How do I make sense of trends when they range from maximalism to minimalism and seemingly everything in between? I’ve always drawn wardrobe inspiration from fashion magazines and street style, but lately fashion feels too fragmented to decode. How do I decide what to buy? — Sarah, Madison, Wis.
Fashion is simply a reflection of the world around it. Trends are fragmented because everything is fragmented these days: how we communicate, who we listen to, how we get information.
Once upon a time magazines were the power brokers of what to wear next. Editors attended the shows; decreed what styles, lengths and shades had reached critical mass; put them in their pages; and decided (or at least suggested) what everyone should buy to stay au courant. Now, thanks to social media, that role has also been assumed by influencers, celebrities, the cool kid next door. Pretty much anyone.
The result is that often everything seems like a trend (skinny pants! wide pants! bumster pants! high-waist pants!), which conversely means nothing is a trend. When even being anti-trend — deciding to buy nothing or at least nothing new — is trendy, you know we have reached peak trend Dada.
Recently my colleague Callie Holtermann wrote an article called “Too Many Trends!” (the headline really says it all), inspired by the young people she was encountering who felt overwhelmed by the conflicting and relentless messages they were getting about what was in and what was out. I asked her how they handled the situation.
She said the kids she interviewed told her that “the more chaotic the trend ecosystem got, the more important it was for them to pay attention to the internal signals of what they liked.”
She added, “They’d ask themselves: ‘Can I see myself wearing this in six months? How about six years?’”
From the mouths of babes and all that.
Because here’s the thing: When there is no way to make sense of trends, the best solution is to give yourself permission to ignore them. Another way of thinking about this is as an opportunity to develop personal style, a concept that has always existed outside of trends. The great dressers of the past — Katharine Hepburn or Shirley Chisholm or Grace Jones — had personal style, which is exactly why we still hold them up as models today.
And personal style is really just another phrase for “knowing your own mind” or “independent thinking.” Which, when it comes to clothes, is where we should all be going anyway. Why outsource that most personal of decisions — what you put on your body — to someone else?
Practically, that means spending some time thinking about what’s already in your wardrobe, what you actually wear (often only a fraction of it) and why. If, for example, you have been gravitating toward jackets and trousers, that means something. If you like skirts and sweaters or T-shirts more than dresses, ditto. If you like neutrals, that’s also a sign. Same thing with brights.
It’s not that you want to replicate what is already in your closet, but your gut is telling you something about how you want to be seen. Then you build from there. The idea is to buy things that coordinate with what you already own so it fits together like a puzzle. (Also, it’s more economical.)
And that means ignoring what does not mesh with what you have identified as your own dressing patterns. It also means — please! — no clothing that causes pain or in any way restricts your motion. Part of knowing your own mind is recognizing the silliness of that and being able to liberate yourself from the chaotic autocracy of the trend. It is, after all, an increasingly petty tyrant.
Your Style Questions, Answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or X. Questions are edited and condensed.
Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.
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