Decadent Decades...

I was watching a period film the other day, based in the 30's, and it dawned on me something that I've never noticed before. Within the past century or so there's been a cycle of clothing styles that changes nearly every 10 to 15 years or so.

In the 20's it was all about dancing & jazzin' it up with some style, the 30's were generally a lot of browns & blacks with sepia tones.

In the 40's, the sepia tones carried over but then to cope with war and to really get the parties goin' after the war, men began to wear jewel toned clothing and the women did what they could to attract the roaming eyes of the returning soldiers at the USO's.

The use of color climaxed in the 50's. If you look at different ads and appliance commercials from that era, people were very excited about colors it seemed. Then the early 60's came and people were sorta settling into their conservative and proper ways, almost to a fault.

But then came the British Invasion...those guitar wielding, long haired, butterfly collared Brits and their psychedilia an experimentation with drugs and trippy colors. Well, by the early 70's they'd nearly all burned out (with the acception of Glam).

And then, we all remember the horrendous styles of the mid 80's to early 90's. The dayglo, neon colors, zubaz pants and bright Ray Bans. We were more desperate than ever to consume and fit in with everyone else that our judgement went out the window.

Then what happened? GRUNGE! Dark colors, plaid and worn clothing was suddenly the big thing. But that was soon replaced by a semi-return to the stylings of the second half of the 70's, with a 90's skater twist.

Things haven't change TOO much since then, but the return of the mullet and hipsters with their accessories leave me hoping that we don't suffer from the same identity crisis that we all faced in the early 90's.

(This blog was not inspired by any reality shows such as Project Runway or America's Next Top Model)

that was an honest disclaimer