If you were given a new wardrobe but every item had to be from just one particular decade or century, which would you choose?
Mode.com made two really cool videos in 2015 about how fashion has evolved for both men and women over the last 100 years. Let’s take a look!
The 20th century started strong with this Sherlock Holmes-style look in 1915:
The next decade was (at least in retrospect) single-handedly defined by one man: Jay Gatsby.
Of course the splendor of that decade would receive a strong damper after the Great Crash of 1929. But I think having to recover made male fashion even stronger, because in 1935 there’s a hint of reserve added to the 1920s sense of style.
This makes a man look serene, yet solemn, gangster, yet gentleman all at once:
All of that is washed away in the 40s and replaced with more monotonous colors, which scream “I don’t want to be noticed, I’m keeping my head down, leave me alone.”
With the aftermath of WWII still shaking the entire world, there’s not much to peacock about:
The 1950s brought enough distance to those events, but not enough for the youngsters not to rebel against their parents’ generation, which led to this embodiment of cool, of “I don’t give a fuck about anything” in fashion:
After that, what happened for the next 30 years is completely lost on me, to be honest. Whatever was going on in the 1960s…
…70s…
…and 80s…
…there must have been a lot of confusion. About everything. Nobody knew where things were going, except that they seemed to continue to go up.
So why not party like there’s no tomorrow? Clearly though, this generation of celebration was cut short just a little, because given this outfit, I wouldn’t want to party like it’s 1999, would you?
I think the message was: “I’m too busy starting an internet company to worry about what I’m wearing.” Some people faired well with that attitude.
Being born in 1991, the look from 2005 is the first one that really looks “normal” to me. I’d wear that any day of the week, unless the shirt was made by Ed Hardy, that party’s over too.
I think 2015 resembles 1945 a lot. The elements of crisis have shifted, of course, but the shock of 2008 still lingers and it’s got us focused on functional, yet not entirely dull clothing.
Which one would I pick?
Well, let’s just say I hope by the time 2025 rolls around, we get some of that 1935 boldness back to re-create the perfect mix of everything a man should stand for:
Comments