Which decade is the worst in terms of style?

[LizzieMaine]

Whatever decade it was where baseball players started letting their pants droop around their ankles. Real men wear knickers.

 

[thecardigankid]

I'm going to say it right now....any decade where it is popular for men to wear the combo of skinny jeans and misfits t-shirt. Looks utterly disgusting

 

[The Good]

I'm going to say it right now....any decade where it is popular for men to wear the combo of skinny jeans and misfits t-shirt. Looks utterly disgusting

Unfortunately, one of my cousins dresses like that frequently. He even has a Misfits t-shirt, not to mention skinny jeans. No offense to him though, I still like hanging with him.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I think it really has to be the 1970's. Just cringeworthy.

My mood ring just turned black! That is wrong on so many levels. Interestingly enough, I was at a Walgreens not too long ago and actually saw some mood rings -- I didn't think they were still around.

 

[Widebrim]

"oh the 1990's without a doubt, people wandering around the Supermarket in their "Gym" outfits, cycle shorts, Hooded T shirts, Baseball caps on backwards ( even sideways!"), being a walking billboard, (just do it... indeed!) everyone trying to look like "Tough Trash "

Can't really disagree with that, except that I would put the 2000s at a very close second...

 

[Widebrim]

I think it really has to be the 1970's. Just cringeworthy.

I remember those style-deficient days , but at least there was some co-ordination attempted, belly rolls were fairly well-covered, washing of clothes was expected (especially if you were into the later Disco scene), and tattoos were still the largely limited to bikers, truck drivers, and servicemen!

 

[Viola]

Going to be contrary and nominate the '20s - long single strand necklaces down to your navel? Dresses like bags so you have to be tall to not look like you're lost in a pillowcase? Totally unforgiving to a woman who's figure isn't thin and straight up and down.

And, super-short ladies' haircuts really demand pixie-like facial structure or it is not very pretty at all.

Or maybe I'm just jealous '20s fashions look so very wretched on me. But its the decade *I* can wear the least.

 

[metropd]

Going to be contrary and nominate the '20s - long single strand necklaces down to your navel? Dresses like bags so you have to be tall to not look like you're lost in a pillowcase? Totally unforgiving to a woman who's figure isn't thin and straight up and down.

And, super-short ladies' haircuts really demand pixie-like facial structure or it is not very pretty at all.

Or maybe I'm just jealous '20s fashions look so very wretched on me. But its the decade *I* can wear the least.

That is my favorite era of men's fashion besides the 30's. I think womens clothing from the 20's is the sexiest. I nominate the late 90's as the worst era.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Going to be contrary and nominate the '20s - long single strand necklaces down to your navel? Dresses like bags so you have to be tall to not look like you're lost in a pillowcase? Totally unforgiving to a woman who's figure isn't thin and straight up and down.

And, super-short ladies' haircuts really demand pixie-like facial structure or it is not very pretty at all.

Or maybe I'm just jealous '20s fashions look so very wretched on me. But its the decade *I* can wear the least.

While the 1920s is my favorite era, I admit that I'm not a big fan of bobbed hair. One of my childhood memories of my grandmother, who was born in 1910, was of her Jazz Age Dutchboy do. However, I have seen many pictures of women from the 1920s sporting long hair with the ubiquitous marcel wave.

. I nominate the late 90's as the worst era.

I absolutely hated the baggy hip hop pants of the '90s. To me they looked like clown pants. Thank God that it appears to have finally gone out of style. Then there's the shorts that can't decide whether it wants to be short trousers or long shorts.

I think we do have a consensus on this thread that the '90s is the winner, hands down, for the worst decade for fashion. I see the 2000s as merely an extension of the '90s. The '70s is a close second but I do make a distinction between merely tacky and totally scroungy.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

What's wrong with 60s style?

The problem is that it's being badly rehashed.

.

 

[The Good]

I absolutely hated the baggy hip hop pants of the '90s. To me they looked like clown pants. Thank God that it appears to have finally gone out of style. Then there's the shorts that can't decide whether it wants to be short trousers or long shorts.

Not quite, unfortunately. At my community college, in California, I often see (mostly African-American) people wearing baggy jeans... I guess it's still popular here around L.A.

The problem is that it's being badly rehashed.

.

Mr. Chevalier, are you referring to '60s hippie fashion, or the mainly conservative look that characterized the early part of the decade, such as the skinny ties, narrow lapel suits, etc...?

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Right now.

As the decades passed, each had its fashions and fads. Through the ages, someone or a group of like-minded someones has tried to loosen up, so to speak, from the rigid confines of the status quo. Often, they were successful and brought about more comfort while still retaining style and class. Others, usually the loudest and most obnoxious, did all that they could to bring about bad taste and rotten fads (which, unfortunately, keep returning.) Unfortunately, the latter slowly won out. Whereas class and refinement was once a state to which one would aspire and loutish behavior and slovenliness were shunned, we have, unfortunately, as a society, reversed these ideals.

When I look back at the styles, mores and attitudes of the past one hundred and ten years, I see that the latter slowly overtook the former. We are now at a time when bad taste, selfishness, dog-eat-dog and "screw you!" have become the rule of the day. In that time we, those of us here in the Fedora Lounge and the few others like us, have lost our majority status and now cringe in disgust (and sometimes fear) from those who were once the shunned and avoided-at-all-costs minority.

I'm afraid that time has proven, much to our dismay, that as a society, one thing - one idea - will not only always be true and will be true to an ever-increasing degree: Crass beats class.


Lee

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Not quite, unfortunately. At my community college, in California, I often see (mostly African-American) people wearing baggy jeans... I guess it's still popular here around L.A.

Very much so. Before seeing Avatar yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with several family members and right across the aisle from me was a man sitting on his belt, showing all who would look his tighty grays.


Lee

 

[reetpleat]

.



I second your nomination, Paisley. The first decade of this century has been nothing but a stale rehash of a rehash of '60s-'70s-'80s styles. The colors are either blah or overdone, the cuts are neither becoming nor new, and the overall impression given is that we're in decline.


.

I agree that quality is bad, style was bland rehash, and bad trends that wre bad the first time are being revived. still, the late part of this past decade has seen a renewed interest in nicer clothes, overcoats, fitted clothes, etc. Kind of metrosexual thing plus a new dressier simple classic european look seems to be taking hold inn Seattle. Guys are actually looking better dressed than a few years ago.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"I have noticed in the last year the number of young folk sporting H U G E tattoos, Males and females, although I think the ones on ladies legs look most ghastly, Its only a matter of time before fashion dictates that the "Tattoo" is as dead as Maddona's fingerless Lace gloves."

 

[scottyrocks]

I absolutely cant stand the pants-below-the-butt look. I understand the socio-economic/'cultural' origins of this mode of dress, and that's part of what makes it so reprehensible to me, and especially when kids, not at that level, who have no idea why they are wearing it, wear it.

Other than that, I lived through the '70s, and have an especially strong dislike of shiny polyester leisure suits.

 

[Subvet642]

"I have noticed in the last year the number of young folk sporting H U G E tattoos, Males and females, although I think the ones on ladies legs look most ghastly, Its only a matter of time before fashion dictates that the "Tattoo" is as dead as Maddona's fingerless Lace gloves."

One can only hope!

 

[Edward]

hat I have enjoyed most about the 90s and into the 2000s has been the beginning of the demise of all-gengulfing, mainstream fashion. The world has changed enormously since the fifties. Look at a photo from the average major city centre back then - everyone looks mostly the same. Now? Whole range. No artist will ever have the mass appeal again that someone like Elvis did, no single television show is ever likely to have such a huge share of the audience as did the Queen's coronation.... the sheer multiplicity of choice we experienced in entertainment and media has led to a whole host more influences. I remember actually even pre net, about 1992 or so, one of my teachers remarking on how different we were than her (my parents') generation. She referred to us, positively, as 'individuals', remarking that in her generation everyone was the same, noone dared to do anything much different than everyone else. For that general shift in the culture, I will celebrate the 90s and the early 2000s.

The sixties I have an instinctive dislike for, simply because they have been so fetishised in popular culture by the generation that lived through it. Enough, already. There were many fashion crimes in the 70s, though I have a soft spot for the decade in general...especially when the Ramones and punk rock arrived and saved us all from the self-indulgent mess that popular music had become....

The eighties, now there was the real criminal decade - on so many levels, not just fashion. Lived through it once - never again.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

The one thing that I've notice in the 2000s, is that people seem to be less judgmental, at least here in the big eastern cities. It seems that fedoras and suits and everything else garners less quizzical looks than it used to. Hats are also much more common here in Boston than they were even five years ago, everything from hipsters wearing stingy brims and bowlers to big outback fedoras. I get far more "Nice hat" comments than Indiana Jones references now. I think the 2000s have opened people's minds a bit.

 

[Mike K.]

The one thing that I've notice in the 2000s, is that people seem to be less judgmental, at least here in the big eastern cities. It seems that fedoras and suits and everything else garners less quizzical looks than it used to. Hats are also much more common here in Boston than they were even five years ago, everything from hipsters wearing stingy brims and bowlers to big outback fedoras. I get far more "Nice hat" comments than Indiana Jones references now. I think the 2000s have opened people's minds a bit.

Very refreshing to hear this!! :eusa_clap