Why your parents’ clothes look ridiculous, and your grandparents’ look charming
In 1937 a museum curator mapped how we feel about a style over time: “indecent” ten years early, “hideous” ten years late, “charming” after seventy.
James Laver was a curator of costume at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In Taste and Fashion (1937) he compressed the life of a style into one timeline:
| When | How the style looks |
|---|---|
| 10 years before its time | Indecent |
| 5 years before | Shameless |
| 1 year before | Daring |
| Current | Smart |
| 1 year after | Dowdy |
| 10 years after | Hideous |
| 20 years after | Ridiculous |
| 30 years after | Amusing |
| 50 years after | Quaint |
| 70 years after | Charming |
| 100 years after | Romantic |
| 150 years after | Beautiful |
Why it rings true
The worst moment for a style is 10–20 years after it peaks, when it’s associated with people just older than you: your parents, your older siblings, your own embarrassing photos. Once that generation has moved on, the style loses its associations and can become amusing, then retro, then something to revive.
That’s why fashion keeps “rediscovering” decades about 20–30 years back: the 1970s in the 1990s, the 1990s in the 2010s, and the 2000s (“Y2K”) in the 2020s.
Take it lightly
Laver never offered it as a scientific law, and fashion historians have criticised his theories as oversimplified. The exact numbers don’t hold, and today’s cycles are much faster. But the shape of the curve, with repulsion first and nostalgia later, is a useful mental model for clothes, music, furniture, fonts and slang.
Bring it up
“There’s a 1937 rule that predicts clothes look hideous ten years after they’re fashionable, and charming seventy years later.”
Follow the thread
- RelatedDo skirts really get shorter when the economy booms? Another attempt to find a simple rule behind fashion.
- Leads toHow trends spread, from royal courts to TikTok Laver describes how we feel about a style over time; trend-spreading models explain how it moves between people.
- Same patternA skateboard, a bottle of juice, and a 43-year-old hit Revivals happen once something is old enough to feel new again.
- RelatedWhy lottery winners aren’t as happy as you’d think What was exciting quickly becomes normal, then tired.
