ALFREDO MENDOZA
Staff Writer
From the glamorous Maude styles of the 60s to the funkadelic disco ladies of the 70s, we’ve seen our fair share of trends. You see, trends in fashion and pop culture have a twenty-year rule where they come back every twenty years. For example, the big bows and fishnets of the 80s came back in the early 2000s (twenty years later) and were known as the “scene kid” aesthetic. Speaking of the early 2000s when this all started, the recession hit and we were forced to throw out ideals of flaunting luxury and the use of logos because it was seen as tacky. This played in with the simple minimalistic style we know today as 2010s fashion and trends which honestly only made matters much worse. We witnessed style aesthetics such as blogger, kawaii, hipster, twee, swag, boho-chic, grunge, pastel goth, artsy, and lumberjack. All a part of the awful mixing pot that was in this era. While some trends before this era flopped others consistently made a table-turning comeback. As for the 2010s, it was more like the worst of the trends from the 90s, and then some, all piled up into a hot mess. (Disclaimer if you’re reading this and own one of these trends, this is just my opinion you are entitled to your own style take this with a grain of salt)
The Lita Shoe
As it was mentioned earlier, the recession, like any other economic status, affected this era greatly. One of the ways this was accomplished was through the shoes of this decade. You see it has been proven that when financial times are tough the shoe gets higher and more out-of-the-box with its designs. This is due to the fact that we as a society generally turns to our fashion as an escape from the reality of economic struggle. As you noticed with the Lita shoe and even more recently the platforms of 2020 when everything was collapsing. Going back to the main topic the ¨Lita shoe¨ was the shoe of the decade taking over Tumblr and Instagram by storm. One thing that sold this shoe was the millions of tacky and overdone patterns from studs, to American flags, glitter, and beyond. These took on from the combat boots of the 90s but transformed them into something for all millennials. Overall the sheer chunkiness of the boot is seen as outdated now, even with the chunky platform shoes we have today these just miss the mark…by a lot.
Jeggings
Jeggings were a worldwide phenomenon that was marketed as the ¨perfect¨ alternative to jeans. Essentially they were a bad hybrid of jeans and leggings which is how they got their names. At their core, they were really just leggings with a jean print, made up of spandex or stretchy material. The original appeal of this item was seen as an affordable product that you could take almost anywhere. While I commend it for being an alternative for someone who may not be able to fit into the regular jean-pant, I still see it as a tacky and lazy way of styling clothing for the average person. It honestly just doesn’t look right and has an off-putting feeling with it being tighter than skinny jeans which also fails to be fashionable.
Gladiator sandals
Clearly inspired by the mighty gladiators before Christ, these were brought on in the 2010s to match the boho-chic aesthetic that ruled over all festival girls and reigned supreme in the “Coachella” sections of Tumblr. Back in its heyday, this was seen as a way of expressing yourself as this free spirit flower child type of person. These sandals were not only silly and downright ugly, but they were also reported to be a pain to wear and left you with the weirdest tan lines. Seeing this now it appears very outdated and has been replaced by similar but classier aesthetics like cottage-core.
High-Low Dress
I have one word for this…AWKWARD, actually I have many words for this specific dress cut. This unflattering and atrocious type of dress was brought into this era as a staple in high fashion and eventually affordable brands caught on. This garment looked like a lazy unfinished mess. It truly did nothing for the people wearing it other than give the illusion of having short pudgy and corgi-like legs. It’s a wonder as to why so many designers and fast fashion brands took on this design but all I can say is I’m ecstatic it’s gone, now let’s just hope it stays there.
Flower crown
Due to the rise of vintage American aesthetics mixed with the boho festival craze thanks to Lana del Ray and Tumblr, we got flower crowns. Flower crowns were seen absolutely everywhere from stores like Claires to music videos and especially Coachella, people were obsessed with the fantasy. Well, I’m here to give the reality check and say how dumb it was to walk around with plastic flowers on your head. I’m a firm believer in ¨to each their own¨ but from a fashion perspective, this accessory was overdone and uninspired.
Galaxy Print
Tying in with the tiring kawaii and artsy aesthetics that we saw all across the world, galaxy print was spreading like wildfire. It was on absolutely everything, you had to be there to know that it was on shirts, leggings, mugs, backpacks and even hair there really was no escape. In the 60s and 2000s, we saw a well-done cyber and space craze bleed into fashion gracefully. But when looking at the 2010s there really wasn’t anything there but an overdone print.
Mustaches
For what? Seriously, why was this even as big as it was? It started out as a way to spread awareness for men’s health issues. It backfired very quickly and everyone and their moms had mustaches everywhere. Like galaxy print, this was on everything scarves. Necklaces, headbands you couldn’t leave the house without seeing this. I blame the hipster/lumberjack aesthetic that was on all of the men’s fashion magazines of the time. Enough said about this horrendous trend that I honestly believe that due to its level of cringe, it will never come back, thankfully.
Colorful Skinny Jeans
These days skinny jeans by themselves are already seen as ugly and unflattering by most people. The fact that people walked around wearing skinny jeans in bright colors is already very telling of how much the times have changed. I myself even wanted a pair, thankfully they didn’t make a lot of options for people my age at the time. There’s not a lot to say as to the aesthetics of this but just the look of these jeans screams outdated. It also doesn’t do a lot for the shape of a person and doesn’t go with anything in mind. Not even wearing this in a monochromatic fashion would save this. It’s just a loud and obnoxious way of saying ¨ïm trying too hard to be casual¨ but make it hot pink.
Chevron
This trend came to us in the 2010s as part of the blogger/boho aesthetic but where it got its root is far more important. This is yet again another example of major fashion companies stealing other people’s culture and whitewashing it to fit the mainstream. This pattern is crucial to Native American culture, yet these companies continued to water it down to nothing but an old trend. Because of this, it definitely makes it on the list considering how insensitive and morally wrong it was.
The Valentino RockStud
This was first seen at the start of this famous era on the Valentino runway. The luxury brand then manufactured and sold shoes like this all over America. Soon (due to capitalism) many more affordable brands pushed knockoffs to the rack like crazy. Even today every time I look at the shoes in Ross, I always find the infamous rock stud. In my opinion, what makes it unappealing is the full design of the shoe. At large the designers tried to merge two polar opposite styles, soft grunge and elegant, and it did them no favors. It mostly just looks like a tacky heel trying too hard to be rock and roll. What’s worse is that it didn’t stop at high heels. It was the lita shoes from before, jeans, jackets, headbands, you name it they made it. While it’s not the worst one on the list it still isn’t good, not by a long shot.
This concludes my opinion on some of the worst fashion trends in history that just so happen to have all happened at the same time. I think it’s safe to say that this generation made some questionable decisions regarding how they dressed. Personally, I feel like this era had everything I hate in fashion, it was pushing minimalism but still looked like they tried too hard, cultural appropriation, skinny jeans, and just overall cringe. Lastly, this is just my opinion, wear what makes you happy! Fashion is universal.