I had to get new glasses last year and I was annoyed at the limited selection of frames. They all seemed to be square with heavy wire or plastic. They looked like something out of 1950. I had to ask myself, are these the only choices because everyone likes this style, or is it because a select few in the fashion world arbitrarily set the trend? It seemed to me that the latter was more likely the case. After all everyone defers to fashion meccas like Milan, Paris and New York when deciding on what looks good to wear. Clothing designers go to the big industry shows to see what's coming down the pike so they can design clothes to sell to the retailers. You get the whole package at these shows flaunting everything on the models from the underwear to the eye wear. So how do these so-called top designers get this much sway when it comes to fashion. People get bored. Simple. Every year people want something different from the year before. But not necessarily because they love it so much, but because that's what's there. If you watch a shopper in a clothing store you'll notice they will look at everything in the store if they don't spot something they like. Teens, trying to establish their coolness among peers eventually buy what everyone else buys. The largest demographic for the clothing industry are females between 10 and 35. Males between 12 and 25 are the second largest. These groups buy most of the clothing and change there styles more often. But they don't make their own clothes, and they don't necessarily buy old clothes. So what freedom of selection do they have? None. I think they talk themselves into certain styles because they see other people wearing it just like I had to do with the glass frames I eventually got. I didn't like the look of them on me and frankly they make me look uptight. I first started wearing glasses when I was in grade nine. I was a huge John Denver fan at the time so I tried to get granny glasses like his. Unfortunately, they didn't have his style of frames, so I settled on something else similar. Plus I didn't want everyone at school thinking I was an obsessed John Denver fan.
Fashion, like history, repeats itself. Eventually a style from ten or fifteen years earlier will come back into vogue. Look at bell bottoms, long hair, tie-dyed t-shirts, and canvas running shoes. Look at fishnet stockings. Even granny glasses will make a comeback, you watch. All things that fell out of favour at one time and have made comebacks to one degree or another. The only thing different in fashion these days is how quickly previous styles are cycled through. Eventually you will see something in the clothing stores that you actually like, but don't be fooled; it's not freedom of fashion choice, it just happens to be the style available that year because someone in Milan or New York deemed it so.
