Classic style doesn't mean it doesn't change

[putalidonit]

I've read so many times people claiming that they don't follow trends. They say classics styles never date. Sometimes they go in to list some items along the lines of:

Blazers
Pencil skirts
Skinny jeans
Grey cashmere sweater
White shirt etc

I dispute this wholeheartedly!!!
Whilst I agree blazers and jeans and sweaters and shirts as categories are classic, the shape and style of each is absolutely trend led. There is no single shirt or blazer that is constant and always in style.

What surprises me is that some of the people proclaiming certain things are classic are old enough to know they aren't! Skinny jeans were not a thing in the 80s or 90s unless you were rocking a niche rockabilly look. The ones in the early 60s had a very high waist. The ones in the 2000s were low rise descending to crack revealing, the later versions were again high rise. Now they as an overall style are dated again.

White shirts have been fitted, oversized, man style, feminine, flouncy...and when one or two of those styles are in one or two would be definitely dated looking.

A small fitted blazer looks wrong atm. Oversized shoulder pads would have looked mental in 2000,

Categories of clothing may be classic but so style is perennial and people who don't shift just end up looking very dated and the complete opposite of stylish.

I've just been going through some boxes of old clothes. My pencil skirts are too short. They are just above the knee and it looks all wrong. My silk slip dresses are also wrong. Not long enough. Not short enough.

People are deluded if they think they are being stylish if they stick in a rut. I find it is people who are late adopters who do this. They do eventually adopt but just as a tend is waning and then because that particular trend has been around for a few years by then, they scathing declare that they are 'above' trends and like to think for themselves and they know what suits them. Makes me chuckle and roll my eyes. It wouldn't bother me except these people are always so dismissive and patronising suggesting anyone who enjoys and adopts new styles is a sheep and that they themselves are better

Hard disagree.

Levis 501s would have looked weird around 2010-15 when skinnies were ubiquitous.

Burberry trench coats are almost classic if you get one of the non seasonal designs, but I’ve got an above-knee one and while it still looks fine, long coats are the trend at the moment.

Pencil skirt - no. As a pp said, above the knee or even on the knee ones aren’t “right” at the moment. You can still buy them but they often have long slits or are super long. I know because they really suit me but I can’t find any to buy right now!

It’s all about oversized white shirts now, not fitted ones.

Breton top - a few years ago I bought one that I wore a lot. Now it’s too slim fitting (it’s not stretchy or fitted), too short. I’ve got another one more recently that’s a lot looser and has slightly flared sleeves.

LBD, absolutely not. There’s no style of dress that’s been on trend forever, whether it’s black or any other colour. An LBD is literally just a black dress - how could it be a classic item? This goes back to the OP (who I agree with) - yes, an LBD is always a useful item to have, like all the others in your list, but they definitely change in terms of all the details; fabric, length, loose/fitted, sleeves…

I don’t think there are any items that NEVER date. Maybe a plain wool jumper/turtleneck but it depends how you wear it and can’t be too fitted or too loose or have any detail or be in a trendy colour or or or…

I think people remembering Bach think there were skinny jeans when there weren't. Skinnies have been in and out but people who love them and insist they are a classic are reimagining jeans in the past as skinnies when they were actually stretchy slim leg jeans.

We had stretch denim drainpipes in 1978, they were ubiquitous

Levi 501s were definitely in in 2010-2015, this was prime 501 era, I was jealous of my rich uni friends who owned them.

I think the point of classic style is you know that it's not an on trend item but that it still looks good, which 501s do. Again a good fitting LBD will look good for years, but yes it would have to be quite plain

Someone wearing a burberry trench coat will look good.

@happyshineyperson , I disagree with you, because I dig out my 'classics' if I feel like it. In 2015, straight jeans like 501s weren't fashionable but I didn't see anyone clutching their pearls at them.

Classics IMO aren't fashion, but you can usually pull them out of the wardrobe if you feel like it, but you need to style them to look current. A lot of them are staples, or they are things that come round again.

So, 501s with a body and Dr Martens could look very 2023 or very 1988.

Ain't none of it classic though.

Classics? I'm not sure they exist.

It's quite a 'modern' idea in itself, that there are classic items.

I think it's only in the last 10 years or so that the idea of a 'classic' wardrobe was even considered.

@ProstituteHair , the concept has been round a lot longer.
I've been round for a few decades, and it was a thing in the 1980s too.

@KirstenBlest I too was around in the 80s!

I remember it being a 'thing'.

It wasn't though.

The concept is even written about (don't laugh) in the 1978 Judith Krantz book Scruples. Much of the book is about fashion, style and retail, with a lot of sex thrown in too.

I remember my mother buying me a Vogue fashion book about classic clothing and how to build a wardrobe. This would have been late 80s.

It's not a new thing, but will agree that it's something that been more mainstream these past few decades.

I remember Scruples and the Vogue fasion book. I do think that was just about when 'classic' became an idea because it was almost felt that fashion had reached an apogee and could go no further.

It was wrong, of course.

There was also a shortish phase which I think was about 86/87 where those snow wash jeans with ankle zips were in ( like acid washed jeans that looked a bit like the tv was one the blink) which I guess were a precursor to modern skinny jeans. Also, there was a period late nineties where no one wore them and it was all combats. It was Tony Blair’s fault for doing that photo shoot wearing jeans.

Anyway, agree with the OP but just reminiscing!

Given you know Scruples, you'll know part of the plot line of Scruples Two is built around the idea of classic items of clothing and creating a direct to customer catalogue full of them. That was published in 2009.

However, that's far too current and lacking any visuals, let's turn our attention to cinema - Breakfast at Tiffany's and Holly Golightly, a film made in 1961, the costumes supervised by Edith Head, some of which were made by Givenchy. Pretty much every single item of clothing she wears, from her black dress, white shirt (albeit a man's dress shirt), turtle neck sweater & black cigarette pants, and trench, are all classic items, not just now, but then too. Will have to rifle through my books but I have one where Head talks about the idea of classic pieces of clothing, and how she costumed the film. When I find it, will share.

Our wardrobes are built around classic separates. Just because you don't wear them or even acknowledge this fact, it doesn't mean it's not so, or that I am wrong.

I enjoy your posts, I admire your self-confidence and high self-esteem and really love your appreciation for and love of fashion. Indeed, I wish you would share actual pictures of your fabulous items, but you are not the final word on everything, and you are not always right.

Happy to agree to disagree with you, and respectfully will do exactly that.

Thanks for those pics, and you are right in your description