The Power of Nostalgia: How Retro Designs Connect Us to Our Past
Fashion and design referencing their own history is nothing new. Trend cycles have been repeated and recycled since the 1920's, when a booming economy and rapidly-changing social norms resulted in fashion becoming less influenced by longevity and practicality, and more influenced by aesthetics and trend-setting socialites. In addition, the rise of fast fashion in the 60s and 70s made trend cycles even shorter, with off-the-rack clothing becoming more common than made-to-order clothing, and large marketing teams ensuring that you wouldn't be considered fashionable if you were wearing last season's pieces.
However, with rising economic hardship and public interest in sustainability, clothes made with durability and practicality in mind is becoming more common again, and microtrends come and go so quickly that fashion is influenced less by trends, and more by personal expression. Enter sustainable fashion and thrifting.
Thrifting has been steadily increasing in popularity even over the last few decades, but it remains a staple shopping method for those interested in fashion, especially for students and other young adults. With a little patience and a good eye, you can build a truly unique and vintage-heavy wardrobe on a very tight budget.
Vintage pieces were often made with high-quality, durable materials, meaning that while your fast-fashion denim falls apart in the wash, your 100% cotton jeans from 1965 will still be going strong. Vintage pieces have also had a strong impact on modern fashion, and mixing of vintage and modern pieces has been a popular method of incorporating thrifted items into an existing wardrobe.
In the digital age, we are seeing a major shift in the fashion industry. Historically, trends have been manufactured and marketed by designers, celebrities, and fashion journalists. Information about brands and trends would usually come from one of only a few popular fashion magazines, so the overall fashion climate was totally dictated by the industry itself. Now, we see peoples’ style choices, complete with links to purchase, resulting in consumers making choices more influenced by individual style and niche aesthetics. There’s more thrifting, there’s more DIY, there’s more small brands and independent designers.
A ton of these aesthetics are highly influenced by subcultures of the 80’s, 90s’ and 00’s, such as punk, grunge, and glam. (See our Video Store drop as an example.) And because these aesthetics are less influenced by trends, they have more staying power - like having a cult following vs. a brief life in popular culture.
In addition to thrifting, romanticization of pre-digital pop culture has a huge influence on modern fashion and design. From the pin-up style of the 50s to the casual and worn-in styles of the 90s, pop culture icons of the past continue to influence and shift the tide of fashion.
If you find yourself in need of some retro fit inspiration, your resources are limitless. For movies, you can look to directors like Francis Ford Coppola with his legendary trilogy "The Godfather," almost any John Hughes film (but especially "The Breakfast Club," if you're looking for wide variation in personal style,) and other movies like "American Graffiti," "Clueless," and "Empire Records."
Musicians also have a huge influence on fashion - you can't go wrong with pulling style inspiration from icons such as Debbie Harry of Blondie, Marc Bolan/T. Rex, De La Soul, or Madonna.
