All things "old" become "new" again with each passing generation. So fun to watch the new take on old favorites. The exception to this rule for me would be anything in avocado green and bright orange. These two could easily stay old in my world. Fashion forward now means wearing recreations of the things our parents or grandparents wore. Isn't that actually fashion backward?
It reminds me of a verse in the Bible that says 'there is nothing new under the sun'. Now of course indoor plumbing in it's modern state is definitely 'new under the sun', but indoor plumbing is actually a concept from hundreds of years ago...just a bit different. No more public bath houses thank goodness!
Vintage fashion was so much more than just getting dressed though. People had few outfits, so they literally wore things out. Female dress was terribly involved, and always highlighted or hid the current social norm. Men's clothing was less involved, but wool ruled their world for years. How hot that must have been!
I see so many parallels between fashion trends and life. Where once what you had was what you had and you were thankful for it, created by master's in their crafts, we treated all things with value. Including people. Now though, clothes are readily available to the point that we require entire rooms in our homes to fit them, they aren't created by master craftsmen, and we seem to not value anything as we have access to everything. Including people.
We are so quick to expect others to care for what it ours - mechanics fix our cars and we get impatient with them when it takes longer than we think it should. Other's make our clothes and we get irritated with what it costs us. People upset us and we 'unfriend' them, divorce them, ignore them, or worse.
There is so little respect for mastering anything anymore. No one is given the chance to be the best, as it may make someone else feel bad. Yet we don't encourage those that don't excel at sewing to try cooking. We simply drop the standard for sewing.
We don't respect people. We so fear what we can not understand or control, that we attempt to impose our beliefs on others, being so critical and judgmental that we miss the opportunity to learn empathy, patience, or kindness. Things become so extreme that people now argue over the smallest things, ignoring the big picture.
Had this been the social norm even 100 years ago, our older homes, vintage clothes, antique furniture and classic cars would all be missing. Somehow though, they have withstood the test of time. Could it be that the care, respect, master workmanship, attention to detail, all played a role in their longevity?
Our oldest generations are living, while our youngest generations are dying. Hmmmm, could there be a correlation between the two?
My vintage clothing collection requires special storage conditions. Some pieces simply can not be worn due to age. Heat, light, soap, water, etc... all can potentially damage the finest of my pieces. Hats have be guarded against moths, shoes are made with leather and must be carefully cleaned and oiled so they don't become brittle.
Shouldn't everything in our life be handled with 'special care'? We complain about all the pollution, yet we refuse to go back to doing things they way they once were done - that takes too much time, we complain. Maybe we could just start wearing the same outfit's over and over - that makes us look poor, we complain. It seems that we really want in life is to have our cake and eat it too. We want fashion forward, while refusing to accept that fashion backward worked....we spend our time attempting to replicate the old and call it new.
There is nothing new under the sun. It's all been done before in one form or another. It will be done again, and the pendulum will continue to swing. I can't wait for bustles to come back into style!! :D
