If you can dream it, you can do it
Walt Disney
In those few, direct words Walt Disney captured the spirit of America. The very founding of the country was a dream realized. Fashion, too, allows the individual or an entire generation to dream of a new way forward and to express it in clothing. In the 20th century, America began to break with centuries of tradition and to challenge outdated roles and norms in dress. Two World Wars had demonstrated that women were intelligent, strong, capable and economically valuable. A generation dreamed of what could be and it was expressed in fashion. The fifty years between the 1976 Bicentennial and 2026 saw astounding changes in dress and the changes moved faster than ever.
The Bicentennial had Americans looking back with pride and nostalgia at their remarkable progress. Clothing expressed this mood with prairie dresses, denim and western wear and lots of red, white and blue color combinations. This brief bit of nostalgia was quickly taken over by the glitz of disco. Glittering disco balls and strobe lights lit up night clubs as dancers shimmied in sequins, shiny satin shirts and platform shoes (see Dressing To Dazzle: Sequins For The Holidays and Everyday also Too Hot to Handle: The History of the Coolest Styles). Jeans became coveted status symbols as designer names replaced the functional Levis basic brand. Fun, but also excessive, and the culture moved on, especially women’s clothing. From over-the-top 1970’s disco style, women became serious and entered the corporate world armed with advanced college degrees and “power suits.”
In the 1980’s, women entered executive offices clad in feminized men’s suits, featuring overly padded shoulders paired with silk blouses and a neck scarf, slim skirts and pumps—clothing used to project power and authority. While this revolution was playing out in boardrooms, another was taking place in gyms and fitness centers.
Men had their racquet ball and squash courts and women jumped into aerobics, pulling on bright Lycra leggings, leg warmers and headbands. They danced and stepped to beats pumped out by MTV music stars, viewed as fashion icons such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. Fitness spawned a fashion fad but all this energy was intense and, by the 1990’s, America began to relax.
The strict structure in business attire relaxed in the 1990’s with the introduction of “Casual Fridays.” Gradually, a new paradigm evolved and Casual Friday became Business Casual all the time. Americans liked the more relaxed attitude and adopted it as the new American style identity. And, perhaps predictably, this led to the next phase of youth driven style: Grunge.
Since the 1960’s, the youth market had been the driving influence in America. From basic blue jeans and T-shirts, to designer jeans, grunge was now another home- grown American style. It grew out of Seattle Washington, totally rejecting polished fashion and focusing on torn and faded jeans, flannel shirts and oversized sweaters. It joined hands with hip-hop culture and its askew baseball caps, status sneakers and outsized jewelry. Street wear was now driving American fashion.
Digital age fashion moved fast and, by the early 2,000’s, it was celebrity culture that dominated with “reality” TV, entertainment and designer dressed red-carpet events. The emergence of “fast fashion” reproduced these clothes within weeks at extremely low prices. Instead of seasonal collections, there were “new drops” almost weekly, encouraging consumption. This raised ethical and sustainable concerns with consumers, environmental groups and even within the garment industry. Recycling and closed loop production in many forms appeared.
Just as fashion was accelerating to maximum speed, 2020 and Covid slammed on the brakes. Everything shut down. Work from home required a bare minimum of dressing from the shoulders up. When the country finally emerged, “revenge dressing” had everyone remembering how good it feels to celebrate life with style, color, a flattering, silhouette and self-expression.
Behind the early 21st century decades, a few visionaries were dreaming up a future that has come to be called artificial intelligence. Aided by AI, clothing designers can now see their ideas through in just days and even 3-D print their own unique fabrications. Consumers can use the new technology to try on clothes without ever getting undressed. Predicting the future is impossible (even for AI). What is certain is that, in the 250 years of America’s fashion history, what has changed most is a philosophy and identity of dress. Fashion is now for everyone. Style is how the individual blends this history to express the Purely Personal.
Now, Get Dressed!
