To think that caring about what is fashionable is childish?

[QuertyGirl]

Or at least portrays a massive lack of confidence?

I can understand it in teenagers- you're still developing both physically and as a person and conformity is safety.

But for adults? Why would an adult choose clothes because they're "in" as opposed to whether or not you, personally suit them?
That they make you happy, comfortable or make you comfortable?

See plenty of threads on here asking exactly that.

It’s harmless fun, surely? I have no idea what’s on trend, I just know what I like and what I’m comfortable in, but if someone wants to knows everything there is to know about the latest looks then good for them! Live and let live I say!

Yes, I find it shallow and boring.

I totally disagree - I think BRitish women really lack style compared to most other european countries and you can spot a brit abroad due to their lack of dress sense. I am brtish by the way - and probably also got no dress sense.

I don’t care about what is in fashion but there are other frivolous things I do enjoy. I think we all have our various enthusiasms and that’s fine, it just a bit of fun as long as we don’t look down on others for not liking what we enjoy or enjoying things we don’t it’s all just part of the fun of life!

OP, you thinking following fashion is childish makes you sound very childish (and narrow-minded)

You're talking about dressing well. I'm talking about following fashion. Not the same thing at all.

And who is the police of which it is? You may dress well, and wear outfits that are also currently in fashion. Someone looking at you isn't to know which reason has motivated you to dress that way, and frankly it's weird to spend so much time thinking about it 

Because you don't want to look dated. I like to look classic with a nod to fashion. I am in my 50s. I don't want to wear the same styles e.g wide trousers for work circa 2000. I like to look neutral but even this involves keeping an eye on fashion. Even so called classic pieces can look dated when worn altogether. It is just a part of looking well groomed.

People like the OP remind me of the cerulean sweater scene from The Devil Wears Prada.

Like it or not, your tastes and your choices are under constant influence from the world around you, including the fashion industry - and that includes people who consciously choose to kick against norms and trends. People who are interested in fashion are just more conscious of those influences and enjoy the art behind them. You don't buy or wear clothing in a vacuum and it's strange to me that you would consider yourself more of a grown-up for thinking otherwise.

Someone who thinks there is only one current trend or 'fashion' in clothing is quite uneducated and childish. In my opinion. There is a vast array of styles encompassed with in the term 'fashion' or 'fashionable'. Fashionable clothing, like art, is completely subjective. If you think people into current fashion trends all look the same then you need to get out more.

I really wouldn't say that fast fashion is harmless. Harmless to tye wearer, legal slavery to the women forced to make the garments in sweat shop type conditions.

There was a documentary about Indian women who worked for one of the big fast fashion chains (oh they do care) and she said the women all tried to strike, the owners called a meeting fooling the women into thinking they could negotiate better working conditions/ pay. What actually happened was they locked the doors and beat the women up terribly.

Another woman had to send her daughter to live with relatives in the countryside (who was looking after other children in the family for the same reasons) She was working so long and so hard that the child was alone for a lot of the time and so instead she heat the hild away qnd sent whatever money she could to keep her.

Another story was workers complaining about the building they worked in, the walls were crumbling and the workers were worried about their safety. The building collapsed killing everyone inside.

This isn't even touching the ecological problems caused by fast fashion.

Charity shops, passing on clothes and picking classic cuts that suit you really will change the world.

I think at least some of this is comparing apples and oranges; nobody walking around in an outfit that was on a catwalk or in the pages of Vogue lately is in any danger of 'looking like everybody else'. So I assume that we're talking about high street fashion, which is not the same thing, or at least not before many months of trickling down through the filters.

I buy virtually everything second hand and wear it for a long time, but I still give myself the once over before I go out to make sure I don't look completely batshit (or if I do, that I'm comfortable and my clothes fit properly). I'm as mystified by the 'should I wear X or Y?' threads as anybody else, but I don't think they're generally anything to do with fashion and tend to be more about insecurity and whether women of X age/size 'ought' to wear whatever it is.

It's a matter of value and opinion. I don't care what's fashionable. If you're into fashion and do, I'm not going to judge you unless you criticise my clothes.

Why would an adult choose clothes because they're "in" as opposed to whether or not you, personally suit them?
That they make you happy, comfortable or make you comfortable?

It's not mutually exclusive. It is possible to wear fashionable clothes that you suit, are comfortable and make you happy?

Why is is any more childish than any other interest?

I find it fascinating what some brands manage to persuade younger people to wear. Some of the styles that came in this year looked like what my mother would choose. A few years ago my adult children were teasing me about sketchers, but all three have been persuaded by the industry to buy them (from the street style range). Apparently colbat blue is coming in, it's a colour that I love and I contrast my handbag, so it allows for orange/pink/yellow bags. So I'm happy.

I don't know if its childish but I never really cared all that much about keeping up with the latest clothing fads and trends. I didn't care about fashion at all until I started secondary school where you'd be mercilessly bullied for not following all the trends, once I'd left I went back to not giving a shit again. I really don't like being told what I should or shouldn't like/think/wear etc or the idea that I should be mocked or ostracized if I'm not just like everyone else. I like what I like and I'm happy for other people to like what they like.

Have you considered why there might be a lack of confidence behind the posts that you see on here? They generally come from women who have lost themselves a bit in the maelstrom of pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood, then when they are ready to re-engage with their professional and social lives realise that all of their knowledge about fashion is out of date and that they need to dress a body which might have changed size and / or shape. What could possibly be wrong with asking for some guidance in those situations and who the fuck do you think you are, calling them childish?

@ThanksItHasPockets Nailed it.

"This stuff"? Oh. Okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets?

Miranda Priestly : I think we need a jacket here.
[Nigel nods, leaves the room]

Miranda Priestly : And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores, and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs. And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room... from a pile of "stuff".

No I care how I feel it makes me feel good I like to be put together

Sometimes cheap fashion is just so frustrating and annoying.

I went to look for a couple of t-shirts in a supermarket a while ago - every single one had a ridiculous frill or flounce, either on the hem or on the sleeves.

So I have to wait a year or even two years to buy a 'normal' t-shirt, or perhaps venture out to an actual clothes shop and pay three times the price, or go online and take my chances with really poor quality of fabric and workmanship.

This wouldn't happen if it were not for fashion, e.g. the supermarkets sold the same styles of plain clothes in a variety of colours, year-in-year-out. They don't of course because they want you to feel like you have to buy new t-shirts every year.

Or like when one of 'my' colours is fashionable, I buy enough t-shirts and jumpers in that colour to last a decade or more, because I know when it goes out of fashion, I won't be able to find that colour anywhere for years and years.

Following fashion shows a total lack of imagination, and the best compliment l ever get is " You have your very own look "
Sheep follow sheep, much better to be authentic and unique. I love that my 17 yr son is exactly the same as well as my sister who picks up most of her clothes from charity shops.

Because everyone who dresses to please themselves doesn't care about themselves. Yeah, ok then🙄
But QED.

Sometimes fashion is..

Fashion is an interest by itself. I think it’s no more childish than liking books or football or telly or scrapbooking or video games.

I could never do it because it seems entirely arbitrary whats “in” and I can never follow the rules (and I hate being uncomfortable so I’d rather wear a lumpy grey sack over a high end dress if it was more comfortable).

I feel very live and let live about it. It’s not inherently insecure to care about fashion, it’s only prickish if you declare that everyone should care and those who don’t are lacking in some way.

Each to their own, but I do get annoyed when I see how much money people spend on things like clothes or face cream, it's obscene to me. I tend to hide threads from style and beauty on active on mumsnet for this reason.

I do wonder if they use their children's drawings for inspiration....