What makes outfits look dated? If you invest in a good working wardrobe, the idea is that it should last you for a long time — and it’s disappointing when they immediately signify to other women “I bought this 5 years ago.” So I thought a fun topic for discussion would be thus: what dates outfits? What are some of the worst offenders you’ve seen? (Pictured: Man – check those shoulder pads!, originally uploaded to Flickr by wbaiv.)
Making my own list has proved more troublesome than I thought it would be. For my $.02, though:
- overly trendy things (such as the exposed zippers that are all the rage right now but will immediately date an outfit to the 2010-2011 time period, unless they stay in fashion
- cyclical fashions — for example right now a rounded toe is more popular, but pointy toes will come back into fashion eventually
- colors that no longer look good on you — for example, very bright colors tend to look best on younger women
- Anything you didn’t see 5 years ago (e.g., the shootie) is likely to date itself
Here’s another fun question: how can a woman buy quality pieces without buying the most boring things in the store? And how do you stay up to date on the latest silhouettes without becoming a slave to fashion? Ladies, when was the first time you realized you were wearing something that you should have retired a while ago?
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Big shoulder pads. A silhouette that differs from the currently popular one. Eighties fashions are very obvious because of the shoulder pads and long, sack-like jackets of some of the suits.
I read a women’s tailoring book that said a lapel of about 3″, in other words, a moderate width, tends to date less fast, and that while one can always narrow a wide lapel, if you buy a jack with narrow ones you have to wait until the style comes back.
Except it never really does. :-)
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