I’m going to make a point, so please bear with me through my ramblings.
I’d like to talk about fashion.
Something big’s going on, and I thought I’d spread the word.
Fashion – like history, society, religion, and politics – functions cyclically, by which I mean to say its trends swing back and forth, like a pendulum, from one extreme to the other and back again.
I’m talking about pants. Waistlines, more specifically. Unless you’ve been locked in a refrigerator in the basement of a dungeon at the South Pole for every part of the last century, you’ve noticed the waistlines on ladies’ pants. In the twenties, we wore our waistline at the hips. And please understand about the anatomy of ladies: we’re curvy. We have a waist, which is different from our hips. Gentlemen just have a waist. Their waist and hips are utterly interchangeable. So in the twenties, we ladies wore our waistline at the hips. Waistlines went up, and up, and up until the fifties – my grandmother still wears all her pants at the waist. As the fashion-pendulum swung back, the waistlines inevitably descended.
And here we are. Throughout most of my life, pants have risen to my hips and no higher. You know what I mean.
So I went shopping after Christmas, and I picked out new jeans. One pair “superlow,” the other “too superlow.” And guess what? They weren’t the superlow I remember. You can see it on the mannequins – waistlines are coming back up again. Of course, we won’t be wearing pants that cover our belly-buttons by next season. It’ll take a little while for that to happen. But we’re going to have to change how we think about pants. At least a little bit.
For one, you might not be totally comfortable with higher pants. I’m certainly not. It doesn’t always look good to wear a fitted (tight) top over higher pants. This means we might have to consider tucking in our tops or wearing looser tops. Another solution? Try skirts. Skirts are hot. For a few more seasons, we’ll be able to wear looks with leggings, but leggings only stick around for a few seasons at a time.
If you stuck it out this long, congratulations; I’ve made my point. Fashion. Cycle. Pants. Waists. Low. High. Low. A little higher. Tuck Shirts. Loose Shirts. Skirts. Leggings.
Naturally, fashion shouldn’t consume anyone’s life – but every girl needs to know how to dress herself. First impressions, and all that.
Do you have a contribution? Dish it up.