Everything that goes out of style is just waiting around in exile until its badness has ripened into oblivion and somebody cool can then wear it and make it sing again. In this case, with the giant bug-eye sunglasses, we've got the Olsen twins looking just perfect and making you think you can wear those things again.
Meanwhile, what's been in style becomes seeable as ridiculous, which it always was, and the least cool people are the last to notice, which sends these things off into exile where they can wait until they're forgotten again. So save your "comically tiny" sunglasses — if you were ever in fashion enough to have acquired them — because you'll get the cue some day that they're snazzy again.
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Reminds me of something Warhol once said:
When a person is the beauty of their day, and their looks are really in style, and then the times change and tastes change, and ten years go by, if they keep exactly their same look and don't change anything and if they take care of themselves, they'll still be a beauty.
Schrafft's restaurants were the beauties of their day, and then they tried to keep up with the times and they modified and modified until they lost all their charm and were bought by a big company. But if they could just have kept their same look and style, and held on through the lean years when they weren't in style, today they'd be the best thing around. You have to hang on in periods when your style isn't popular, because if it's good, it'll come back, and you'll be
a recognized beauty once again.
My family noticed that two recent contestants on Jeopardy had glasses with one side round and the other side square. Waiting to read about this trend.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/k6zx5r/todays_jeopardy_contestants_glasses/
I'll keep my Porsche knockoff aviators, thank you. Let the metrosexuals have their silly fad.
Rebel -- wear a tinted face shield.
As someone who wears prescription glasses and, now, needs to have blended bifocal or progressive lenses...I CAN'T wait for the big glasses to come back in style.
LOL. I am "unfashionable". I have regular glasses and clip-on polarized sunglasses that flip up.
Ignoring the entire concept of why you wear sunglasses, shrink the lenses all you want.
Next up the bikini parka.
Fashion.... slavery to stupidity.
when i was growing up (in the late '70's); my mom had a subscription to NEWSWEEK
and every now and then, they'd put THE NEW FASHION on the cover
This was Super handy,
'cause IF/When you saw some fashion on the cover of NEWSWEEK; you knew that fashion was OVER!
Skinny sunglasses look hot on hot Japanese girls.
I am Laslo.
Holly Golightly set the fashion for shades once and for all.
In 1981 I bought a pair of Rayban light sensitive wire framed sunglasses, which lasted long enough for my daughter to borrow for her Halloween costume as Hunter S. Thomson. Yes, a 1960s sunglass style came back into popularity 15 years later. And then 15 years later, again, ironically. I have them still.
Fashion is silly. Still, people buy into it.
...somebody cool can then wear it and make it sing again. In this case, with the giant bug-eye sunglasses, we've got the Olsen twins looking just perfect and making you think you can wear those things again.
Note that the Olsen twins are not making it sing again. That picture is from 2008.
My fashion strategy is the same as my investment strategy - buy and hold and never try to time the market.
This claim about sunglasses is disputed.
My wife's got a closet-full of clothes with '80's shoulder pads, which she insists will come back some day.
I can't let her see this article.
What happened to self-darkening lenses? They were very popular years ago, and it seems like a great idea, but now you really need to look to find them.
What happened to self-darkening lenses?
I wear them. Sadly the visor on my motorcycle helmet blocks enough UV that they don't darken on my bike.
Handy elsewhere though.
Why does fashion always need to be impractical. It's as if usefulness itself is a taboo. That makes fashion dumb. Being practical is the real avant-garde, just as conservatism is the real counter culture today.
That isn't quite how fashion works, although occasionally some items will be considered vintage and thus desirable.
More often, those elements of fashion come in and out of vogue (large vs. small lenses, low or high hemlines, etc.), but your old clothing or sunglasses won't be in style, you need the newest, improved versions of those elements from the latest designers or you will be considered hopelessly outdated.
Wear what you like. You'll find someone that still makes it.
Why does fashion always need to be impractical.
It's to demonstrate that the wearer does not need to labor or toil. Veblen probably touched on it.
So save your "comically tiny" sunglasses — if you were ever in fashion enough to have acquired them — because you'll get the cue some day that they're snazzy again.
Except those really aren't 90's sunglasses.
These are 90's sunglasses. (90's gun, too!)
And who could forget....
But that's what happens when people who were born in 1997 try to be authorities on 90's fashions.
Fashion is a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
Classics elude fashion. I wear the same style and brand of sunglasses I wore forty years ago. Suits and sport coats bought forty years ago still in use. Ditto shoes that are decades old.
Since the purpose of fashion is to keep us all on a hedonic treadmill where we're forever dis-satisfied with whatever we were satisfied with yesterday, it hardly seems dishonorable to just get off the damn thing. After all, no matter how fast you run on a treadmill you're still not going anywhere.
And, yes, the truly annoying part of fashion isn't so much the constant pressure to replace things that are still perfectly usable but that so much of the primary functionality of things gets sacrificed in order to make these things fashionable.
Darrell said...
Wear what you like. You'll find someone that still makes it.
************
Correct. My bespoke codpiece gets lots of compliments.
Elton John sets the fashion for women’s sunglasses.
"Stupid looking sunglasses... make me go berserk!"
Fashion is a liberal parody of a fickle orientation.
The rhinestone encrusted glasses shown here are in the link as an example of "comically tiny" glasses. And they cost $1,105.
I'll keep wearing my aviation-style sunglasses. Along with a cap to keep the overhead glare from annoying me. I spit on fashonistas. They're not worth a warm bucket of p*s.
Too 70s for me.
Here's a hint for any designer - form follows function. I've never found the "hey look at me, I've got money and I'm stupid" look all that attractive. In any decade.
Why does fashion always need to be impractical. It's as if usefulness itself is a taboo. That makes fashion dumb. Being practical is the real avant-garde, just as conservatism is the real counter culture today.
Poetry, man. Truth.
High fashion is so... the impracticality of elite fashion is lost on the Hunger Games left.
DBQ - As someone who wears prescription glasses and, now, needs to have blended bifocal or progressive lenses...I CAN'T wait for the big glasses to come back in style.
Same.
I live in my progressive Maui Jim sunglasses. I splurge every few years with a new pair. I love em.
I now wear the largest lens design/style they created... and I get all sorts of compliments.
I want even larger lenses... as geeky as I can find.
Anyway - don't wait... just do it.
***I don't want large lenses for style - I want to protect my aging eyeballs. If I look like a geek - all the better.
Why does fashion always need to be impractical. It's as if usefulness itself is a taboo. That makes fashion dumb. Being practical is the real avant-garde, just as conservatism is the real counter culture today.
That's a misunderstanding of fashion that is driven largely by public perception of bizarre runway shows or highly editorial fashion photography. Those looks are not designed to be worn as regular clothes in day-to-day. If you go into a high-end fashion boutique, you won't find those looks on the hangers. No store could stay in business that way. Those looks are meant primarily to convey the designer's aesthetic and what themes and styles one could expect in his or her ready-to-wear pieces.
That said, fashion trends are the bête noire of good style. Looking trendy and looking stylish are very different. Good style conveys that you have put some thought into what you are wearing and how to wear it. Jean are a classic example whose proportions are constantly affected by trends--high-waisted, low-rise, boot-cut, skinny, wide-legged, flared, etc. A good pair of dark jeans that fit your body well will always look good no matter what trends the fashion industry is pushing any season. The point of fashion media is to get people to spend money on their advertiser's products. Status and conspicuous consumption drive a lot of it.
So many words...
The point of fashion is to sell fashion.
While I would like to shop the couture section of Neiman Marcus, I'm content with a simple wardrobe. That said, a work mate pal (male) asked me why I wear the same thing everyday. Blue jeans, white T-shirt + either light jacket and a scarf or a necklace to liven it up. The jeans and the white t-shirt are the same, day after day. My closet is a sea of white t-shirts.
my answer:
Louise Bourgeois.
&
All that dry cleaning... No thank you.
& - Have you ever shopped for women's clothing? It's a dreadful experience. Most trends are abysmal. While I do recognize and know a well put together ensemble when I see one - and I am mildly envious of the fashion sense and bank account it takes to pull that off - I have no luck when I try it. So - I decided to tell the fashion industry what I tell Hollywood. F.U.
Love the eyeglasses pic in the post. The minute I saw them I thought of Dame Edna. You couldn't swing a dead cat without coming across her (Barry Humphries) on some chat show throughout the 80s.
What always amuses me is the constant conflation of 'fashion' with 'style'. Fashion is for the young, who are always searching for the latest trend. Fleeting and dated in the blink of an eye. Style is harder to come by. It takes maturity and a certain focus. Audrey Hepburn capitalized on fashion trends and then turned them into her own style. She remains timeless.
J. Farmer said...
That said, fashion trends are the bête noire of good style.
Ahem... that's "bête de couleur" to you!
Dress so that whatever you wear is fashionable because you are the one wearing it.
The point of fashion is to sell fashion.
Why do you think it is people don't just buy some multiple of one outfit and wear that every day? Is that what you do?
Ahem... that's "bête de couleur" to you!
It's okay if I say it; I'm French.
DBQ said:
"I CAN'T wait for the big glasses to come back in style."
Memaw on "Hillbilly Elegy"
This kind of crap (like the glasses shown) are not very functional, and sold to rich people with more money than sense.
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Big glasses make me think of Jackie O. I don't think she would have ever stopped wearing them because they'd supposedly gone out of fashion. But then she was bigger than fashion. Who would qualify for that today? Nowadays there are all these influencers on social media, a world I know little about but probably should because I may be being influenced and I don't even know it.
Cause every girl's crazy bout a sharp dressed man. (With a Rasputin Beard)
OK, just did a quick google search including images with the phrase "sexy girls with sunglasses". I feel very comfortable saying men aren't looking at the sunglasses.
"OK, just did a quick google search including images with the phrase "sexy girls with sunglasses". I feel very comfortable saying men aren't looking at the sunglasses."
Yes, but the men checking out the sexy girls with sunglasses are also wearing sunglasses so their wives don't see them checking out the sext girls with sunglasses.
Pro tip gentlemen...mirror lenses.
Blogger Rick.T. said...
My fashion strategy is the same as my investment strategy - buy and hold and never try to time the market.
12/5/20, 9:56 AM
Value investing is a sound strategy for much of life.
Or, the barbell strategy a la Taleb.
In the case of fashion, focus on a style and a few quality brands which are timeless. Focus 90% of your effort and money there, and save the final 10% for the really wind and crazy thing to contrast with it.
If she's wearing big sunglasses I want her wearing a sundress and a big hat as well.
Best argument ever against tattoos.
Yes, Farmer. I wear the same thing over and over. It's very freeing.
If I could walk about naked, I'd do that. but - it's cold out.
When I heard she wore the same black outfit day in and day out, and how it irritated others, I thought - she is on to something.
Thank God somebody mentioned Rayban-
mikee said...
80's-early '90's if you didn't wear Rayban in SoCal you didn't get laid. Buddy had a pair of black and white checkered--cost him a full paycheck.
Yea, he got laid.
Generally speaking I am fashion immune, though I like to acquit myself with clothes and accessories that at least fit in. I have an 80's era pair of Vuarnet sunglasses, pristine condition and even with the red, faux velvet case. I cannot explain why I still have them. Wearing them these days does not make me stand out in a strange, old guy fashion way. For that I am thankful.
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Anyone seen a guy in a classic Burberry trenchcoat, three-piece suit and Florsheim Imperial wingtips lately?
stevew: The Buddy Holly look is eternal.
I have a simple solution. I don't wear sunglasses.
"Anyone seen a guy in a classic Burberry trenchcoat, three-piece suit and Florsheim Imperial wingtips lately?"
He left with a couple of sailors, why?
Speaking of Burberry, my wife has me wearing a nice black corduroy shirt from them, and may get some more of their stuff for me for Christmas. All I need are a few clothing items anyway, and some Lands End or LLB flannel shirts will allow me to retire some 10-12 y.o. rags.
I tend to wear things out, and then some.
Fashion can be key to understanding a culture. Leave aside today's nonsense, and consider changes in military uniform over the last few centuries--you can trace the ups and downs of international power politics in some items and details.
Or take what I saw in Dresden last year, in the Zwinger museum IIRC. Big oil portraits of the Saxon Elector Augustus the Strong (d.1733) who was twice the elected King of Poland (he converted to the RC for it) and his Electress. He is in turban and flowing kaftan, as any proper Polish lord would want to be portrayed at that time.
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Pointy slippers!
I like large eyeglasses, not quite the size of Iris Apfel models, but in the general neighborhood. They have been comforting this year when we have learned that Covid is spread not just through the mouth and nose but the eyeballs and eyelids. (I'm careful about my health, but I'm not about to wear swimming goggles on a daily basis.)
My plan is to stick with the big look (and,yes, I wore those small wire-framed things when I was in school and they look awful in old photos.)
I also have a basic hairstyle and plan to keep with it. Changing your look constantly just dates you over the years in family picture albums. Who needs it?
Plus, I'm lazy.
i have 2 three piece suits currently gathering dust. Italian.
Plus the other 2 suits and a half dozen sport coats.
Stupid COVID.
I have 4 pair of jeans, and 8 henley short sleeve shirts. I wear nothing else.
Oh, and I have large lens prescription progressive Transition glasses. Only place they don't darken is in my car, thanks to the uv treatment on my windshield.
I like round glasses. The current fashion (sic) is rectangular. It isn’t fashion if that’s all that is available. So I have to buy from China (zenni) to get a $10 dollar pair of frames and $90 lenses.
Don’t get me started on the circle-jerk of insurance paying more, so opticians charge more, so insurance has to pay more...
Fashion does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Lately the guardians of fashion have been pushing faster and faster rhyming cycles in order to push people into buying new stuff. In the early part of the 20th century, it took more than a whole generation to cycle. By the 70s it was down to less than 20 years. Now? maybe 8 years. They had better be careful, lest the whole fashion cycle paradigm blow itself apart and they become irrelevant.
Yes, Farmer. I wear the same thing over and over. It's very freeing.
If I could walk about naked, I'd do that. but - it's cold out.
Congratulations. But then why are you so bothered?
I still have darkening lenses on my single pair of scratched up old bifocals. I'll get some new glasses by Christmas time.
The lenses have drawbacks--the transition is like waiting for hot water in the shower - come on come on - but it beats having two pairs to juggle, as I did for years. Light-sensitive eyes, but alas my once excellent night vision is pretty well gone.
I mentioned Burberry shirts-- it was Barbour. That's different.
Modern fashion's cycles are indeed faster than in the past, but changes in dress styles on a regular basis are a hallmark of modernity. The production and reproduction of new and modern clothing was one of the bases of the Industrial Revolution; that continues, with inspiration drawn now from urban yoots-- as in music and so much else.
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Understated stylelessness
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