What is Fashion? It is an ever changing idea of what is “in style” and how each person uniquely wears the latest trend. Each decade embodies a different ideology of style and how it is remembered during its era. The 20’s roar flapper dresses, pinstripe suits, and long cigarettes while the 50’s shout Audrey Hepburn and the first all American stylish housewife. The 70’s scream bell bottoms and psychedelic prints while the 80’s rock big hair, leggings, and loud makeup. Then, the 90's captivated a laid-back grunge vibe with Kurt Cobain leading the way. With the decade 2010 coming to an end, what will be remembered of its time?
The idea that fashion occurs in circles and that “what’s old will eventually be new again” is no new thought, but the 2010’s brought a whole new meaning to the idea. The decade borrowed legends from the fashion time capsule of all eras and put a new twist on every style it stole. The ruffled and layered dresses that hit every runway in recent years resemble very closely to the flapper dresses that the 20s made famous and the leather bomber jackets that the Greasers of the 50s inspired were sported by every kind of girl in this past decade. The 70s were re-embraced with all things jean that the 2010s are sure to be remembered for. Designer jeans became the must have whether the favorite was Sevens, Joes, James Dry Aged Denim, True Religion or Citizens of Humanity. Every girl had to own her own pair and wore them with everything to everything from Saturday weekends in the park to Friday nights out paired with sky high heels and dressy tops. Then, the 80s rolled back in the flesh and undeniably stood out. The straight legged pant, leggings, booties, and smoky eyes were undoubtedly a borrowed treasure that the 2010’s weren’t afraid to flaunt and loudly! Every girl wore “skinnies”, as they came to be known, whether tucked into her favorite boots or with her sexiest pair of heels.
With so many hidden treasures of the past being brought back in the 2010’s, what was their own? The decade was inspired by trends from all eras, but it also is sure to be remembered for its own style and edge. The years paired unlikely matches together and made them shine. For example, leather and lace (edgy and pretty) became new found BFFs (best friends forever, an acronym among many, LOL, OMG, etc. that are surely to be famed of the decade as well). Also, new found pals, the chunky belt and frilly frocks. Every girl had her own version of the belt and dress combo and made it an icon of the era. Then, there were boots. Boots of all kinds, knee high, over the knee, stiletto, platform, ankle, flats, fur, leather, every kind on every girl and worn with tucked in jeans, dresses, leggings and every which way. While on the subject of shoes, it can’t be ignored the heels of the era reached an all time high soaring to limits of 6 inches with designers Steve Madden, Jessica Simpson, Manolo Blahniks, and Gucci all introducing their own versions of the sky scraping stilettos. They were sure to make every girl look tall, feel sexy, and learn an all new meaning to the ability of balance and poise.
Above everything, 2010 sported an array of trends and styles and showed ever type of girl from preppy to bohemian chic how she could make them her own. The decade had so many great ideas from past sister decades along with the new fads of its own that made it such a glamorous, creative, and fashion crazed ideal for every woman to embrace. With the expertise and energy it exerted in style, its sure that the sister decades are not bitter, but proud of the way the 2010’s reinvented their ideas and all together created an image of American fashion and vogue of its history yesterday and today.
