Fashion looks towards fitting ourselves and our lives. It is an industry that balances meticulous thought to creativity balanced with implied stale-dating; unless it’s designed to be an ultra-conservative classic fashion is meant to eventually make way for its next incarnation. This is achieved with subtleties in cut, fit and embellishment.
Designs meant to be retro 60s during the 80s did not have the 60s cut because there were still actual clothes from that period in second-hand shops and mirroring cuts exactly would have been a bad business decision; why buy current retro styles when the real thing is still in consignment shops? While it was a choice at the time primarily for trendy college students to wear, you could be sure that the first decent paycheck saw those pieces lingering in the closet over more current incarnations. Likewise, when the 70s made resurgence in the 90s, reimaginings of pieces inspired from that decade had a different colour palette and, of course, better quality fabrics. While the fit plus the harmonization of inspiration did allow for vintage to work with these pieces, there wasn’t as much vintage 70s fashion around that didn’t look more of that decade and so it wasn’t as incorporated much into one’s wardrobe.
Now that time has passed and most vintage pieces have been picked clean during the previous decades, fashion is able to lift pieces from other decades with more authenticity. Looking at some aspects of collections the items seem to be transported from the decades that inspired them. As the frenzy for clothes harmonizing with the soon to be released film “The Great Gatsby” competes with BoHo 70s infused festival wear, 80s punk revivalism and postwar ladylike attire meets with reduced production output lead times. This means more clothes tailored to at-the-moment trends form a variety of points of view are accessible to consumers. We see our decade dressing to best reflect our state of mind and seem to be experiencing a form of anachronistic saudade.
Every language has their limits regarding accurate expression and fortunately the word in one language is not solely the domain of its originating point. “Saudade” is actually Portuguese and is a bit difficult to explain because there is no actual equivalent in the English language. It’s best described as a state of knowing sadness one has when thinking about the loss of something (or someone) one loved that you know will not return. And this sentiment is rooted in what many are going through today.
While clever designers have found inspiration in various points of history similar to our current state of mind, many in the general public are not so aware of the connections that more informed minds recognize and may not necessarily “get” the reference’s intent or conection with what is happening today. But many can identify with a longing for “the good old days” that we cannot ever truly return to (or that some can only imagine via romanticized entertainment). The subjectiveness of this nostalgia is what makes it difficult to narrowly focus on any specific retro trend, unlike in post-war 20th century decades. As we become more connected and informed via our technology and as our technology allows more internal customization of our choices, our personal affinities with various references becomes more divergent.
Thus the variety of various decades are seen in collections nowadays, But the current fondness for these, spurred by the accelerated pace of technological revolution stressing our ability to adapt to societal change, is encouraging a personal hesitation best validated by our personal wardrobe choices. Clothes are our armour, our security, and badge of conformity. Above all, they are our extension of identity and for the moment not everyone is ready to move on.
Will this change? We have no choice and not everyone is sentimental nor nostalgic. The future is coming and quite quickly and fashion is making way for the new. For now, though, there are enough people around making purchase decisions who are asking for just a little bit more time. Letting go, even in fashion, is not an act but a process and for us in the midst of great change it seems to be a long one.