^^ ...and so you should, sunshine.
After all, what's fashion without rebellion?
What's fashion without the slightly naughty feeling the anticipation of inspiring a bit of future cringing (or even a bit of current cringing amongst later/non adopters, if you're lucky) gives you?
It's true that most cringed (and some are still cringing, apparently) when looking back at mid-to-late '80s fashions, but many would (and do) yawn when looking back at the late '90s and its inoffensive but, ultimately, achingly safe minimalism.
Does that really mean that the '90s fashions were better? Or does it just mean that they were safer and blander and that they are not, yet, so out of fashion (nothing is more out of fashion than the just-about-to-become-fashionable-again, after all, is it?) as the late '80s are/were, until recently?
Does that
really mean that people who lived through late '90s fashion felt better, at the time? Just because they felt refreshingly cleansed of excess ornamentation and future cringe-proof? Apparently not - from what I've gathered, many who were young adults through both decades say that, if they are honest, they enjoyed the fashions of the mid-to-late '80s more; at the time, at least.
If one is
so petrified at the possibility of looking back in horror at one's past wardrobe that it completely overwhelms one's desire to experiment, then one should, of course, feel free to play it safe. But we only have one life and we are
supposed to be fashion fans, here, aren't we? Not timid librarian types. So why not try to live it?
In my (albeit fairly limited) experience, relative maturity (as you get older, you tend to care less about what other people think of you) and a reasonable understanding of fashion history normally means that one grows out of the need to (genuinely) cringe at previous decades (although, one might still feel the need to, politely, indulge someone else who is; if just to confirm that one is aware that the look in question is no longer in vogue [and is not yet back, again]!). This is because anyone with a genuine interest in fashion soon learns that it really is all merely a cycle and what disgusts one most today, will, no doubt, be the item that inspires one most, again, tomorrow.
There again, I find myself currently loving leggings and double breasted '80s jackets with shoulderpads (wide shoulders and narrow hips and legs look right, to me, now) and I even have (shock, horror!) an enduring fondness for ugg boots, so maybe (according to the general consensus on here, at least) I'm just certifiable?
Also, even if one's idea of perfect fashion does happen to only consist of unchallenging blandness and/or uninterrupted elegance and you believe that earlier decades of the 20th century provided that consistency - as others have said, the longer it is since the decade in question and the fewer photos of ordinary people there are in existence, the easier it is to, wrongly, imagine that everyone at the time was 'perfectly' attired.
BTW, by and large, I haven't hated this decade's fashion, at all - in fact, it has inspired me far more than the '90s ever did. I think there has been a lot of merit to a lot of it and the early-to-mid part was a lot of fun for me, fashion-wise. The post '03 soufflé economy and the accompanying, obscene, price-rises were quite another matter, of course, but until about A/W '06, I still liked a lot of the clothes (even if I didn't like their prices).
For me, fashion has gone through a bit of a slump in the last two or three years, though (partly due to my two favourite designers leaving the R-T-W industry), but that's certainly not enough to taint the whole decade for me and it does seem to be starting to find its direction, again, IMO.
I have, however, absolutely
detested the scam of overly fast fashion - which is/was as fake and grotesque as the economy that fed it...
Drastic and erratic change merely for changes' (or profit's!) sake.....the constant attempts to push the poor old fashion cashcow inexorably forward, well ahead of its natural pace.....the indiscriminate, f*** the environment, daily shopping binges.....the insanity of a magazine adding a previous season's, barely worn, item to an 'out' list (badly written 'in/out' lists are a pet hate of mine!), merely to call it a 'must-have' again the very next season (or even, frequently, within the subsequent pages of the very same issue of the magazine!
).
But that doesn't mean that it is/has been all bad, by any means.
