i used to have periods where i absolutely detest a certain decade, namely the 80s for it's outrageous broad shoulders. but after constant renewing my knowledge of fashions of the 20th century and even fashions of the past centuries and other countries, i feel being critical and dismissing a certain period as 'bad' is rather confining. not saying dont have a point of view, but the past is simply the past and there is no point in criticize a time that i have no power to change.
i definitely can not say this decade (which it's not even over yet) is a misstep. i mean, there cant be missteps in fashion because it's a continuous progression. it will go on regardless of how horrible one may think a certain style is.
i heard different designers say this many times, fashion does not change, it evolves.
so far, i see this decade being looked back on as one of nostalgia. 20th century was possibly the only century in the history of human civilization that progressed at the speed that it did, in almost every influential field. it was the century of great world wars that not only willed people to move forward and change but forced them to. now moving into the 21st century, and 2 years short of completing it's first decade, most of the world is not at war with one another (that seriously affects the people involved in fashion, since we are talking about fashion) and there is no obligation to force people forward, i feel things in general will not change as much as it did in the 20th century for this century if most of the world is at "peace".
i dont think it's any one's fault, any designer or particular corporation or society's fault. it's just how the world as a whole is moving, the pace it's moving at. and fashion is really just one small part of society that is moving along the pace of how the society is moving. or how economy is moving.
as many of you guys said before, with the invention of internet and satelite tv and any other technology that enable us to communicate and look into another country's current affairs and history, it seems like a natural move for people to be interested not only in other countries' traditional culture and current fashion but as well as past fashion in more developed countries of the west. since so much of the information can be found on the internet for free.
my tutor told me once, without looking into the past (fashion), it's hard to move forward. so it seems like the people who are interested in fashion in this decade is building a foundation of knowledge on fashions of the decades in the 20th century. and the most immediate way of expressing their knowledge is by wearing clothes that represented a certain decade they take interests in. as we know, pretty much everyone is different. and with so much knowledge people are bestowed today, it seems natural different people are more bias to a certain part of the knowledge they come across than other knowledge which they may ignore. resulting in different point of views in style and creativity, that you could not find in the Republic of China during it's time under the ruling of Mao. because there were only so much knowledge the public of China were legally able to learn, the way people thought were confined and everyone looked the same and knew the same things. (i used China as an example because it was the most immediate thing that came to my mind and that i am chinese myself, not deliberately being bias towards it)
basically, so much happened in the 20th century and fashion evolved faster than ever. if we dont calm down and review what happened for the last a hundred years, we might get lost.
it's like a person's life really...dont we all get to a point in our life known as the middle age crisis, or any time we just slow down and reflect our past in order to get a better idea of how we should move forward? it's happening now in fashion. we are filtering, renewing and questioning what we define as classic and dig out any thing from the past that is worthy of spot lighting again (regardless if there are debates on that garment really being worthy of renewal, it's actually good there are debates).
it's more and more clear as this decade goes on that designers are steering clear of that heavy nostalgic vintage clothes smell in the air in favor of what we term "futuristic" trends. but of course there will still be those designers who favor nostalgia just because it has become their style and new, younger designers will come into view and bring fashion into another new light despite people saying young designers cant stay on the scene for longer than a few years. i'm hopeful it will evovle like that. but of course, just how fashion will change depends on the economy and the masses as much as the designers who are doing the directing.
hope all my rambling made sense, if not, well, it's my two cent
edit: damn, i wrote a lot...and i realize it took me almost an hour and half
. I think some people here are suffering from a terrible case of selective amnesia. Those decades, people (I mean the "common" people like you and me) still had some of the worst clothes imaginable (and not just from an aesthetic perspective of someone living in 2008, they were often cheap and drab). Maybe if you were a rich socialite or something you had fantastic clothing.
vintage-babes of the bloggosphere + Agyness Dean closet ≠ the whole decade can be considered a horrid left over from the eighties. the fashion industry covers a much bigger range of people than the young-(rather cheap if you'll excuse me)-Glamour/Cosmopolitan magazine-obsesive readers who i think are the ones this 80's new-Rave/new-Ugly trend is targeted to.
