My eyes always light up at showroom windows when I pass them. I thoroughly enjoy online window shopping while Wendy Williams’s “Hot Topics” plays on the background but for the life of me I find myself always stuck in the routine of repeating the most comfortable pieces in my wardrobe. They aren’t necessarily unfashionable, but they are exact pieces that I overly admire. They are functional with a moderate amount of personality. At 30, I find myself unable to be the same person I was at 25 years old.
I crave comfort like never before. I have come to appreciate modest clothing that doesn’t necessarily need my body to help it perform. My husband calls me a serial returner because I am incredibly selective about what I want to keep from an online shopping haul. I knowingly buy clothing made from polyester, scuba material, lycra or viscose. The material itches my skin. I no longer buy poor quality fast fashion jeans despite how trendy the cuts are because the truth is my fashion sense exists in two alter egos: the one that wants to imagine and the one that is real and that has to function. It might be age or the maturity that comes with it, but you always begin to rationalize your choices more consciously.
It is one of the main reasons why we see a repetition of trends particularly the ones we deem as old fashioned or vintage style. Two examples are corduroy, and mom styled jeans. Corduroy, which was mostly popular from the 1970s to the early 2000s and is said to get its name from the French phrase corde du roi (king’s cord in English), has really been around for centuries and now seems to be a staple piece in everyone’s wardrobe. I suppose it’s because of its casually sophisticated look and gentle texture on the skin. Then there is mom styled jeans (detested by most men everywhere), but also set to be a staple. Gaining its popularity from moms in the 1980s with its unflattering and semi-boxy look, mom jeans are probably one of the easiest styles and very multi-functional.
According to Amy Leverton, a trend forecaster and author of Denim: Street Style, Vintage, Obsession, so-called Mom Jeans — with “the high, nipped-in waist and roomy butt, thighs and hips, then a taper, done in stonewash or acid wash” — weren’t always such a joke. When the look first made an appearance in the late 1980s, it was a reference to the “starlet silhouettes” seen on curvaceous ladies such as Marilyn Monroe, explains Leverton. “The style was modernized in a very different way, but the attitude was definitely this pinup sort of vibe,” she tells The Post.
It is said that fashion choices change with age, but I think it is more appropriate to say that they change with lifestyles. While we may get older some of us may have more time to indulge or perhaps lead more hectic lives with children. It is not age that really elevates styles or transcends them, it is our lives and it is by this we see the permanent resurfacing of certain trends and fabrics facilitated by our hyper connected digital world.
http://instagram.com/theonlinerunway
