Trend Setting
| September 15th, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 801 | Reading Time 3:15 | 2,278 views |
Fashion trends are in a state of continual flux. How do you know if your wardrobe or hair style is amongst the currently accepted “cool” fashions? The majority of us don’t buy fashion magazines with the intent on keeping up with the latest styles. Personally, I’ve never put much faith in the trendy styles our society goes through. I tend to wear what makes me comfortable, not trying to be “trendy” on purpose. Where do we learn these trends in society if we aren’t actively pursuing the knowledge? Television is a major contributor along with natural social interaction. Another major factor in trend setting is the actual products available at the stores we buy our clothes from.
The only thing I know about fashion is that you’re not supposed to wear white after Labor Day. Not exactly sure what exact piece of clothing they are talking about, so I just assume white is out for everything, hats, shirts, pants, and shoes. Better to be safe than sorry right? I wouldn’t want to be seen as someone lacking fashion sense now would I? Trends are necessary though, otherwise, we would all be wearing the same clothes we were 10 years ago, or even 20, or 30. We could even be wearing the clothes our grandparents were wearing if we didn’t change our tastes and trends. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t enjoy wearing what they wore, not to mention if we all were wearing garments from the 1970’s…
Who establishes the trends which impacts our clothes wearing behavior? Segments of society have a great deal of power creating trends. These segments are catered to by the fashion industry and as they grow, different trends are injected into the mainstream. Bikers, country clubbers, musical genres (rap, rock, country, etc), moms, young adults, and the list could continue forever. Remember the “grunge” period of fashion in the 1990’s? That trend came to us via the music scene of alternative rock. Today, we have the “baggy” fashion which has been brought to us by the rap community.
Baggy used to be exclusive to wearing oversized clothing. However, now baggy has gone to the point where clothes are literally hanging off of people. Pants are left hanging on for dear life as underwear is prominently exposed. I’m sure you’ve seen it. Oversized pants barely stay up which forces the individual into constantly “tugging” on them to keep them from turning into ankle weights. Oh, and the pants aren’t shorter so the remains of the pants are always under the person’s feet so they are actually walking on the lower portion turning them into frayed ends of shaggy looking hand-me-downs.
I’m one for feeling comfortable, but the baggy trend has gone a bit too far in my opinion. Since when was it considered “trendy” to show your behind to the public on purpose and walk around on your pants? There was a fantastic invention from years gone by that alleviated such issues. If memory serves, I believe it’s called a belt.
Saturday Night Live featured a performer who chooses this trend as his fashion statement. Corporate executives for NBC were “worried” about his appearance mostly due to his musical content, but also his attire. Lorne Michaels, producer of SNL, went on record and said, “I’m not saying you should wear yours that way, but clearly it’s our job to set trends.” My question, is it really the job of SNL, or television for that matter, to set fashion trends? If so, then no wonder why our younger generations are wearing such attire and believing it to be “trendy.”
Trends used to involve making clothes better looking, more comfortable, or better suited for a particular event. Today, fashion sense is more about making statements. Do we need our society following trends “set” by mainstream media? If someone really believes wearing pants below the butt while walking on the pants legs makes them look good or fashionable, I would like to see their IQ score and compare it to that of a lemming.
Allowing mainstream media to set our trends is one avenue they effectively utilize in an effort to “control” the general public. A large portion of that control involves money. Fashion trends change from year to year, or even month to month, meaning wardrobes must change. Media receives the majority of their revenue from advertising and as they “set” trends, purchasing behavior is thus influenced creating a “need” for advertisers to showcase products. The lemmings are in line to follow the lead of someone trying to control their money. Since “fashion” these days is about making statements rather than making clothes look good and comfortable, money is at the root of these so-called trends. Do some homework, how many of these “trend setter” acts have their own clothing lines?
on September 15th, 2008 at 5:02 pm:
If this trend really catches on, just think, maybe our Presidential candidates will start wearing these new hip jeans to pick up a few votes. I wonder how many lawsuits have been filed because these cool dudes have tripped and fell over their own clothes and hurt themselves? I would assume that the majority of the people that wear this type of clothes don’t have any children, because it would be to hard to hold their pants up and take care of a baby.
Probably don’t go to school either especially if they are held accountable for being late for classes. Some of these people may even be on limited disability because they can’t get around very good, holding their pants up and dragging all of that extra cloth around and trying to walk and tripping all over themselves.
My, My, it sure must be rough trying to fit in these days. I can remember when it was cool to get a flat top haircut, or wear a baseball cap or have more than one or two pair of pants to wear. By George, I think that I may have solved this problem, I’ll bet those clothes are all hand me downs from their BIG brothers and it will just take some time for these guys to grow up, I mean, to grow into those huge clothes.
on September 15th, 2008 at 7:38 pm:
The sad thing is, the trend is here and has already caught on. I remember seeing people wearing their pants this way at least 2-3 years ago minimum. However, it has gotten worse recently.
I remember when people wore clothes that didn’t fit because they couldn’t afford anything other than hand-me-downs/etc. Now, it seems like clothes that fit are the hand-me-downs…
I guess to each his own, but it’s an eye sore to see behinds when you are walking down the street, or shopping at the mall, or even at work. Statements such as these just scream, “the person wearing this particular attire is stupid.”