The phenomenons that styled the 2010's

The people who define the styles to the masses, and who create visual representations of an era are not always the ones who create the most groundbreaking of silhouettes or introduce a new palette of color and idealism, they are the ones who give an audience a vision to conform to. With every decade and every era, priorities and fantasies of the general public change, and with that change in state of mind, comes a change in how we might dress, no matter how minimal or unbeknownst these interconnections might be. The 2010's have been a symphony of nostalgia, progression, minimalism, and an interdependence on the past, yet still an obsession with the future. And of course these qualities have been incorporated into the minimalistic, yet somehow daring wardrobe of the twenty-tens.

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With political tragedies and the rise of social media, ideals of reform and cohesiveness have taken hold. With that ,extreme boldness, promoting individuality has been an aspire for many fashionistas and designers. However toned down styling, that emits a sense of toughness and contemporization, and that holds a priority of vocal and operative forms of personification also seems to be an ideal code of dressing. Perhaps because of all the confusion and mayhem occurring, we are also fixating ourselves on the past, with our reoccurring love of scrunchies, vintage inspired shirts and jeans, and the eighties and nineties in general. For me, there are three places to view societies wardrobe, each emitting these transactions: firstly there is the area around you, typically full of normal people with normal jobs, where lately, as I have noticed does not seem to be very personified, with the usual causality and cuteness. secondly there is what you see online, a place buzzing with body con dresses, and futuristic fitness wear, sported by the Kardashians, and social media influencers. Lastly, there are the runway shows and the editorials that fixate on the two juxtaposing sides of conspicuousness and minimalism. What do these three wardrobes have in common? perhaps a lack of austerity. From the T-shirts and tennis shoes on school grounds, to the urban inspired streetwear, promoted majorly by the likes of Virgil Abloh, alexander wang, and Kanye West, to the jaw dropping creations of Iris Van Herpen and Pier Paolo Piccoli, visions are created in an approach towards progression and freedom. However the lack of austerity, and the surplus of gender bending silhouettes, there seems to also be a sense of pretentiousness and physical in expression. The fitness leggings, baggy clothing, the beige and the neon, and not to mention the blocky sneakers first created by Balenciaga, all seem to be enforcing ideals of Toughness and "being different". In a lot of ways, it feels as if we are trying to not take ourselves too seriously with our fashion decisions, with a sense of coolness and revolution. I think we need to stop taking ourselves too seriously on not taking ourselves too seriously. Another thing that feels is changing how women dress is this decade's priority of feminism. Something remarkable that has come out of this era is the outburst of people who are taking a stand against issues such as sexism, racism, and gun violence, amidst political travesty. Feminism is always making strides from everything to how women are treated to how they dress. Phoebe philo and Maria Gratzia Curi were and are creating looks that are letting women be perceived not just by their looks, by giving them well made clothing that are not too excessive to disrupt from what is in their mind. Also, pants, T-shirts, and athletic wear has become the normality of dress wear for both genders and statuses. However, what especially, social media is doing, is not only promoting this to women, but in its own way almost enforcing it, so that, even in an attempt to discard visions of what a woman is 'supposed to be', they are creating a whole new one- A woman who is not like other woman. I personally love to wear floral dresses ,colorful silk scarves and headbands, and i am constantly wondering if my way of dressing is causing people to no not look at me as an intellectual, mature human being. We as a society need to create foundations of not what or who a person should be, but ones that promote the ideals of feminism and individuality, without enforcing those aspects into singular specifications and dress codes.

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Personal observations have led me to my conclusion that our worldly fashion decisions have been at the faults of the social media outbreak. With Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc, there seems to be multiple ways to express ourselves to the world, and to our closest friends. This has become so popular and over used, that its almost as if it is not only another form of living, but a more important one all together. Perhaps we no longer feel the need to express ourselves, not only emotionally, but physically in our tangible day to day lives. On top of that, social media is also making trends much more accessible, so with these two factors put together, personable style seems to have become a minority. Its not that i have anything against people excluding their individuality in everyday clothing, because that does not mean that it isn't there, and means of comfort and inclusion are remarkably understandable in a tiresome and sometimes cruel world. So all in all the way I would describe the people of the 2010's would be ones that are living in a world still not devoid of prejudice and hardship, and who are bent on change and inclusion. I see this decade as a crossroads between two eras, both in living and dressing.