I fall into the "wear dungarees at any opportunity and screw how old I am" camp. I've never been massively into fashion but can resonate with the beige take-over, which I personally resent. It's bland and expressionless. But it does also offer a comfort in knowing where you stand with what to wear in the morning. My anxiety paralyses me sometimes and staring at a colourful wardrobe feels TOO much to choose from (though I always feel comforted in brighter clothing when I've eventually wrestled an outfit on - usually dungarees as per my first point!)
I loooove this 👏 My Vinted recommendations are all the jazziest things because I’m drawn to them like a magpie. My wardrobe problem is having too many patterns, that actually now I think about it SOME would say they clash in a bad way but then aren’t clashing patterns a trend? Who knows, I just wear colourful things because they make me feel good 💚
Do you think this is anything to do with the capsule wardrobe theory? I wonder if that's what people are subconsciously thinking they need to do (and fashion brands are angling towards but in a "this colour jumper with five different necklines" way) - mainly because of people turning against fast fashion and also the fact that, lol, buying more shit is expensive and making decisions about what to wear stresses me out. I still dream of having a capsule wardrobe where only 20 or so items hang airily in my wardrobe and I can ALWAYS see clearly what to wear, and yet...
Yes maybe but the capsule wardrobe theory seems mostly just another way for companies to make you buy more. You need the building blocks, then the accents, then a few new pieces every season. And suddenly it’s not longer capsule anymore, despite your intentions. And though so many people (like me) feel fatigued and disgusted by the overconsumption we’ve engaged in, it’s still very hard to buy 10 things and stick to them religiously. I don’t really believe anyone who says they’ve managed it!
Agree! I have always known that if I ever managed to create the capsule, I'd stick to it for maybe a couple of months. Just more ways to, as you say, spend more money and then ultimately blame myself for failing at it!
I went to an event at the weekend and when I walked into the room it was a sea of beige and black - a slightly different shade of the same outfit for all 40 attendees. I thought long and hard about my outfit - the first glimpses of spring make me immediately reach for colour. I felt very self conscious about the fact I wasn’t deemed ‘on trend’ that afternoon - I wore a long denim blue dress with a pale purple cardi. When I left I stopped at Waitrose and the lady serving me told me she loved the colour of my cardi and suddenly I realised, screw the trends, I love colour!
I dress like a 5 year old and am 55. Beige makes me shrivel and sad and all shops now stock only items I’d not wear if they were free. And the amount of comments I get from women of all ages when they see me on the tube/ in the pub/ in the Tate makes me wonder why everyone is dressing so joylessly. And I think you should bear William Morris in mind and ask if the things in your home are useful AND beautiful because why would you wear clothes that make you feel meh? And age is nothing but a number. Ditch the beige and get back to wearing clothes that make you happy. I went through a phase of merely wearing stuff because it fit/ was cheap: was clean and it was the saddest time of my life. I ended up eventually circling back to my teenage self who would wear curtains and her granddad’s pyjamas and who dyed her hair rainbow and I wished now I’d not wasted a decade on trying to sort of fit in as a new mum and with a new identity to try on
I'm 37 and I feel I stick out like a sore thumb in my wardrobe of shirt dresses with fun prints and colourful midi (and mini) skirts, when everyone else is in beige and grey. I know full well I look like an overgrown six year old. But when I have tried the odd bit of 'quiet luxury' it just doesn't feel right, like I'm a kid playing at being an adult. And then I start getting in my head and being like "but you ARE an adult, dress like one!" It is something I'm weirdly conscious of as I get closer to 40 and I'm quietly hoping trends do come back round to being a bit more colourful before then.
🤣 Love this. 🫶🏻 I also used to dress very fun in my 20s and loved it and now I work from home (in West Yorkshire) and use a treadmill desk to stare at my three screens at my editorial job and, thus, barely have to get out of gym clothes and when I do have to dress to go to the London office once per year I just wear suits which also feel a little boring! I don’t keep up with trends but you’re making me realise my “going out with friends” or “date with husband” outfits are also quite bland these days. I hadn’t really thought about this neutrals trend but it is a thing. 🙈😳 I’ll catch some of those 2010s nostalgia videos from time to time and laugh but at least the style was distinctive. 🤔
I loved loved loved fashion when I was in my 20s. Planning outfits for work every evening, matching those with specific shoes (heels - lol), I still have a pretty hefty wardrobe spanning different styles, but what do I choose to wear on the daily? The same jeans, leggings and jumpers and tees on rotation. It’s given me the kick up the arse to wear something different today!
Yesss Bella! 👏🏼 I hadn’t even thought about it until I read this but you are spot on. I’m always mortified when Facebook reminds me of outfits from c.2008 and as a result my wardrobe is stuffed full of neutrals for fear of repeating such fashion disasters! I think the Kardashians have a lot to answer for with all the minimalist colour palettes. And as does Covid - it really took the wind out of the “have-fun-dressing-up” sails. Bring back bright pink! 🩷
I’m not a mum. But, my style shouts MUM! I mean the whole yoga pants on the bottom and some kind of active shirt on a top. If not someone who just came from the football (playing or watching). My dressier looks are more laid back casual with a cardigan of some kind like a school teacher—one like in her twenties and thirties (because I’m 35). Formal? I don’t know her.
Hell no! Express yourself. Take it from a 50 year old, trends don’t matter! Even Kate Moss disses trends & she knows better than me-see her interview with Bella Freud
I don't know how to dress fun anymore. It's always the jeans and the white shirt and the cardigan and the trench coat. What's even fun? I run from t-shirts even with small print like they're plague. Who made me this way? I used to wear strap tulle dress with jeans when I was 20...
I blame the ridiculous concept that one should have an ‘aesthetic’. I don’t know where this idea came from but it’s created an incredibly restrictive way of thinking about clothes. I think you should dress how you want to feel. If you wear beige you feel beige and be beige. Clothes are the biggest opportunity most of us have each day to express ourselves creatively and also influence how we (and other people) feel. I get such a buzz when someone comments on what I’m wearing, because I made them think and feel something. A part of their brain woke up and remembered colour, shape, fun etc.
Also it’s just not that deep just wear the damn miniskirt.
Entirely agree - I thought it was just because I moved from the UK to The Netherlands and they’re a little less ‘out-there’, but it’s interesting to hear it’s a wider phenomenon. Currently at the level of ‘adding leopard-print neckerchief’ to try and perk things up again. I love seeing other people wearing bold outfits, yet now feel a bit exposed if I do the same… (and I’m 31).
I appreciate quiet luxury on others but I have zero interest in it on me - I can’t keep white/cream/beige/camel clean for 5 mins, for one thing.
Also I need dopamine dressing. It makes this nearly 44 year old feel alive.
I fall into the "wear dungarees at any opportunity and screw how old I am" camp. I've never been massively into fashion but can resonate with the beige take-over, which I personally resent. It's bland and expressionless. But it does also offer a comfort in knowing where you stand with what to wear in the morning. My anxiety paralyses me sometimes and staring at a colourful wardrobe feels TOO much to choose from (though I always feel comforted in brighter clothing when I've eventually wrestled an outfit on - usually dungarees as per my first point!)
I loooove this 👏 My Vinted recommendations are all the jazziest things because I’m drawn to them like a magpie. My wardrobe problem is having too many patterns, that actually now I think about it SOME would say they clash in a bad way but then aren’t clashing patterns a trend? Who knows, I just wear colourful things because they make me feel good 💚
Nothing wrong with making you feel good. My inner children's TV presenter tells me so.
Omg this is what I tell people my style is! Kids TV presenter 😆 (or young art teacher)
48 and just started wearing miniskirts with boots.
But with tights or no?
Do you think this is anything to do with the capsule wardrobe theory? I wonder if that's what people are subconsciously thinking they need to do (and fashion brands are angling towards but in a "this colour jumper with five different necklines" way) - mainly because of people turning against fast fashion and also the fact that, lol, buying more shit is expensive and making decisions about what to wear stresses me out. I still dream of having a capsule wardrobe where only 20 or so items hang airily in my wardrobe and I can ALWAYS see clearly what to wear, and yet...
Yes maybe but the capsule wardrobe theory seems mostly just another way for companies to make you buy more. You need the building blocks, then the accents, then a few new pieces every season. And suddenly it’s not longer capsule anymore, despite your intentions. And though so many people (like me) feel fatigued and disgusted by the overconsumption we’ve engaged in, it’s still very hard to buy 10 things and stick to them religiously. I don’t really believe anyone who says they’ve managed it!
My wardrobe is not a capsule. It's the entire pharmacy.
My wife is working towards a capsule system. Right now every purchase comes with one or two discards. Eventually I might get part of the closet.
Agree! I have always known that if I ever managed to create the capsule, I'd stick to it for maybe a couple of months. Just more ways to, as you say, spend more money and then ultimately blame myself for failing at it!
I went to an event at the weekend and when I walked into the room it was a sea of beige and black - a slightly different shade of the same outfit for all 40 attendees. I thought long and hard about my outfit - the first glimpses of spring make me immediately reach for colour. I felt very self conscious about the fact I wasn’t deemed ‘on trend’ that afternoon - I wore a long denim blue dress with a pale purple cardi. When I left I stopped at Waitrose and the lady serving me told me she loved the colour of my cardi and suddenly I realised, screw the trends, I love colour!
I dress like a 5 year old and am 55. Beige makes me shrivel and sad and all shops now stock only items I’d not wear if they were free. And the amount of comments I get from women of all ages when they see me on the tube/ in the pub/ in the Tate makes me wonder why everyone is dressing so joylessly. And I think you should bear William Morris in mind and ask if the things in your home are useful AND beautiful because why would you wear clothes that make you feel meh? And age is nothing but a number. Ditch the beige and get back to wearing clothes that make you happy. I went through a phase of merely wearing stuff because it fit/ was cheap: was clean and it was the saddest time of my life. I ended up eventually circling back to my teenage self who would wear curtains and her granddad’s pyjamas and who dyed her hair rainbow and I wished now I’d not wasted a decade on trying to sort of fit in as a new mum and with a new identity to try on
I'm 37 and I feel I stick out like a sore thumb in my wardrobe of shirt dresses with fun prints and colourful midi (and mini) skirts, when everyone else is in beige and grey. I know full well I look like an overgrown six year old. But when I have tried the odd bit of 'quiet luxury' it just doesn't feel right, like I'm a kid playing at being an adult. And then I start getting in my head and being like "but you ARE an adult, dress like one!" It is something I'm weirdly conscious of as I get closer to 40 and I'm quietly hoping trends do come back round to being a bit more colourful before then.
🤣 Love this. 🫶🏻 I also used to dress very fun in my 20s and loved it and now I work from home (in West Yorkshire) and use a treadmill desk to stare at my three screens at my editorial job and, thus, barely have to get out of gym clothes and when I do have to dress to go to the London office once per year I just wear suits which also feel a little boring! I don’t keep up with trends but you’re making me realise my “going out with friends” or “date with husband” outfits are also quite bland these days. I hadn’t really thought about this neutrals trend but it is a thing. 🙈😳 I’ll catch some of those 2010s nostalgia videos from time to time and laugh but at least the style was distinctive. 🤔
I loved loved loved fashion when I was in my 20s. Planning outfits for work every evening, matching those with specific shoes (heels - lol), I still have a pretty hefty wardrobe spanning different styles, but what do I choose to wear on the daily? The same jeans, leggings and jumpers and tees on rotation. It’s given me the kick up the arse to wear something different today!
Yesss Bella! 👏🏼 I hadn’t even thought about it until I read this but you are spot on. I’m always mortified when Facebook reminds me of outfits from c.2008 and as a result my wardrobe is stuffed full of neutrals for fear of repeating such fashion disasters! I think the Kardashians have a lot to answer for with all the minimalist colour palettes. And as does Covid - it really took the wind out of the “have-fun-dressing-up” sails. Bring back bright pink! 🩷
I’m not a mum. But, my style shouts MUM! I mean the whole yoga pants on the bottom and some kind of active shirt on a top. If not someone who just came from the football (playing or watching). My dressier looks are more laid back casual with a cardigan of some kind like a school teacher—one like in her twenties and thirties (because I’m 35). Formal? I don’t know her.
Hell no! Express yourself. Take it from a 50 year old, trends don’t matter! Even Kate Moss disses trends & she knows better than me-see her interview with Bella Freud
I don't know how to dress fun anymore. It's always the jeans and the white shirt and the cardigan and the trench coat. What's even fun? I run from t-shirts even with small print like they're plague. Who made me this way? I used to wear strap tulle dress with jeans when I was 20...
I blame the ridiculous concept that one should have an ‘aesthetic’. I don’t know where this idea came from but it’s created an incredibly restrictive way of thinking about clothes. I think you should dress how you want to feel. If you wear beige you feel beige and be beige. Clothes are the biggest opportunity most of us have each day to express ourselves creatively and also influence how we (and other people) feel. I get such a buzz when someone comments on what I’m wearing, because I made them think and feel something. A part of their brain woke up and remembered colour, shape, fun etc.
Also it’s just not that deep just wear the damn miniskirt.
ABJ baby! ✨
Entirely agree - I thought it was just because I moved from the UK to The Netherlands and they’re a little less ‘out-there’, but it’s interesting to hear it’s a wider phenomenon. Currently at the level of ‘adding leopard-print neckerchief’ to try and perk things up again. I love seeing other people wearing bold outfits, yet now feel a bit exposed if I do the same… (and I’m 31).