The Fashion of the Past and Future

Image Courtesy: Neatorama

The word, “nostalgia”, comes from the Greek words, “nostos,” which means “return,” and “algos,” which means “pain”. So, by definition, to feel nostalgia literally means to “return to pain.” In this context, it might seem strange that nostalgia is something that people seek out, whether it be in the media they consume or the memories they hold most dear. Many older people nostalgically recall “the good old days,” usually commenting on better music, film, pop culture, politics, and more from times past.

An industry where this attitude is very prevalent is fashion. The most active, modern neighborhoods are likely to have a vintage clothing store selling oversized t-shirts with tacky designs on them of a fun run from thirty years ago, an old band your dad likes, or an NBA player that retired twenty-five years ago for at least $70. For less affluent consumers, second-hand stores like Goodwill, which source their clothing from donations, have become the fashionable place to shop for similarly nostalgic styles. But online is where most prefer to purchase products, and the prevalence of vintage style stretches into the internet with sites like SHEIN and Depop being epicenters of fashionable clothes inspired by or created in decades past.

Why is this? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Despite the seemingly sudden wave of nostalgia for fashion from the “old days,” this habit of using old clothes in modern fashion is nothing new. However, in the past, the primary reason for this was practical instead of aesthetic. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most clothing was made by hand. This meant clothing could not be mass-produced to the extent it is now, so disposing of clothes that had been outgrown or worn was much less pragmatic than giving them to younger members of a family or repairing them when needed.

Practical reasons for the reuse of clothing after the Industrial Revolution usually were in response to times of crisis like economic depression, war, and environmental decay. However, recently, the appeal of vintage clothing is mostly aesthetic. Pop culture is often what has spurred the most recent era of hip, old clothing. The early 2000s saw celebrities wear vintage clothing to red carpets bringing visibility to the practice. However, what seems to be the most significant factor in the modern vintage trend is period film and television.

Image Courtesy: AMC

The incredibly popular and award-winning series, Mad Men (2007-2015), about advertisers in the 1960s sparked an increase in interest and sales in clothing from the era. A more recent and prominent example is Netflix's smash hit television series, Stranger Things (2016-present), which depicts supernatural happenings in a small town in Indiana in the 1980s and became the start of a newfound nostalgia for the eighties for people who had not even been born during the show’s period. With each subsequent season breaking records on the streaming platform, brand tie-ins came from all directions; from Domino’s pizza creating a series of commercials and styles of their boxes relating to the era of the show to Coca-Cola bringing back the defunct New Coke, to most importantly, clothing brands bringing back their clothing from the 80s and creating new 80s-inspired styles in response to the revived popularity. This phenomenon isn’t just limited to eras people can remember. Shows like Bridgerton and movies like Little Women (2019) did their part to popularize Victorian-era clothing as well.

Image Courtesy: Netflix

Clothing from eras past is as popular as ever and it doesn’t seem like the trend is going away any time soon. For young people who are the primary demographic for new fashion trends, it is a way of connecting to a time they could never experience. A time their parents maybe lived in or a time when their beloved fictional characters did. The first thing we notice about people is the clothes they choose to wear on their bodies, and since the fashion industry is run by adults whose job it is to market to the young, why wouldn’t they want to be surrounded by the clothes they grew up wearing and seeing all around them?

Strike Out,

Writer: Matias Civita

Editor: Cristina Angee

Tallahassee