FASHION FLASHBACK
Old trends are new again
Recently, I opened my email inbox and was greeted with a reader response that made me pause. The subject line? “I laughed ...”
At the sight of those two words and one ellipsis, I cringed and prepared for the worst. But rather than a barrage of critical feedback, it was a lighthearted and not entirely unpleasant criticism of a recent article on the popularity of denim garments for back to school.
The reader, a 64-year-old selfdescribed “curmudgeon,” noted he (or his family and friends), had owned an iteration of each and every item featured in the piece. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, of course.
The denim jacket with the fauxfur collar? “Virtually the same as one my first girlfriend had in 1970 ... and my son, who is 33, still has one like it from when he was a teen in the late ’90s,” the reader, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote in an email.
The mid-length denim skirt? “Same girlfriend had one, and my wife of 35 years still has one she wears occasionally,” he replied.
After a few back-and-forth emails discussing the phenomena that is recycled fashion trends, the question of age was posed — mainly, is noticing the recurrence of trends in fashion merely a question of getting old?
“With the advantage of age, I usually just laugh and ask, usually my wife, if the people doing this really think they are fooling anyone,” the reader wrote. “Or am I old enough they don’t care because their market target is much, much younger (people) who are tired of old curmudgeons whining about ‘the old days?’ ”
You don’t have to be an avid follower of the fashion industry to know designers borrow heavily from the past when designing the latest trends. But, surely it’s not just a question of age. Or is it?
The exchange prompted an interview with Lisa Tant, the vicepresident of exclusive services at Holt Renfrew, to see if she could explain the speedy spin cycle that has become fashion trends — and to explain why, what’s old in fashion is also often new again.
“I think everything is fair game,” Tant says of the propensity for the industry to re-imagine tried-andtrue designs. “When I first heard culottes were coming back — major eye roll. Or the whole ’80s fashion of big hair, mullets and giant jewelry, I look at that and think, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope that never comes back.’ But it’s going to.”
And, according to Tant, these and other familiar fashions will always be back. But not exactly as we saw them the first time around.
“Things don’t come back exactly the same way. They never do,” she says.
Instead, items are given modern tweaks and embellishments — albeit sometimes subtle ones — in order to make the revival appear current rather than dated.
Often, the “update” is as simple as taking advantage of the advances in textile creation and technology.
“The technology of the fabric is better,” Tant says of the latest releases. “It looks better, it holds colour more true.”
Basically, should shoppers choose to give familiar items a second (or maybe even third) try, they will find the pieces fit differently, and more importantly — they feel better too.
But in order to ensure fashion fans don’t look like they’ve time travelled back to the closets of their teens or 20s, Tant recommends shoppers wear the styles in a new way.
“The key is, if you experience the trend once, don’t wear it exactly the same way when it comes back around,” she says.
Taking an updated approach to familiar pieces is also an important element of sartorial success when it comes to handbags and accessories.
“Fashion trends always permeate the handbag world,” explains Nicole Ginsberg, the director of operations at the Montreal-based luxury handbag reseller Love That Bag.
“In handbags, the minimalist, ’90s-inspired sensibility that we have been seeing for a number of seasons now is still going strong, but this season we are seeing a nod to the 1970s with luxurious fabrications like velvets and suedes.”
Ginsberg says accessories are an area where shoppers can wear vintage-inspired pieces without the fear of looking out of date.
“If a shopper is seeking to access a throwback trend, we are seeing that she is more likely to buy the current iteration of that trend,” she says.
“So, it will not likely be the actual bucket bag that has been in her mother’s closet since the 1980s that she goes for, but rather the updated version from a contemporary house like Mansur Gavriel.”
And certain bags such as Chanel classic flap handbags or Hermés Birkins are always in style — regardless of the age. So, what is to blame for the ever-quickening pace of trend recycling?
Tant says it’s not laziness or a lack of creativity. But rather the opposite.
“Right now, we are in one of the most creative periods in fashion I have seen for a very long time,” she says. “Pretty much single-handedly thanks to Gucci. And I think it takes someone really creative to take a retro look and update it and make a style that can work in some of the new fabrics.”
Tant says visionary designers such as Alessandro Michele, the creative director at Gucci and Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia are revolutionizing the way the fashion industry — and shoppers — view flashback fashions.
“It’s not just taking a picture and interpreting it how it was 40 years ago,” she says. “(It’s) picking out all this ’70s, ’40s, ’30s, (inspiration) and mashing it all up in this really eclectic mix that works.”
One thing Tant does say needs to change with the trend revivals is the speed at which they’re occurring. “It’s way too fast,” Tant says. The speed of reusing trends is a byproduct of an ever-quickening fashion industry that has come under fire in recent years for concerns regarding waste and environmental impact. And Tant says a further cost of the industry’s pace is the loss of creativity. “Great ideas are being thrown out and passed on way too quickly,” she says.
But while the industry’s scope and speed garners criticism, that still doesn’t change the fact that shoppers want what they want — and they want it now.
“I think we’re going to see a real revolution in how designers
The key is, if you experience the trend once, don’t wear it exactly the same way when it comes back around.
show their clothing,” Tant says in response to how she sees this demand impacting the fashion realm.
Tant pointed to Tom Ford as an example of the designer shift toward see-now-shop-now runways.
The items shown in Ford’s latest in New York were made available to shoppers the next day at select retailers such as Holt Renfrew.
“Shop-able runway makes a ton of sense to me,” she says. “You see it, you want it now.”
Even if it looks like something you’ve worn before.