The earth is spinning rapidly on its axis, tossing off ideas, concepts, and designs that have all existed before. If you ever pay attention to the fashion landscape of the world, you’ll begin to recognize the lament of contemporary art curators everywhere; it’s all derivative.
Those baggy jeans and embroidered sweaters our moms wore in 1992? You’re not crazy; you really did see them on that group of college kids at the local cafe last week. Around 1996, bell bottoms, peasant blouses, fringe, and square-toed loafers adorned every middle and high schooler with the slightest bit of style. They’re obviously quintessentially 1970s style, but they made a comeback in the ’90s and again in the 2010s.
Skinny jeans are from the 1980s, but they stole them from the 1950s. Hemlines rise and fall as the wheel of fashion turns. Those in the industry call this phenomenon the 20-year trend cycle or the nostalgia cycle.
Pamela Golbin, an expert in the field of fashion and chief curator for Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris, had this to say about nostalgia in an interview for Women’s Wear Daily: “We as humans are nostalgic, so it’s impossible for fashion not to be a mirror of who we are, our preoccupations or challenges. We all have a memory.” She added: “Nostalgia is a very safe place, some (sic) familiar is reassuring, particularly in times of uncertainty.” She’s not wrong. Designers are artists at heart, and like any great artist, they constantly look to the past for inspiration. Perhaps they are attempting to capture some comfort they may have felt as a child or to express without words the hope of the 50s, the freedom of the 60s, the overindulgence of the 80s…nostalgia permeates the world of design.
The 20-year cycle is one of fashion’s most cherished and established norms. Since the beginning of the 20th century, when technology and commerce streamlined the production process and brought ready-to-wear styles to the general public instead of just the aristocratic elite, the cycle has been stable and predictable. Industry experts and trend trackers have been able to accurately advise fashion houses using this established norm with ease. However, something happened in the new spring of 2020 that would turn the world and the fashion industry on its head; a global pandemic. One might think that the style consequences of the world effectively pausing for a few months might only mean that sweatpants and pajamas would be that year’s must-have item, but industry leaders began to notice a different emergent trend from the next generation of consumers…the death of trends!