This past summer I had the realization that we are all slaves to trends. Not all, of course, some people wear the same cargo khakis and t-shirts their whole lives, and if they are comfortable with that, then carry on, god speed. But most people at least to some degree follow trends, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We all want to fit in, or stand out, or be different, or whatever. Often, standing out and being different turns into trends and then what once was eye catching becomes common, and trend setters have to keep pushing the bounds. This is the natural cycle of style. So this past summer I remember showing up to meet some friends in Hell’s Kitchen and I was wearing the ubiquitous heather grey deep neck V t-shirt and jeans…similar to this fellow:

The first few times I wore this sort of shirt it elicited comments or laughs…which is the point of wearing what we wear right? To be noticed? To stand out? By the third or forth time, it became common place, people expected everyone to be wearing such shirts. They were everywhere. So the V’s started getting deeper, and the pants started getting shorter…and I thought to myself, ’self, this is a ridiculous trend. This may be the first trend I’ve followed that I’ll look back on and laugh in 20 years.’

In the 60s, it was tie die ponchos and birkenstocks, the 70s polyester suits, the 80s….well we all know what the 80s were all about. I imagine that back in those days people saw these trends developing, dabbled in some new outfits, and received laughs and comments. But then after awhile it became common place, everyone was doing it. So it got bigger and better, bell bottoms got wider, neon vests got shinier, hair got first longer, then bigger. And it was 100% serious in the moment, just like we are 100% serious right about about hipster moustaches, skinny high-water jeans, and ray ban sunglasses. (maybe not 100% serious…websites like www.latfh.com parody at least the hipster movement. Surely there were similar sentiments during all the previous trend decades, but there wasn’t an easy universal outlet like we have today with the interwebs). So I’ll leave you with this picture…surely our fathers looked like this one day. And one day, our children will look at pictures of us and laugh just as much.