A Shift in Style

[Pinkshoes71]

As I type this it sounds quite obvious but I will carry on anyway. Every Autumn / Winter, my go to feel good and comfortable no brainier outfit is coated skinnies and a slouchy jumper. This has been the case for a number of years with small tweaks ie ankle boots have got chunkier etc. yesterday I dressed in this just to walk up to the local pub and it was just wrong. I am in my fifties, peri menopausal and have gained weight but it wasn’t any of those things. Changed into straight jeans, trainers and plain cashmere jumper and felt better. I just feel a bit what happened?? Obv styles and trends change but it wasn’t really ever trend led anyway. Anyone else felt the same? Sorry probably a bit obvious like I say, just mulling it over really.

@Pinkshoes71 maybe you were just having a bad day? Outfits both sound absolutely fine to me.

I don't know what my style is these days

Are you the same person you was when you started wearing that outfit? We all change a little bit all the time, evolve, and what we feel comfy in evolves with it, but sometimes we just feel a tiny bit not ourselves, then a bit more, and more, but we don't realise until the outfit is just suddenly not us.

Sounds like you already have an outfit that is more you planned in though ☺️

Because the silhouette has changed? Coated jeans and a slouchy jumper was a go to for years but now wider legs and shorter jumpers are more current.

It trickles into your subconscious and suddenly a favourite outfit feels wrong.

You say your style wasn't really trend led but I'd argue that an outfit of skinnies plus slouchy top doesn't come from nowhere. That silhouette was a trend, albeit a very long lived one, and inevitably it moves on, although not as fast as some people might think.

So yes, I've been there many times, and it absolutely fascinates me how your eye changes, and how an outfit you thought you'd wear forever suddenly starts to look 'off''. And it fascinates me even more how 20-odd years later it can come back around and start looking good again.

No, I suppose I’m not really the same person that started wearing this outfit a few years ago. I started a new job this year after wfh for a number of years and it’s been a real eye opener as to how old I seem to be thought of. I read a lot on the S&B boards and would consider myself to still be sort of fresh and interested, I just don’t know. I think it doesn’t help that the oversized look that persists in the shops does nothing for me as a shorty with a belly and wide shoulders 🙄

Styles change.

coated jeans and slouch jumpers definitely had more than a moment and were an absolute staple of influencers like mrs casual, but as PP said, things move on: volume, wider legs, cropped lengths all started making a comeback and now some of what we really loved feels dated.

look at skinny jeans as a perfect example. 5-6 (?) years ago this board was full of people saying skinnies would have to be prised off them. I rarely see them these days.

I'm 64 and have lived through so many style changes... I wore skinnies, (without Lycra, ouch), and baggy jumpers at university then baggier trousers with short tighter tops in my twenties. Then morphing into the happy days of leggings.

I've noticed that looks go on a lot longer than they are 'supposed' to in the fashion press, because we get used to them, but yes, it does eventually work its way through. Today I'm wearing wider legged ankle length cords and a short jumper, so the change has even got through to me. It's not flattering but it is comfortable and I am 64, so being flattered isn't a priority.

I do now also have some longer cords that I wear with platforms, and a shorter top, that look good, so maybe try something like that? Takes me right back to my teenage years when I wore almost identical outfits!

It's funny when you just have that moment isn't it? Sometimes a style you've been wearing (and liking!) for years just looks a bit wrong. For years, my go to work outfit has been skinny trousers, angle boots and a blazer. But all of a sudden, just before Christmas, it started looking wrong. I've bought some new bits in the January sales (wide legged trousers, different type of boots to wear with them plus a couple of midi skirts) and I'm excited to try them out.

I'm also wearing wide legged trousers and a shorter cardigan today

However I prefer longer tops that cover my derrière

I was that person who said you couldn’t take my skinnies away from me! Only last year I remember chatting with a friend about how I couldn’t go back to wide leg jeans after wearing them as a teen. Then suddenly this year I’ve found my skinnies really uncomfortable, so have embraced a wider cut. It was just a sudden realisation I didn’t want to wear those jeans anymore, after years of not wearing any other style

As you say yourself OP that is just how trend shifts work. It's not a switch, and can take decades, like the technology adaptation curve which is actually steepest near the end. Especially if your lifestyle means you don't keep your eye in (no, Pinterest/IG doesn't count), at the very tail end of a trend there may will be that sudden realisation you're dressed so differently to everyone else that you stand out (unintentionally).

I think a lot of spats about trendy/dated X on this board are due to people in early majority vs late majority bubbles. For most of the trend cycle, both are 'right' and both a substantial % of the population.

It's interesting isn't it? I don't know if trends move more slowly now, but I was at the Chanel exhibition recently, and I could tell when garments were from the late 1920s or the early 1930s. I'm not sure I could do that now, as regards things that are current or from, say, 10 years ago. Do we have a wider range of styles now? Or am I just rather obtuse or not enough into fashion? I've never been that interested in being fashionable but I still recognise and reflect trends.

I find it really interesting. I can only really spot the dominant style of a decade when I look back in time, and I need a distance of at least ten years, if not longer, before I've got enough perspective to see it.

There's certainly a a wider range in current jeans styles compared to 10 or 20 years ago but I'm not sure that it applies universally. I think the range of on trend shoes, for example. is astonishingly limited at the moment.

I'm 63 petite size 10/12 I would love to find some wide leg jeans to suit me, I don't wear my skinnies as much, I wear the lily jeans from m&s only one step up from skinnies, but all the wide leg jeans I have tried seem to not fit so well, too much fabric around the bum hips thighs, I'm very slim on the hips/bum, and I can't wear heels, any suggestions of jeans that might suit me would be gratefully received.

@lindyloo57 I have the Hush agnes jeans they come up big but I find the waist/hip ratio good as I’m quite straight up/down

Thanks all! I should probably have a big trying on session of different styles as I am probably more out of touch than I thought. Will have a look at the Hush jeans. I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you know what will and won’t suit you in terms of your body shape without acknowledging that your shape has changed.

https://www.matchesfashion.com/products/Raey-Find-organic-cotton-straight-leg-jeans-1448715
@lindyloo57 I like these? Not many sizes left unfortunately.

@Pinkshoes71 yes they look as if they could work, my size is out of stock.

Will take a look at the hush ones

I haven’t worn coated skinnies for a few years now and my Weight watchers coach was the last person I saw wearing them for a night out this month, she’s 40s and is sort of fashionable but not bang on trend.

I wear skinny jeans but have got straight legged ones last year too.

MmePoppySeedDefage what sort of platforms with your cords please?! I am short , love cords … these sound great ! Thanks !

Fascinated by the tech adoption curve and the link to fashion that you made @OnlyCorrect. There was a thread about a pair of boots recently with a small mid height heel placed right at the rear of the heel. To me it looked very current but lots of other posters found it very dated. I think your curve might help explain that (although I’m not sure where I would be on the curve 🤣)
I know exactly how you feel though OP. I am happily wearing something and feeling roughly contemporary (for someone who doesn’t work in London in the creative industries)but all of a sudden you realise it’s wrong and has to consigned to the wear to do the gardening pile. I guess it’s because that creative Londoner’s silhouette has hit the mainstream. Our age plays a part too perhaps. The body skimming or even body con Gucci I wore 15 years ago would look a bit daft on me now, even if fashion hadn’t moved on.
@Floisme I have also found it hard to pin down what has defined recent fashion decades. I enjoy being able to date a 20th century piece too.
You mentioned shoes- and those really thick soles on boots and sandals will define this period I think as they seem to be a new style and not a revival from a previous era. The other thing that seems ‘normal’ now but isn’t if you look at the wider picture would be hemlines. There seems to be a choice of midi, midaxi or maxi in dresses and skirts, although the mini hangs around of course not quite being at the forefront of fashion. Coats have got very long too. Coats and dresses which end on the knee or just below seem to belong to the 2000 -2010s?

Imnotadentist funny you should mention hemlines - I've been having a wardrobe sort out today and I've put away several knee length skirts, dresses and coats which feel too short at the moment. I'm sure I'll be digging them out again in a few years time but right now my preferred length (although admittedly I don't wear skirts or dresses very often) is either midi or slightly longer - just above the ankle.

Yes coats seem to have got very long this season.

and boots have got chunkier. I have a pair of Chelsea boots that are about 7 years old that I used to wear with dresses/skinny jeans, but they feel very wrong now with trousers. Got a new pair for Christmas they feel much better with wide leg jeans. People talk about Chelsea boots being timeless but even that isn’t true!