Why Was 80s Fashion So Ugly

Looks from Gucci'south Cruise 2017 drove. Photo: John Phillips/Getty Images

I was casually strolling through SoHo one weekend when I passed a man — a tourist, I presume — gesturing obnoxiously at the Prada flagship brandish window as he said, in a voice dripping with a mix of horror and disdain, "This, all of this — hideous." Not in the mood to bound to Miuccia Prada's defense, I moved on. Well-nigh a week later, I passed by the Gucci flagship on Fifth when another homo — some other tourist, likely — was staring at the luxury make'southward latest looks when he shook his caput, defeated, and shrugged: "I don't get it." Around that time, a "Last Week This night with John Oliver" segment aired in which the British host openly mocked a badass tiger-embroidered fringed black leather jacket by Gucci, incredulously wondering who would shell out $6,000 for this aesthetically offensive article of clothing. Um, I would? Yous know, if I had a few thou to spare.

It's true that these were all cis males and stereotypical gender norms dictate that they don't know what they're talking about, and so we could chalk it upwards to their straight-male person fashion ignorance. Yous could also argue that these designers were doing their job at successfully human being-repelling, another indicator that Serious Mode was difficult at work here. But I'd debate there'due south more to information technology: an entire make of peacocking that's become embedded in our cultural zeitgeist. It's this agony to be unique, to stand up out in the bounding main of mode stars, that has spawned a sartorial genre that many outside our way bubble — including these 3 gentlemen — would deem "ugly."

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This "ugliness" has manifested itself in rigid retro jeans that are neither comfortable nor flattering (the wedgie-inducing style that punches out just a smidge, with a waist that's a touch too high), clunky shoes, frame-swallowing silhouettes, mismatched maximalism, and excessive finishes (by way of ruffles, smooth, beadwork, etc).

A look from Prada's Fall 2016 collection. Photo: Imaxtree

Merely wait, isn't ugliness subjective? Well, yeah, yes it is.

"Beauty is in the center of the beholder, just 'ugly fashion' means 'non the mainstream' — it's not what everyone's wearing, it's not what the full general population deems as 'in' right now," says Megan Collins, a trend forecaster from Trendera, a business firm that analyzes trends through a generational lens. "The conversation between fashion, dazzler and ugliness has ever existed, but this is the outset time we live in a culture where then many people are taking part in this conversation."

There is a difference, though, between ugly fashion and ugly clothing, which celebrity stylist Dani Michelle (who dresses Bella Thorne, Lucy Hale and Kourtney Kardashian) pointed out. "Ugly fashion speaks toward a certain tendency, decade or design that may non be the almost flattering nor aesthetically stunning in the moment," she explains, using her recently purchased "and so ugly, but and then fabulous" purple Preen lamé metallic drawstring dress equally an instance. "Ugly clothing is simply badly designed garments."

So why are we all suddenly into ugly fashion? How did we go hither? There are many influencing factors feeding into the overarching movement, merely the first can be traced back to the ascent of normcore, the anti-fashion attitude that, ironically, became fashionable about three years ago. Coined by trend-forecasting agency K-Hole, normcore sparked the now-ubiquitous extraordinarily average mom/dad jean- and Birkenstock/white sneaker-wearing compatible.

"There was a definite spike in ugly fashion because of normcore," Collins confirms. "Coupled with the rising of Instagram and popularity of fashion bloggers, it really took off. I think at present, more than ever, influencers take to go to more and more than extremes to set the trend, because people are picking information technology upwards so fast — it's becoming mainstream and so fast — so they have to go farther and further to experience different."

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Zanita Whittington, an Australian former model, influencer (she has an Instagram following of 333k and counting) and longtime fashion blogger, tin attest to that.

"Oh my god, it'southward crazy — in that location's so much pressure level that there are days when I'm like, I can't anymore. I started this for fun, only now, I have to mail service constantly and in doing that, I'm going to lose what makes me special, considering I take to keep pulling shit out of my ass," she says candidly, going on to describe herself every bit a magpie, whose aesthetic is part retro, part eclectic. "I'm lucky and I appreciate it, but there's so much noise — style has become and then democratic. Your resources used to only be in New York, London, Milan, and Paris, only now, simply look on Instagram and anybody is fashionable — and if everyone is fashionable, and then how do you stand out from that? Yous go the other manner."

And it's exacerbated past an overwhelming fear of and aversion to being basic (in other words, to be mainstream). It's the ultimate insult to a way insider. "You are ostracized in this manufacture for existence basic," says Sara Holzman, fashion editor at Marie Claire. "I'grand terrified of basicness," Whittington echoes.

"Nosotros live in a world where our lives are constantly on brandish and y'all don't want to be seen as just similar everyone else — we are so concerned with building a personal brand that's unique, special and has a different perspective, so when someone calls you lot bones, information technology'due south fierce downward your whole brand and everything that you've worked so hard to build," Collins says. "I also retrieve more than people are dressing for themselves (versus men or guild), so they are very conscientious about what they're buying and what it says about them. Information technology's likewise why anybody wants something customized — it's special, unique, and we're merely more egotistic than always."

Of course, it helps that designers are supplying these outrageously out-there pieces to fulfill this social media-driven demand, like Vetements and its roster of buzzy collaborations (Juicy Couture onesies, Manolo Blahnik "bants," and Levi's bare-butt jeans for starters), Balenciaga's silhouette-manipulating shapes or Gucci'southward sparkling alien unitard. Stars aren't immune to sartorial controversy, either: In that location was Kendall Jenner and her puzzling janklets, and more recently, Millie Bobby Brown killing it in Topshop's infamous jindows.

Merely as pervasive as it is on street manner, social media and the runways, how body-inclusive is ugly way? "At that place are these behavior that women with bigger sizes have to only wear clothes that are flattering, that they take to follow the rules — but that doesn't accept to be true," says Lauren Chan, onetime plus-size model who's currently the fashion features editor at Glamour. "Plus-size mode is not directional in the style a lot of keen ugly-way pieces are, only I recollect uniqueness can be accomplished with vintage and thrifted way. I wear oversize pieces, menswear and mom jeans all the time, all of which would be considered ugly by a lot of people who are dictating what clothing should look like for plus-size women. It's perceived as ugly considering it's different."

Different, still at the same time, suspiciously familiar — because at the root of ugly fashion is an undercurrent of '90s influence. Information technology'due south the upshot of fashion's cyclical nature and, interestingly enough, Gen Z-er's fascination with the decade.

"Nosotros're seeing, for the offset time, the younger generation is heading up the trends versus the trends trickling downwards, and so teenagers will love something so millennials will selection them upward, because they're then obsessed with being young and absurd," Collins explains. "So with fashion, we're seeing teens reaching back into the past for prevalent labels that were popular in the '90s."

The '90s came to an end eventually — and so, too, will ugly manner, but similar every trend earlier it. And then once ugly fashion becomes mainstream, it volition inevitably flip. And at today's rate of tendency turnovers, that might be sooner than nosotros recollect.

"When any new trend comes out, people hate it, but eventually, everyone loves information technology — the Cyberspace is just making the cycle become much faster," Whittington says. "I personally honey having a unique expression, because without ugly way and diversity, nosotros'd all wait the same. I appreciate annihilation that's out of the norm, even if the rest of the globe is similar, what the hell is going on here?"

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