Anyone else dislike modern clothes?

[SnowyPheasants]

I'm not talking period costume as such, I don't even have a favourite era to speak of, but I do know that I don't much like contemporary styles.
I was watching an old series from my schooldays called Press Gang with Julia Sawalha, and realised that I loved the slouchy tops with a shorter flared skirt and tights. A very easy, 90's look with wavy natural hair, etc.

I also love slightly bohemian items, not lagenlook (it's all just too wide for my taste) such as drapey housecoats and rustic cardi's.
I find some brands sell clothes that I like, which have a sort of timeless appeal but they are astonishingly expensive. Maybe one or two pieces a year? Hard to justify in a way.

It seems anything goes now, but at the same time - it doesn't. I think our era will be remembered for leisurewear on the whole, which is great for practical reasons but somewhat shite for ..other reasons

Do any of you prefer clothes that aren't readily available on the current market?

I realised recently that my dream aesthetic is basically The Craft. I love that 90s, slightly grungy, strappy dresses over long sleeved tops with flannel shirts look, as well as some of the stuff they wear in the darker parts of the film.

I can't find anywhere that will indulge me in this dream ☹️

I kind of like that aesthetic too, although with a more romantic edge. Whenever I see stuff like this now it's cheaply made and for young teens :(

When I watch Friends, I think how much I loved how they dressed. Think their clothes still look good now tbh. I hate the badly made, frumpy, polyester crap we are palmed off with these days!

Oh definitely. I really like the Dark (and light) academia pinterest type outfits, and anything that looks brings to mind librarian. @RedDwarfGarbagePod totally agree with 'The Craft, could happily dress as though I were on that set indefinitely.

At the other end of the spectrum the cottagecore trend is incredibly cute, albeit not wearable for me. I do also like lagenlook on others but just feel I couldn't ever pull anything like that off. I think what makes half of these 'aesthetics' look good is the ability of the wearer to commit to them in full, down to accessories and hair etc, have bags of confidence and lean into the types of styles that work for your body shape- or at least know how to bend the style to fit your body shape.

Absolutely. The fashion from Friends was gorgeous.

I agree about the material types available now. There were more natural fibres within reach cost wise in the years gone by. I really think the fashion business is now cheating when it comes to quality material.

It always strikes me how much nicer, and weightier, the fabrics are in men's clothes. Proper cotton, lovely tweed and corduroy. And the colours are better too.

But I think the Friends era - early 90s to early noughties - was during the heyday of cheap fashion, when Top Shop ruled, when clothes production had moved overseas and prices were coming down (or at least levelling off) but we hadn't yet started seeing a significant drop in quality. Looking back, it was great fun but completely unsustainable.
So I don't think it's that fashion is cheating us now, I think it's more that we're being asked to pay a more realistic price for it, and it's a shock.

For me, it isn't even about the quality, my OP is really concerning styles. Even brands that offer high quality now don't excite me.

At any given time there are trends that bring me out in hives. Ten years ago it was body con things with peplums, and now it's ginormo puffed sleeves and tiered frock horrors.

I agree. I hate polyester tops, I can’t stand the cold-shoulder trend from a few years ago or the high necklines that are in fashion now, or the angel sleeve thing.

I think the solution is to learn to sew. I don’t make even close to everything that I wear but it’s certainly made me more critical of what I buy and less likely to buy something ‘good enough’.

I have a few vintage single-stitch t-shirts, and the cut and material there suits me a lot more than a lot of modern t-shirts. A couple are from the 1990s, the others I don't know, 80s-90s. One is even a women's t-shirt, or at least was being sold as such! Whereas for modern purchases, I don't buy women's t-shirts at all, only men's or unisex (which in practice is a men's cut, sometimes you read that it's a unisex cut and therefore sized down from men's sizes, but this depends). Even compared to the modern unisex cuts, there are big differences: the crew neck is broader, the fabric is often a bit thicker and sturdier, the short sleeves are longer, while in terms of the cut, the 1990s ones at least seem wider on the shoulders without the same widening in the chest. I've discovered them this year and they're really working for me.

I don't follow fashions so I only notice some when I become aware that I'm seeing something more and more. I've used to finding that shops stock a lot of ugly things (and even more things I wouldn't wear, but that's a different judgement) but I did have a few moments in the past couple of years where I was astonished by just how ugly everything I saw was!

Anything that's white seems to be made to be vaguely see-through now. I don't want my bra to show.

Really hate crop tops. Beyond that, I have a general complaint about cuts, in that even normal length tops are often cut too short for me (many of them are 23 inches) and that they're too narrow in the shoulders (which is a measurement no online shops ever want to give you!) Even plain long-sleeve tops for layering in nice colours and nice material is something I'm struggling to get - either there is something weird in the cut that it pulls somewhere, usually when I'm moving arms forward, or it's all synthetic fabric, or mud colours, or whatever. Should be such a simple thing.

If i was to learn to sew to escape it, I'd also have to know how to knit, make coats and possibly shoes I wish I had the time!
I don't go into my closest town centre often nowadays, something changed just before covid struck, most of the stores shut down leaving only poundland and primark, most shoppers moved on and what remains is troubled to say the least, quite sad as it used to be a diverse, thriving place.

I went today, discovered there's still a New Look alongside the Primark. Everything so cheap and garish, lurid colours and terrible 'knits'. People seem to have chosen this, and most here are not poor. Sports stores still doing well, I'm beginning to feel a bit alien.

Heck you don't need my life story, but I am still a bit shocked and saddened at what became of the place.

I too like the 90's academia look, big wool coats, slouchy hats, boots, small prints and more natural hairstyles. I suppose it is time to buy much less and at higher quality - did this anyway to some extent but need to refine! Even high end depresses me, and the high street is a mess....no I ain't forking out £245 for a polyester dress, crrikey!

I've bought quite a few 70s and 80s things on Vinted and I have had so many compliments on my new outfits.
I've had to have a few alterations done (just taking the longer dresses and skirts up a bit) and the tailor I used was gushing about the fabric quality of them. And a lot of them have pockets!! Proper pockets! Yep, I'm a convert!

.

I absolutely loathe hate and detest the quality of fabrics and clothing over the last 20/25 years. The fabrics are cheap and nasty synthetics, the quality of stitching etc is abysmal, huge stitches with very little seam allowance so fabric pulls away from seams when you so much as look at them. Years ago t shirts didn’t go into these mysterious little holes on the fronts because the length of the staple of the cotton used didn’t used to be the cheap cottons used now… I could go on and on… Horrible horrible horrible!

i would love to hear more about what you want!