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Alexis Ramer

Michael Young

Rhetoric and Civic Life 137H

4 November 2019

How Fashion Connects Generations

Have you ever taken a piece of clothing from your parent or guardian to join a growing

trend or create a costume representative of a past decade? A few decades ago, this action would

be rare. A child would not have asked anyone for older fashions because they would not be in

style; however, these days, the clothing of a previous generation is seen as a fashionable choice.

Our society has experienced a fundamental shift in the way we view recurring trends in fashion.

Through this shift, it has become not only acceptable for designers to use fads from previous

decades, but it has become commonplace in the everyday appearance options like the scrunchie.

This shift has occurred due to the ever-increasing absence of fear of lack of modernity in fashion

and the overall growth of nostalgia in the nation.

The shift from discouragement of the use of past trends to acceptance began with a slow

transition initially but transformed drastically years later. Before the 1990s, the idea of reusing a

trend in fashion was considered contrite. Fashion experts looked down upon recurring trends,

believing that good fashion was based solely on the idea of modernity. Designers would strive to

have their products based on their own ideas not taking from previous fashions. Then in the

1990s, fashion became more adaptive of bringing back trends from previous decades. While still

controversial, small items that were brought back into the cycle of fashion became more allowed.

One such trend was the recurrence of the afro, Angela Davis proves that it was accepted to bring

back the afro as she says, “the point of this fashion spread is to represent the clothing associated
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with the revolutionary movements of the early seventies as revolutionary fashion in the nineties”

(Davis 6). Fashion critics considered using a hair style representative of history as revolutionary.

However, while the afro presented one of the original welcomed past trends, the majority of

fashion at that time remained new and daring, never seen before. The overall paradigm shift has

been a slow movement towards the lack of modernity and the growth of nostalgia in connection

to clothing choice. Then, around the late 2000s, fashion took a more drastic step towards the

degradation in the production of new ideas and reliance upon reinvention of past fashions.

As fashion has progressed through time, the idea of modernity has been valued in all

decades, yet in today’s society we developed an almost complete lack of modernity in our

fashion trends. In the late 2000s, the repurposing of old clothing trends and objects became so

common to the point where it became difficult to distinguish original ideas. Even what

magazines are calling the trend of 2019: animal print, first became popular in the 1960s. Almost

every piece of clothing that a person can find in a store today will incorporate one aspect that

originally began in a different decade. During the early 2000s, this could not be said as new

fashions such as low-rise jeans and the placing of a cardigan over a camisole were created for

this time period conveying the originality of this decade. The article, “Late Modern Hipsters:

New Tendencies in Popular Culture”, speaks about a conference held in 2009 where the hipster

trend was officially recognized as a beginning phenomenon. The author describes the hipster as,

“a youth culture intensively devoted to redeeming the objects of the former generation or

‘preserving’ its ‘experiences” (Schiermer 168). The conference Schiermier mentions proves that

in the late 2000s, fashion historians recognized a shift into adoration of recurrent fashions. The

hipster was the first step and considered a subculture of fashion, but soon it became mainstream.

All fashion designs followed the path of the hipster and utilized pieces from the 80s and 90s. The
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term hipster lost its effect as all fashion was connected to past generations and it was no longer

unique. Then, as we incorporated more and more past fashions into our daily lives, we came to

not only accept the use of these fashions but to love infusing them into our current culture.

However, many fashion designers before the 90s feared the use of recurrent fashions as they

predicted a decrease in ingenuity.

In the book Fashion in Popular Culture: Literature, Media and Contemporary Studies,

Ilya Parkins addresses the beliefs of early designers saying, “most early-twentieth-century

designers were engaged on some level with the logic of the new; the critical and commercial

success of fashion was associate with a drive toward novelty” (Parkins 106). These designers

believed that they had to work solely with the creativity of the time. They also believed, “success

depended on their ability to convincingly establish themselves as modern subjects, who held the

sartorial keys to admitting others into the promise of the modern” (Parkins 106). Designers

feared how modernity would affect their reputation as anything less was despised. This idea

continued on in designers until it first begain to shift in the 1990s and now designers have

completely abandoned the idea of avoiding trends that have already occurred. They no longer

fear lack of modernity which allowed recurring trends to become a safety net for fashion to fall

back upon where a designer could take an item from the past, change one or two aspects about it,

and rebrand it as trendy and new while utilizing the original decade as a marketing tool as well.

Current fashion trends can be defined by the phrase bringing (insert trend here) back.

One reasoning for the acceptance of a lack of modernity in current fashion design is the

fault of social media platforms. As fashion has become increasingly viewed by the common

public, it has had to increase the speed at which new designs are created. This is because with

social media platforms and online coverage of the biggest fashion shows, the news gives access
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to everyone to know about the latest trends in the high-class fashion world at the same time,

allowing for common fashion to mimic that of models and designers much more quickly. While

advantageous for the common person who wants to stay ahead of the trends, this causes

increasing pressure on the fashion world to produce new fads faster as the rate at which styles are

transported, utilized and forgotten has accelerated increasingly due to social media. While an

absolution of fear of past trends allowed a shift in the acceptance of recurring trends in fashion, a

growing feeling of nostalgia in the nation was the major reason our culture has encompassed past

fashion in our daily life.

In the past decade, nostalgia has become a defining measure of our culture, shifting

fashion from revolutionary trends to nostalgic fashion. Vogue may have named nostalgia: the

biggest trend in 2018, but the shift to this trend and the roots of the nostalgia run much deeper

than that. In the article, “The Meanings of Nostalgia: Genealogy and Critique,” about the

beginnings of nostalgia, Tobias Becker describes a nostalgic wave in the 1970s that included a

time of looking towards the past as a means of comfort in a rough time. He gives the purpose of

the nostalgic wave as, “an escapist flight from the present... characterized by economic

downturn, rising unemployment, domestic terrorism and fears of environmental collapse”

(Becker 236). The reasoning Becker states for the 1970s wave of nostalgia coincides with the

state of the society in the late 2000s when fashion began to transition to nostalgic items. The

country had just experienced the 2008 economic crisis and was reeling from similar

circumstances such as rising unemployment and fears for the environment. These events turned

us away from the current culture and we looked back at past decades for comfort in everyday

life. This comfort was incorporation of the clothes of the past into every outfit to distract our

minds from disastrous surroundings. Becker also states that the nostalgia of this time was a
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“collective cultural phenomenon” (Becker 241). The fashion of today’s society can also be

classified as a collective phenomenon as styles have began to unify the decades. We rely on

nostalgia because we believe if they made it through their hard times with the spirit they did that

feeling may help us to come to solutions in our own time. Instead of creating new fashions

reflective of our society’s distraught state, we have continued to utilize these trends as we look

back to decades like the 70s and 80s where bright colors and flowing styles demonstrated

happier views in fashion. With fashion shifting into a reflection of the past, many new changes

followed this paradigm shift.

Through nostalgia in fashion, children can gain an education of the history of our nation

through simple trends. When young adults pick out their clothes, they always wonder how the

items they have chosen first became popular, did a favorite celebrity start the trend or a famous

model? As children go deeper than which celebrity brought flare jeans back into the mainstream

and search back to the original creation of flare jeans, they will begin to learn more about the

nation’s history because the clothing they picked out was first designed in an earlier decade. In

the article, “Afro Images: Politics Fashion and Nostalgia”, Angela Davis speaks about the afro

and the circulation of historic images of Black Americans saying, “it holds the promise of visual

memory of older and departed generations, of both well-known figures and people who may not

have achieved public prominence” (Davis 38). The continuation of the afro in history could

possibly whittle it down to nothing but a fashion piece, or it could educate youth on Angela

Davis’s part in history. To remember our history from fashion, we must first respect the struggle

that bore the trends we admire whether it be the Civil Rights Movement or simply one battle in

time. Someone created that piece as representative of their time and the life they have

experienced. In remembering the historical significance of our clothes, we must also work to
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connect with out family members who were alive when whatever trend began as they may know

more of the true historical significance.

The major influence on our society of the paradigm shift is a connection between

generations that had begun to separate. The generations have always been different from one

another as through their lives they experienced different events in the nation’s history. However,

as the influence of technology grew throughout the nation, the separation between generation X/

baby boomers and millennials/ generation Z kids has increased, and caused slight frustrations

with one another. However, sharing fashion customs allows these generations to share a

connection to one another through simpler activities such as picking out clothes. The shift has

given children a path between their pop culture and the styles of their parents. This proves to be

the civic significance of the paradigm shift as the recurrent fashion creates a set of trends that old

and new members of our society can agree upon. This unifies the generations and provides them

with the chance to make it their civic duty to truly understand the older members of our society.

We can reach out to them and ask for their opinion on fashion advice as they were around when

the trend first came, or as the younger generation we could ask to borrow something from their

closet and value the stories that enter their closet. As they say as a nation we must learn from the

past so that we do not repeat it. By looking at the origins of our trends and valuing the opinions

of older members, generation z students can have a deeper understanding of the past so we do

not repeat it. A research study about older adults and children working together says, “Studies

have shown that interactions between older and younger people, who are not related to each

other, can promote social and civic engagement, lifelong learning, and well-being of older adults,

while also improving college and middle school students' awareness of and respect for the

special needs of the older population” ( Connecting Generations). This quote proves the benefit
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that any interaction between generations can be beneficial to both generations even in the world

of fashion.

In the late 2000s, fashion transitioned from despising recurrent fashion trends to using

them in every aspect of fashion. While this transitioned was caused by a lack of modernity, it has

brought many cute trends and clothing pieces. The shift also occurred due to an overall nation

shift in culture to being nostalgic as we try to mimic happier times. The shift has caused us to be

more careful about educating our youth through fashion, and we are focused on the connection

nostalgic fashion can create between generations. The paradigm shift is one of great importance

because it allows generation z to connect with generation x in a new and creative way. The future

of fashion is unclear as we could continue along the path of nostalgia, or we could suddenly find

that are trends are wholly our own and we have moved back into an age of modernity. The

Encyclopedia of Culture and Fashion says, “Actual influences on fashion have typically

stemmed from changing technologies, political events, and the creativity of certain individuals” (

Ghelerter 117). Perhaps moving forward, a new mind will pop out of the woodwork and

completely change the way our society thinks about fashion, or the coming election will

influence fashion and we will no longer want to be nostalgic of times past but positive moving

forward. For now, I will continue to wear my scrunchie from the 1980s and my high-waisted

everything from the 1950s.

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Works Cited

Becker, Tobias. “The Meanings of Nostalgia: Genealogy and Critique.” History and Theory, vol. 57, no.

2, 2018, pp. 234-250.

“Connecting generations: developing co-design methods for older adults and children.” Behavior and

Information Technology, vol. 31, no. 4, 2012, pp. 413-423.

Davis, Angela Y. "Afro Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia." Critical Inquiry, vol. 21, no. 1, 1994,

pp. 37-45.

Ghelerter, Donna. "Future of Fashion." Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, vol. 2, 2005, pp. 117-

118.

Parkins, Ilya. Fashion in Popular Culture: Literature, Media, and Contemporary Studies. Intellect

Books Ltd, 2013.

Schiermer, Bjørn. "Late-Modern Hipsters: New Tendencies in Popular Culture." Acta Sociologica, vol.

57, no. 2, 2014, pp. 167-181.