Why I Ignore Fashion Trends
Fashion trends come and go faster than we can keep up.
Thanks in part to the proliferation of social media and fast fashion new trends are born weekly.
What can one do to remain relevant?
How can our bank accounts cope?
Where will we find space in our closets for all these new “must have” items?
Why I Ignore Fashion Trends
My personal style preference for vintage or secondhand clothing helps me avoid falling into the trend trap.
I’ve always thought that whatever everyone else is doing I want to do the opposite. Why be part of the crowd when you can stand out being yourself?
The most stylish women don’t follow trends, they make them.
They wear what they like, what suits their bodies and what makes them happy.
Stylish women do not rely on the fashion world to dictate what they should be wearing.
They don’t worry about what others think, if they should or shouldn’t be wearing a certain item or how to wear it.
Why You Should Ignore Fashion Trends
Trends come and go but personal style remains constant.
Well defined personal style isn’t dictated by trends.
Our body type, colour preferences and lifestyle should be our style guides.
Don’t depend on someone else’s sense of self to create your own.
Why Trends Exist
Trends were created to entice you into purchasing more. It’s a marketing ploy creating a need for new where none existed.
Of course you have seven pairs of jeans in your closet already, but you don’t own this pair of jeans. They have a frayed hem, embroidery, sequins, leather, high waist, low waist, skinny fit, wide leg…you name it.
The fast fashion business plan is based on creating constant desire for new.
Be aware of how marketing influences your choices.
Supporting fast fashion’s flawed unsustainable business plan is destroying our planet.
Make smart choices for your personal style and don’t be pushed around by advertisers, marketing and social media.
Do you feel pressured into keeping up with the latest fashion trends?
How does marketing influence your personal style?
Linking up with Patti for Visible Monday, Turning Heads Tuesday and Fancy Friday
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last 2+ years of blogging, it’s how good it feels to wear styles that express who I am from inside out, regardless of trend. Sure, I may sport a trendy thing for a while but that’s usually by accident. When I have worn trendy things, I feel like I’m trying too hard. So I stick to what feels right for me and it makes me happy.
As always, your style says, “This is Suzanne and I am amazing!” This is one of the many things that drew me to want to be your friend in the first place. You own who you are and express yourself through your very cool style. As I said elsewhere, seeing you do what you do inspires me so much!
– Sherry
http://www.petiteover40.com
Great post! Your points are so true for all the right reasons. I agree with. . .”Our body type, color preferences and lifestyle should be our style guides”. . Yet, so often I am caught up in the newest trend. Not because I’m going to run out and buy it, (I live on a strict budget) but because I used to own something similar back in day. Recently, the desire for a me-made wardrobe came back, but the price of fabric keeps me second guessing. Anywho. . the plan for this Summer is to only shop my closet.
I thought myself immune to fashion trends. But. I’m not.
Remember me asking you about the mules I had bought? I knew something was ‘off’ and it wasn’t until you said you didn’t really care for mules that I ‘remembered’ that I too don’t really care for mules. So…why did I buy in the first place? Well, quality materials and deep discount….and…mules are….TRENDING. LOL…not immune but I did save myself from myself and returned them.
On the plus side…
In the Indie sewing community, new patterns ‘trend’. Oftentimes I can, and do, resist buying a new pattern because it isn’t my style. However. Seeing various, real people, wearing their versions of the pattern on IG or on blogs can tip me in favour of ‘buying’ (reality: buying =sewing) into the trend… It can be a positive experience where I find I like a style that I didn’t think I could wear.
I don’t feel pressured to buy into trends, but I am certainly influenced by marketing. Mules. People. Mules. I feel much less outer influence by pattern designers. I think it may have something to do with the ‘scale’ or the ‘reach’ that a small pattern designer has? I don’t know for sure.
I certainly enjoy “knowledge” of the trends. I enjoy seeing the colors, the styling ideas, the embellishment options, and accessories but then I find it very satisfying to find ways to creatively modify or rethink what I already own or what is available in thrift and vintage that can “suggest” that new trend from a vintage perspective.
The last few years have been a revisit to the wonderful boho fashions from the 60’s and 70’s. Its been delightfully easy and fun to revive and reinvent my old hippie self.
When I read the phrase “I’ve always thought that whatever everyone else is doing I want to do the opposite”, I thought well, that’s me! I often do not even know what the latest fashion trends are. Lately, a cursory glance at the shop windows reveals quite a few things I like, which appear to be “in fashion”, but – apart from the jumpsuit I’d been wanting for ages – it’s no incentive to spend my money on them. If I do, it doesn’t feel right. I got quite a few compliments on my jumpsuit, but when I do, I start apologizing that it was bought new! xxx
AMEN!
you wrote down my thoughts – dear suzanne! i cant imagine why someone want to be a fashion victim…. but out there must be zillions of such people….hm?
you look like a diva in that dress!
xxxx
Knowing something is on trend is often a reason for me NOT to buy it. It makes me want to say “moo.” But sometimes I’ll buy something and later find out it’s on trend and think, was that REALLY an independent decision or was I influenced by the air?
Also, there didn’t use to be much selection of on-trend items in thrift stores. Not anymore. There’s always lots of new “old” things these days. The cycles are too fast! Our poor planet.
As the late, great Quentin Crisp once said “Fashion is for people who don’t know who they are”.
Send that dress my way when you’ve finished with it, will ya? xxx
Amen to this post! I love your personal style. 🙂
Hannah | The Outfit Repeater
I’m totally with you on this, Suzanne. I rarely read current fashion magazines. (I get a lot of my outfit ideas from my vintage magazine collections.)So most of the time the only way I know what’s trending is when I start to see a gazillion women on the street in the same look which then makes me not want to wear it. I find it funny when I get compliments on vintage pieces I’m wearing and when I say it’s over 40 years old, I’ll get, “Wow, that look is so “In” now.” Cracks me up. Because it never crosses my mind when I get dressed whether what I’m choosing is in style or not. It’s actually very liberating not to care. When your wardrobe choices aren’t dictated by trends, you have soooo many more options!
Theresa
http://www.vintagestylefiles.com
I’m so guilty of loving all the new trends…..i can’t even tell you why. I love the variety that something new is out, and maybe because I get tired of what’s in my closet? I’m terrible this way….
Maybe one day I’ll be happy with what I already have and not be so tempted to wear what the “trends” are…
XOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
This is a beautiful dress, and very much “You”. I’m glad you found some great pieces at Ian’s sale.
I used to read current fashion magazines so I knew what was “on trend”, but that didn’t mean I would buy any of it. I’ve always worn what I liked, which for most of my adult life meant incorporating vintage into an outfit. I don’t bother with the magazines anymore so I have no idea what is “in” right now. Occasionally I am surprised to find that something I’m wearing jibes with the current trend but it’s purely coincidence!
this is a fabulous dress and I think that these colors enhance your own personality! and you look so lovely on that sofá!
Sometimes I’ve felt enthusiastic about a trend that fits my style, only because it makes it easier to find clothes I like. But I refuse to take a ride on this ferris wheel of fashion. We’ve changed from flared jeans to skinny, from low waists to high, from shoulder pads to fitted suits, and the opposite!
Finally, it’s all about loving your own style and express yourself, so embracing secondhand, creativity and fun is so much better.
Lovely post!
I completely agree with your philosophy. And I must say that I adore this dress on you. The print is wonderful and the hem detail is superb. I like to follow the trends in terms of the visual stimulation and it sometimes encourages me to pull out older items in my closet that are “trending “ again. Like you, I seldom , if ever, go out to buy anything new just because it’s trending. At my age I own something or other that represents the newest thing.
However if something is trending that I have always loved, I might go out and buy new piece and I will keep it for many years, and likely decades.
❤️❤️❤️
Elle
https://theellediaries.com/
❤
I’m influenced by trends but love it BEST when I already have it in my own (long retained) vintage collection or I can find it at a consignment or charity shop. I also love doing my own thing just because I love a look or a piece and it’s unique.
I think it’s possible to stay on trend within a particular genre of clothing too ( western, boho, tropical, nautical). This can be great fun with vintage items that retain their cool, artistic, funky, or formal vibe forever!
❤
I don’t follow trends and I do buy things that suit me rather than those which are in fashion, but I do not have the creativity to go all the way like you do.
So I pick and choose from what is offered. And I love the dress you are wearing. Now this is indeed unique and very flattering.
Greetje
I completely agree and was only saying this exact same thing the other day. Most of my wardrobe is second hand and I just wear what I like and what I know suits me. I tend to keep most clothes for many years and sometimes don’t wear them all the time, but I know their time will come again. There are hardly any really new ideas so styles will always be rehashed, and if they are not then I don’t care if it’s something I really love as I’ll wear it anyway x