From Generation X to Generation Y, everyone is changing with the styles – which is sort of standing still. This is why my fellow Y’s and I love to repeat fashion.
Two photographs are etched into my personal fashion memory. In the first, a yellow tinted Polaroid with the caption, Kathleen ‘77, in the bottom blank white space, my mom wears a pair of authentic, high-waisted bell-bottom denim pants with a clean white cotton peasant blouse. The outfit effortlessly encompasses what she stood for when she was 17: minimalism and strength. I ask for those jeans every time I look at the photo. In the other, my sister shows off red, polished, patent leather Dr. Marten boots that look even shinier due to the high-gloss coming off the 4 by 6 Kodak print. She sports the boots along with a purposely, mismatched oversize purple flannel that truly exemplifies her teenage angst. I’ve gone through our attic multiple times searching for those boots.
My inner fashion identity crisis yearns to wear the Doc Marten’s from 1997 with the bell-bottoms from 1977; while I would usually discourage myself from listening to that said identity crisis because they are conflicting styles, I’ve come to realize that I don’t have to anymore. Thanks to the ever-revolutionizing fashion industry, we live in a state of ‘anything goes’ from any decade for any shopper. And for that, I thank my generation.
More than ever, shoppers are liberated from the traditional restraints of choosing one style and now have free range to roam all different corners of the fashion industry’s closet. There’s no need to throw the term “poser” at someone who may be Channel chic on Thursday then Betsey Johnson mad come Saturday night. This is simply a luxury that Generation Y has created to appease their many faces.
Millennia’s, or Generation Y, consist of the roughly 70 million people born between 1981 and 1998. This generation has subtle trait differences between their fashion frontiers, Generation X, who were born between 1965 and 1980. Generation X, comprised of cherished style icons such as Tom Ford and Kate Spade, accepted diversity, were self-reliant, and chose to reject the rules in order to dominate their time with having the proper life. Juxtaposing them, Gen Y’s are characterized by celebrating diversity, using the power of self-invention, and having a strong preference to rewrite the rules, which leads to over-consumption with having the proper lifestyle. The Y’s have to thank their forerunners for everything we know about fashion, because the X’s trends are merely the building blocks to what exists now. Repeat, restyle, reshoot, re-wear and call it your own. But what makes the Millennia’s love to love the versatile retro-inspired archetypal lifestyle of their predecessors? Authors Diane Thielfoldt and Devon Scheef, who wrote Generation X and The Millennials: What You Need to Know About Mentoring the New Generations, say, “Perhaps it’s because of the showers of attention and high expectations from parents that they display a great deal of self confidence”. From that confidence, stems the idea that we don’t have to be just one person, and we are free from judgment if we chose to claim multiple styles as our own. This exuding fashion confidence is also because every decade is present in the industry at this time, which ultimately gives us our choices.
Banana Republic recently launched a capsule collection inspired by AMC’s Mad Men with 60s time-machine pieces like tailored trench coats and silk tie-neck blouses. Designers like Mark Jacobs and Milly Paige currently give a nod to the 70s with high-waisted flare trousers and pocketbook styled shoulder bags in various shades of tans and browns. From Trina Turk to Forever21, we have all incorporated a staple boyfriend blazer into our must haves collections, structured from the 80s only more tailored in the shoulders but still every bit as baggy. You can also find women wearing fitted, spandex skirts, like Neiman Marcus’ Rag & Bone, that hug in all the right places with a loose crop-top to set balance to the outfit, paying true homage to the days of Kelly Taylor’s heightened 90210 fame in the 1990s. We like label the reuse of old fashions as “retro” but one thing all self-inventive Y’s wonder is, is that actually synonymous with, ‘we’re just out of fresh ideas’?
Dr. Jeanie Lim, Associate Professor of retail and consumer science at the University of Tennessee, says that “retro” doesn’t mean simply just sticking to comfortable preferences and old designs, but that we must understand it from a nostalgia standpoint. “I don’t think that you can say that we’re ‘reproducing’ or ‘copying’ old designs. If you have a closer look at current ‘retro’ fashion, the theme comes from old ideologies and fashion trends but they come with a touch of new generations such as minimalism and techno elements. In my opinion, nothing comes from nothing, but stems and evolves from the extant ones.” Lim reverts to the Generation Y characteristics such as self-invention and rewriting the rules, to compare to the same way we rewrite fashion. Not just fashion, but what fashion says about oneself…or what it doesn’t say.
Through Generation Y’s affection for diversity, we have abandoned the concept of style being correlated with moral, economic or personal stances but rather on trendiness. Fur is a constant and prime example of this idea. Bernadine Morris wrote a June 1986 New York Times article, “The Furrier’s Secret: A 15-year boom,” stating the unbroken climb in fur popularity and purchases since 1971. Then we see a reemergence of the pelts in an October 1997NYT piece; fashion writer Jennifer Steinhauer wrote “Fur Is Coming Out of the Fashion Industry’s Closet”. The article highlights fur making a comeback by riding on the shoulders Naomi Campbell on the Fendi runway, filling retail powerhouse’s racks like Nordstrom’s and Neiman Marcus, and gracing the cover of Vogue’s September issue that year. “Fashion is once again placing its bets on fur, so recently a pariah in the industry,” said Steinhauer. Fur a constant variable in every fashion decade, as are the protestors.
In 1991, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), launched its “Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign using the faces of indispensable 90s stars like Kim Basinger, Christy Turlington and Kurt Cobain to raise awareness about the millions of animals harmed to make fur coats. By the late 90s it was no more acceptable to wear fur, than it was to admit you like Alanis Morissette. In a February 2000 New York Times editorial, Trip Gabriel recounted the animal cruelty protesting at runway shows in “Fur Protestors Interrupt Shows, but Barely.” Gabriel describes, “… a protester who aimed red paint from a juice bottle at a fur-wearing model in the Randolph Duke show…following an attack by tofu cream pie at the Michael Kors show Wednesday, and the unfurling of banners reading ”Fur Shame” at the Oscar de la Renta show Tuesday.” During this time, wearing fur meant you were stating that you do not care about animal rights, and all others were animal rights activists. However, once again fur is back. Fur-lined hoods, vests and coats are much more prominent in stores again, but for some reason, Generation Y does not feel the need to choose a side on the eternal war on fur.
Erin Ciarella says, “The way it comes across is that this generation is morally devoid when it comes to fashion, they’ll wear anything to express themselves, regardless of harm. In regards to the difference between the 90’s being more socially conscious of how their style affected their surroundings.” Ciarella remarked that Millenia’s don’t appear as infatuated with brands as past ones and that curtails from their confidence in themselves to “work an outfit without being concerned about money or what others will think.” Fashion is much more fluid than it once was; there is not such clear-cut groups of styles because Generation Y has changed that for everyone.
So ultimately, we have the ability to decide who we want to be that day by what we put on. Are you going to be a big-eyed, bold Edie Sedgwick; a racy, bombshell Farrah Fawcett; a troubled yet intelligent Molly Ringwald; or an sex icon like Christina Applegate circa Married with Children? The choice is yours, because we’re the middle children of fashion, after all.