the eighties

Everything comes and everything goes, especially the style of human kind. The Jane Birkin era seems to have resurfaced, bringing the hippie 60s back to the forefront of fashion, and the wild, Madonna-like creativity has brought the 80s and 90s back to the future. The jean skirt was once a prized item at every one of my middle school dances, classically paired with a graphic tee from either Abercrombie or American Eagle. Upon stepping out of the ever-wonderful preteen years, however, the jean skirt found its place behind the drawers in my closet, behind mismatched socks and shoes two sizes too small. And yet, for some strange reason, it's come back. The jean skirt is cool again - cool enough to wear to parties that involve a little bit more mixing between the sexes, cool enough to make it onto covers of magazines. Not only have jean skirts been brought out of the dusty corners of millennials' closets, but they have evolved into pieces with asymmetrical seams and frayed hems, a couture rebirth.

It's like that song: make new friends but keep the old. There is always room to grow, but with that growth, things of the past come to light, this time making newer, more complex shadows as they move. We always wish we had kept onto certain parts of our past, knowing they could have been essential parts of ourselves later on. And while this cyclical nature of style poses an interesting dilemma for originality - it also elucidates an important feature of innovation. We often forget that novelty rests in the arms of the familiar; we create based on what we know, what has been woven within us. Everything comes and goes; the plane taking off will inevitably return, the bird returns to its nest every evening. We now find striped, rust colored sweaters paired with blazers and high waters in our shopping bags; pleated pants and high neck shirts, puffy sleeves and velvet blazers are now hanging in the front of our closets. 

We keep circling, the past and the present intertwining, a new product emerging with each rotation. It is a time to move forwards, but still not yet time to forget.