Trends that you just can't "do" because of the fashions of your youth

[EoinMcLovesCakeJumper]

Not a very snappy thread title, but I shall try to explain! I was a teenager throughout most of the 90s and all the fashion magazines I read during my impressionable years said that:

Slim, properly shaped eyebrows are as good as a facelift
Bootcut jeans balance out a pear shape or heavy thighs
Tucking in your top emphasises your tummy
Ankle boots with skirts make your legs look shorter and chunkier

Consequently, I will never be able to embrace thick, drawn-on eyebrows, skinny jeans and jeggings, tops tucked into high-waisted trousers, or ankle boots with skirts. I am aware that this probably dates me pretty accurately to within a couple of years and probably makes some people think of me as frumpy, but I still can't do it!

I do think, though, that the principles I was told still hold true, but people now are just less concerned with "hiding" things like heavy thighs and tummies than they were when I was growing up. I wish I could feel similarly, but I guess it's just ingrained in my thinking now.

What recent or current trends have you struggled with because it went against advice you were given when younger?

I never will read Catcher In the Rye again - self-indulgent little tick that he is. No, I have no issues with wearing things that I wore before, as long as they suit me. The 90s revival is a bit baffling to me, because surely it was only five minutes ago (!) and it probably is the first time I've been able to remember trends from the first time around. I was still a child in the 80s so I didn't really do fashion then - although the mismatched luminous socks craze made its way to our playground at one point!

See that's the great thing about being a bit of a goth - fashion just rolls off you like a water off a duck's back! Although that said I wouldn't be seen dead in the floaty tasselly skirts I wore in the 90s, I'm more Vampire's Wife in my dreams these days.

Still have the 90s skinny brow however. The bastards refused to grow back.

I find it weird to wear high waisted jeans, jeans were always worn on the hips. I’m beginning to see the virtues now, warmer, less risk of a muffin top, less risk of flashing your knickers....

Yes of course he's an annoying little tick but he's other things too and, when you read it in late middle age, you see things you didn't notice at 17. Same with Frasier - the first time around I watched mainly for Niles and Daphne but now it's Martin I'm watching. And I re-read Pride and Prejudice every couple of years and each time I see something new in it.

Anyway I'm over-egging this but I do think it's similar with clothes. You're not the same person 20 years on and you see them differently, wear them differently. Of course not everything suits you the second or third time time but it can work the other way too.

I'm fine with missing out on some things. I've read thousands of books in my lifetime and I do re-read a few favourites occasionally, but I'd much rather discover new things than revisit the ones I didn't get on with. I doubt JD Salinger's reputation will suffer from my lack of support. I read it when I was in my 30s, incidentally!

I don't know what you're getting at re clothes because I've agreed with you. I will wear revival clothing if it suits me, whether it did the first time around or not. My original point was more about feeling weird about wearing things that go against the "rules" I absorbed in my youth.

I can never wear gold jewellery after being a goth in the 80's, only silver will do for me.

I definitely wore midi length skirts in the 90's.

I had the knitted tube type skirts that floisme mentions (late 90's) and a few hippy kind of skirts which I wore with boots in the winter. Also wore the pleated skirts mentioned in my previous post early 90's although these were occasion / work clothes rather than casual.

I was mid 20's - mid 30's rather than a teenager though.

@EoinMcLovesCakeJumper I definitely get what you mean about things going against 'style ' rules you were taught for your shape . The bootcut vs skinny jeans or the round neck vs v neck tops.

However I have found that my feelings on this go a little bit with what everyone else is wearing so although I may have initially been insistent that someone with my pear shape can't wear skinnies, after a while I would start feeling a bit 'off' in my non-skinnies and now my thoughts are that with a longer top and the right shoes they actually slim my legs down. Whereas in actual fact they look exactly the same!

I've seen svelte young ladies with gazelle-type legs wearing a mini-skirt plus ankle boots and they honestly look like they are wearing short gardening wellies as the boots are too big around the ankles.
They've got the legs & figure for the look according to the fashion mags but even on them, the ankle boots look really unflattering so what hope is there for the rest of us???

I'm about your age and it's so true. I still have boot cut jeans though.
I've always favoured comfy over fashion

It wasn't specifically addressing that to you Eoin - well obviously the Catcher in the Rye references were but it was also a response to the general vibe from a number of post.
I also think revisiting books and movies can be fascinating and very rewarding but as I can see I'm repeating myself, I'm out of here

Maybe I have a more rebellious nature than I thought, but I fervently believed all these rules in the 90s too (I'm the same age as you OP) and have loved breaking them over the last decade or so!

I remember all the dreaded "ankle swinger" taunts when someone wore slightly-too-short jeans. Equally, high waists or tucked-in tops were tantamount to social suicide. Nowadays I love both and really enjoy experimenting with different denim shapes - it's interesting how they have a knock-on effect on the rest of the outfit and transform the silhouette.

Having said all that, the return of (some) 90s fashion is also an exciting development! As PPs have said, it's all the revolving door/ pendulum of fashion, isn't it.

See I can’t do any make up that doesn’t look natural with the exception of cat eyes or red lipstick. Just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

I can’t stand sporty clothes. I don’t get it.

Can’t do boot cut jeans. I think they look horrible on everyone.

I was a hipster back in the day.

Does anyone know what the equivalent rules are for today's teens? To my eye, it looks like anything goes - I see teenagers and students around town in skinnies, flared crops, bootcut and everything in between. It feels like more clothing styles are available/ acceptable.

But of course I'm horrendously out of touch - would be really interested to hear what teenagers would consider a complete no-no. Of course it probably varies across different "tribes" too but in the nineties it really felt like a crime to tuck a top into a high waistband

I definitely see young women wearing things that I and most of my peers would not have done at their age unless we had what was deemed to be the figure for them. Short skirts were for girls with slim thighs, crop tops were for those with a thin waist and flat stomach , leggings required you to wear a long top that covered your bum, especially if it wasn't a small bum. They seem not to care now, which I think is great. Women shouldn't feel like they have to meet some mythical standard of sexiness before they're allowed to wear certain garments.

I wish I could agree. I'd rather not see some of the outfits I see.

Eyebrows. My eyebrows in the 80s were ridiculed for how bushy they were. I’ve still got the same eyebrows, but now they are too thin and my threading lady always asks me if I want to HD them.

I’m a slave to V neck for big boobs advice from the Trinny and Susannah years.
But I do love the ankle grazer length of trousers. I’m 5ft10 they used to be called half mast and I’ve been wearing them for years and years. I’m delighted I’m now fashionable.

Can I fan-girl @Floisme please? I've loved your S&B advice since the thread where you bought enormous wide leg cords. Ever since I've wished I could pocket you to dispense fashion know-how whenever I'm in a tricky decision situation any shop.

A couple of wildcards like Medieval Scotland, clairvoyants, and Funk Penguin. Just when I thought I'd seen it all, done it all and was resigned to repeating fashion's endless cycle, @PowerHooper comes to my rescue!

I'm in my early 40s and I just cannot tuck tops into trousers, I'm not sure if it's because it was lame back in the day, or because I'm highly anxious about my tummy!
I love the fact jeans can be a little short as I'm tall and find getting decent length jeans hard where I live.
I'm not sure I could wear boot cut jeans again but I love flared jeans and have ordered some straight leg jeans as I'm sick to death of stretchy skinnies.
What I HATE about todays fashion is the OTT make up that resembles a drag Queens. I love make up, I have loads all different shades etc but I still wear it in a traditional manner, you know, shade, highlight, line etc I just don't get the cut crease business, applying concealer on the lid over the eyeshadow etc... Its a no from me. I won't even start on the out of this world eye brows.

I cannot wear anything maroon-y as it was my school uniform colour. I made a mistake a couple of years back of buying a beautiful cable knit maroon jumper. It took me right back to 1993 and Mr Taylor's geography lesson

If you cannot wear ankle boots with skirts, what do you wear? I missed that memo and think knee high boots are really old fashioned now.

I love boot cuts. They flatter my shape and I have never stopped wearing them

Oh funny, not the response I was expecting when I read the thread title!!

It's not because fashion dictated rules in my youth and I can't break them. There's things in fashion now that I'd find hard to wear because they were fashions when I was young. Wearing them would make me feel like I'm trying to be young when I'm not - mutton dressed up.as lamb.

I loved my DMs as a teenager, as and wouldn't mind having a pair now (so comfortable!) But everytime I look at them in the shop I feel like I might be trying to relive my teenage years.

My 15 year old DD dresses like Wallis Simpson on a casual day. I think it’s hilarious that she dresses like my grandmother that she was named after! (I actually call her Nanna when she behaves like one too.)