The Repressed Are Returning To Fashion
It’s no surprise that velour, Von Dutch, and all things low-rise are making a comeback.
The reintroduction of low-rise jeans may have broke individuals. Every aughts fad had a high-fashion moment by then, from UGGs to Juicy Couture sweatsuits, with the former working with “It” names like Telfar and Molly Goddard, and the latter with Vetements couture and Parade. TikTok are even enjoying Ed Hardy’s vast work. This season, Koché collaborated with Von Dutch on trucker hats, bowling bags, and T-shirts. (Designer Christelle Kocher cited Britney, Justin, and Paris as influences.)
But thigh-skimming denim was a no go. On Twitter, one user claimed she was reacting “like a vampire to a tanning bed.” In a three-part TikTok series by Carly Aquilino, a distraught lady bemoans “the absurdly wide belts” and “layering” of Y2K style, while pictures of Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera flash behind her. The oddities of the period are a chasm we fear returning to.
But there’s not much you can do about it. For the first time, Gen Z is wearing trucker hats, while Gen X’ers like Kim Kardashian are returning to the velour sweatsuit for her SKIMS brand. No other 2000s craze wowed us like a crystal-encrusted Razr. (Those, too, are back.) While no one is forced to wear something they don’t like just because it’s back in style demonstrates a lack of knowledge of how fashion works. Every age brings back things we’d relegated to our metaphorical donation bin. Freud would love it.
How The Repressed Are Returning To Fashion? Even 2010’s style appears to be gaining in popularity, defying the traditional adage that anything is “vintage” after 20 years. The return of the Isabel Marant wedge shoe in June sparked interest in vintage Gossip Girl style. (Silk skirts with balloon hemlines and round-toe Mary Jane shoes may come next.)
When Addison Rae wears a trucker hat, she is unlikely to be aware of the item’s Kitson-era background. But, from afar, the concern may be rooted in the time’s less-than-enlightened body standards (low-rise jeans were often associated with Britney abs), the inherent classism of some trends (like trucker hats, worn by celebrities and fashion people as a kind of working-class cosplay), or even their association with sexism. Our connections aren’t only with the clothing, but with the setting.
Given the pandemic’s duration, many individuals had time to indulge in nostalgia and reassess what they used to enjoy, which explains the current fashion trend of reviving old favorites over new ones.
But it’s not simply nostalgia motivating this. It’s our ambiguous connection to the era. It’s frequently an indication that we didn’t deal with something correctly the first time, which is why these patterns aren’t random recurrences. It’s no accident that they’ve resurfaced as we re-evaluate so much about this era. When old, regressive notions of gender gained root in the Backlash ’80s, they brought with them a variety of ’50s revivals that evoked another suppressed period. As we reflect back on an age that gave us reality TV and social media, we wonder how it molded and maybe hurt us. And now that the past is readily available through Netflix, Google, or Instagram, it’s never truly gone.
To re-accept and maybe even appreciate these garments again, we must confront what they previously represented and what they signify today. A new, less restricted approach to fashion is needed, according to designer and LVMH Prize candidate Conner Ives, who told me earlier this year that “the entire notion of what we can and can’t do” is being discarded. Maybe we can all embrace them like TikTokers. The Repressed Are Returning To Fashion