Sunday, December 05, 2004
Fashion Death Trends
White chocolate almond bark is super delicious!
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I've been wondering lately about the relationship between fashion and political trends. Is the recent popularity of "vintage" 40's and 50's fashion due to our more conservative political environment? Are we returning to the fashions of the old days (you know, when women acted like Presidential Stepford Wife Laura Bush) because apparently, a large contingent of people in the US (red states! ack!) really believe that the atomic age was a golden era? I truly believe these people wish they could have the Cold War back. You know, a time when men were men, women were women and Russians were really bad spy dudes with furry hats. Things were so much easier to figure out then!
Wearing vintage clothing (and I don't so much anymore) used to be a way to differentiate myself from the masses; also, it was meant to be an ironic statement made with the (maybe a little smug) optimism of third wave feminist attitude...as in, see, I can wear a 50's housedress as fashion because we're so far beyond what it stood for! In the current climate, this doesn't quite fly 'cause things suck ass. As the threat to our control over our own reproductive rights increases and unions between gay couples are described as "immoral"...I gotta wonder...maybe vintage clothes mean something different in a Bush-era political context. And if it's not a vast right wing conspiracy to get women to look "proper" again, then maybe it just means something different to me personally. Crap. Because I do really love those round-toed pumps out now...
Maybe I am completely overthinking this and it's just a fashion that's been around for a while and now it's more mainstream and next year scrunchies or something will be popular.
***
I've been wondering lately about the relationship between fashion and political trends. Is the recent popularity of "vintage" 40's and 50's fashion due to our more conservative political environment? Are we returning to the fashions of the old days (you know, when women acted like Presidential Stepford Wife Laura Bush) because apparently, a large contingent of people in the US (red states! ack!) really believe that the atomic age was a golden era? I truly believe these people wish they could have the Cold War back. You know, a time when men were men, women were women and Russians were really bad spy dudes with furry hats. Things were so much easier to figure out then!
Wearing vintage clothing (and I don't so much anymore) used to be a way to differentiate myself from the masses; also, it was meant to be an ironic statement made with the (maybe a little smug) optimism of third wave feminist attitude...as in, see, I can wear a 50's housedress as fashion because we're so far beyond what it stood for! In the current climate, this doesn't quite fly 'cause things suck ass. As the threat to our control over our own reproductive rights increases and unions between gay couples are described as "immoral"...I gotta wonder...maybe vintage clothes mean something different in a Bush-era political context. And if it's not a vast right wing conspiracy to get women to look "proper" again, then maybe it just means something different to me personally. Crap. Because I do really love those round-toed pumps out now...
Maybe I am completely overthinking this and it's just a fashion that's been around for a while and now it's more mainstream and next year scrunchies or something will be popular.
