Trends: From Past to Present

As you walk through the halls of Northwood, genie pants, ripped jeans and tie-dye shirts are easy to spot. Both students and teachers agree that these seem to be the most current fads of this generation, but one must first know what a trend is to pick the most current out of a crowd.

    English teacher Kathleen Greenlee explained the cycle of a fad.

    “A fad is something that starts elsewhere and catches on and makes its way through countries,” Greenlee said. “Once its popularity goes down, it moves on and a new one comes in.”

    Most fads come in fast and tend to fade out. However, some trends are seemingly permanent.

    “When I was in high school, it was pretty popular to wear faded or ripped-up jeans,” Greenlee said. “But they were ripped up because we owned them for a long time, not because we bought them that way.”

    The “ripped jeans” trend started when ‘80s rock and punk musicians wore the same pair of jeans to nearly every gig until they were in such bad shape that they couldn’t wear them anymore. Social studies teacher Sara Keever talked about a similar trend from when she was in high school.

    “The big style was grunge,” Keever said. “People would wear flannels and ripped up, baggy jeans. I’ve seen a lot of students getting back into that, but their jeans are skinny instead.”

    Trends come and go and people’s interests change. Northwood is home to many progressing fads, including Nike shorts and maxi skirts.

    Other trends at Northwood include leggings, flannels, jean jackets and genie pants. Junior Skylar Farrell has seen many students wearing jean jackets.

    “I think that jean jackets can go well with some outfits, but I often feel like kids will overuse them sometimes,” Farrell said. “Some people just don’t really know how to piece them together.”

    Jean jackets have been around since the mid-1950s when actor James Dean sported them with a “bad boy” vibe. Now they’re used to keep warm in the fall when wearing a sundress, to cover up a shirt that goes against Northwood’s dress code or to just toughen up a look.

    Today, social media impacts the life cycle of fads by communicating pop culture faster. Actors, artists, musicians and celebrities tend to have some sort of social media. Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, the icons of current pop culture unintentionally promote trends that they enjoy.

    A few decades ago, Stevie Nicks managed to do this without a social media platform.

    “Stevie Nicks was coming into her solo career when I was in high school, and I loved her,” Greenlee said. “She wore all the flowy, gypsy kind of stuff. Whether it was in fashion or not, I wore it.”

    Stevie Nicks was a primary influence for a lot of young adults in the ‘80s. Her free spirited personality inspired many.

    MC Hammer also made a trend fashionable: parachute pants.

    “You call them genie pants, but we call them parachute pants,” Greenlee said.

    Genie pants have become increasingly popular at Northwood just in the last year. Though parachute pants were a unisex trend, modern genie pants have taken a feminine twist on the fad.

    The cycle of fads are so turbulent that predicting what trend will make a “comeback” next is nearly impossible.

    “It seems like everything circles in and circles out,” Greenlee said. “If I had saved my clothes from when I was a teenager, my daughter would probably want to wear them now.”

– By Eva Willauer