When I think of 60’s and 70’s style, I think of clothing styles that had never before been worn. Fashion was about being young and bright and it became a way of shaking off the drab shadows of a previous generation’s wars and enjoying youth to the fullest.
Now, when I think of words like “fashionable” and “trendy,” they mean something very different.
Today, fashion and creativity are polar opposites. Stylish clothes are no longer an artistic expression, they’re just something we’re forced to look at in malls.
“In past decades, clothing designers were more in-tune with what was going on (culturally) and the fashion they produced reflected different atmospheres,” explains Monica Dawson-Walsh, a Toronto-based fragrance collector and critic. “Now it seems we’re being told what’s trendy rather than the other way around.”
The fashion world today is experiencing nostalgia, a longing for a time when new styles and trends were meaningful.
“A good example is the mini-skirt,” Dawson-Walsh says. “When (London designer) Mary Quant created the mini, it was like a cultural revolution- it was art.
There’s really nothing coming out right now equaling the impact that style had. The industry’s focus has shifted.”
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times announced that, in terms of style, Los Angeles would not look much different in the year 2030 than it does today.
This is because the fashion industry keeps peering over its shoulder at what it’s already accomplished.
The clothing of every era goneby seems to resurface in one form or another and culminates in the catch-all category of “retro.”
Retro is definitely a buzz-word right now and it seems to be capturing the imaginations of everyone, including the artistic community.
Stovepipe jeans, vintage T-shirts and high-top sneakers seem to have become the unofficial hipster dress code.
The problem is, if fashion is an art form, how long can it keep rehashing itself before losing its purpose?
“Personally, I think there’s (merit) in re-visiting old styles,” Dawson-Walsh explains, “but maybe they could be more of a reference point than a driving force.”
If you can walk down the street in 2004 and see exactly the same clothes you would have seen 20 years ago, are we declaring the era of throwback?
An article in this month’s Arena Magazine called for an end to nostalgia in fashion and I quite agree.
If fashion continues to return to the past, eventually it will become nothing more than a never-ending revival party.
Maybe our current style gurus should clear their heads from the past and get a new artistic vision.
To refresh fashion, get the young, hip and cool out of their pre-aged denim and into something completely new.
Retro is fine, but fashion has been simmering in its own juices for long enough.
After all, looking like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider doesn’t make you a creative person. It just makes you too lazy to shave.