How trends move

From royal courts to TikTok: why styles rise, die and come back.

1. I

   First, the mechanics: imitation, distinction, and now algorithms.

   No. 061ConceptFashion & Trends

   How trends spread, from royal courts to TikTok →For a century, the theory was that fashion trickled down from the rich. Then it started bubbling up from the street, and now it moves sideways through algorithms in weeks.
2. II

   Then the timeline: why last decade’s look is “hideous” and your grandparents’ is “charming”.

   No. 076LawFashion & Trends

   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.
3. III

   The same cycle in music: a 43-year-old song goes viral.

   No. 121StoryMusic

   A skateboard, a bottle of juice, and a 43-year-old hit →In 2020 a man skateboarded to work drinking cranberry juice and lip-syncing Fleetwood Mac. The video sent “Dreams”, released in 1977, back into the US Top 20.
4. IV

   And a warning: not every neat theory about fashion holds up.

   No. 060ConceptFashion & Trends

   Do skirts really get shorter when the economy booms? →The “hemline index” says hemlines rise with stock prices. It’s usually credited to an economist in 1926, who didn’t actually propose it.