Not Only Does Gen Z Dress Like Our Mothers, but We Decorate Like Our Grandmothers

Image Courtesy: Architectural Digest

Fashion withstands the test of time through its constant recycling of decades past. I’m wearing the clothes that rival photos of my mother’s outfits in the late 90s. In those photos, she’s wearing the clothes of her mother’s time in the 70s. In fashion, teens and young adults always dress for rebellion without even realizing they’re dressing just like their parents decades before.

However, a new trend is rising among Gen Z in unprecedented fashion. Rather than decorating like our mothers, we’ve skipped a generation by fully embracing the interior design of our grandmothers. Also known as “grandmillennial” style, young people are partaking in a rising movement where they contemporize popular pieces from their grandparents’ time. The comeback is explicitly rooted in the interior design of the 70s, Vogue recently noted. After all, there’s nothing Gen Z loves more than nostalgia, and perhaps this cozy design trend is a subliminal desire to cling to our childhoods, or perhaps escapism from the hospital-esque minimalism that plagued the 2010s.

Image Courtesy: Love Happens Magazine

We’re ditching the white walls and sleek gray countertops devoid of personality for new colors and patterns. Our floors will be wood instead of gray laminate, our couches will seek brighter shades, and mason jars will be sent straight to the local Goodwill. This is not your mother’s interior design article from Good Housekeeping. Instead, this trend is a revival of our grandmothers’ interior design choices from the 70s. This return to the 70s will include a burgeoning increase in houseplants, warm tones, experimental patterns, and most importantly, a return to color in the home.

We are the generation to plunge into 70s retro Earth tones, preferring to fill our houses with material things. Just a scroll through Urban Outfitters, one can see fun patterns, childlike animal objects, and knickknacks that could be found at Goodwill for cheaper prices. In many ways, Gen Z’s creative expression through interior design represents our significant departure from eras past. As we push the boundaries of gender, sexuality, class, and race, it’s no surprise that Gen Z prefers to pay homage to the experimentation of the 70s. As generations prior preach that we should have as few belongings as possible, young people today recognize material goods as important aspects of making a home.

Image Courtesy: Wall Street Journal

Of course, we can’t push boundaries after spending the last decade with white-washed walls, barn decor, polished silvers, and an era of extreme minimalism. Gen Zers will paint over the gray walls with oranges, greens, and yellows and install earthly golds on their cabinets. 2016’s hit television show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, is already lost in Netflix’s bottomless pit of streaming content. Instead, this generation consumes maximalist interior design TikToks, buying “stuff” the way our grandmothers did 50 years ago.

In all honesty, I’ve already added lava lamps and multicolored pots to my Amazon cart for my apartment next year. I’m mindlessly scrolling online for fake Target plants that can breathe artificial life through my sophomore year apartment (I may be inheriting my grandmother’s style, but I did not inherit her gardening abilities). I’m looking for embroidered things, disco balls, and bohemian earth-toned rugs. I am a lover of “stuff,” much like the generations who came before me.

Strike Out,

Writer: Hannah Musiak

Editor: Karina McCarthy

Tallahassee