compared to 1980 or 1970 compared to 1990 then we would see the differences - in an instant. A fundamental cultural shift has taken place in how quickly fashion changes. It used to change very quickly, now it changes very slowly, hardly at all.
Some say, 'Oh fashion has changed, its just that older folk dont see it'. That seems like an obvious explanation, but i dont think it's the case. As a test have a look at these four photos below - two of them are from 2008 and two of them are from 2018. Can you tell which two are from 2018? I bet most people can not.
Very tough to spot which is which, right?
Ok, lets extend the time even more. Two of these photos below are of people out drinking in 2001, and two of them are from 2019, before the pandemic. Even with 18 years of difference can you tell which is which?
Again, its pretty tough to call it. The clothes, the hair styles etc are very similar, even with a whole 18 years in between.
By comparison, here below are four photos from 1960, 1965, 1970 and 1977. Surely everyone can see, right away, that the styles are very different. Not only can we clearly see the difference that 10 years made, we can even see the difference that only 5 years made.
By comparison, here below are four photos from 1960, 1965, 1970 and 1977. Surely everyone can see, right away, that the styles are very different. Not only can we clearly see the difference that 10 years made, we can even see the difference that only 5 years made.
Nowadays a 5 year time gap makes almost no difference in hair or clothes styles at all. In my view there has been very little change for 20 years, certainly in comparison to the norm in the 50s, 60s,70s and 80s. This is a very odd thing, which we have never seen before in the post war world in the UK, France, Japan, US, etc. Is it good or bad? Probably mostly bad, but there are some positive aspects to it.
The lack of knowledge about fashion and music, however, is definitely bad.
Learn-ify yourself young folks! Explore music and fashion more. You'll be bigger and better and cooler for it.