Source: YellowBrix, The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)

Third Age

Posted in Fashion & Personal Style

Retro fashion is soooooo 21st century. But seriously, since fashion is cyclical, we can always find styles from a previous era. Just look at photos by Gordon Parks, currently on display at the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University. Those photos were taken half a century ago, but its 50s fashion trends are still around in many of the gowns and accessories today.

That wasn't always the case.

Fashion designers used to revive styles when they were inspired by looks from a previous decade. Perhaps it was the strong shoulder treatment of the '40s or shirt dresses reminiscent of the '50s or loose silhouettes and diaphanous fabrics from the '20s.

But fashion has a faster and farther reach today.

"In the last half of the 20th century, fashion sped up to such a frantic turnover that the demand for different designs did not allow for much innovation and it was necessary for desperate designers to research, rehash and revive the recent past," said David Wolfe, a New York fashion trend consultant for the Doneger Group.

These days, designers are reviving many decades in one season, and that holds true season after season, he said.

"It is possible to buy new items that look like virtually every decade from the '20s to 2000," Wolfe said.

He noted something else of interest: It used to be that people expected the fashion industry to innovate, surprise and even shock them with "the look" of a new season. Today, that expectation falls to the electronics industry, Wolfe said.

"The constant scientific innovation now provides what fashion design used to," he said.

So as you look longingly at the chic models in a Gordon Parks photo, rest assured you, too, can find a peplum, a billowing gown, even long gloves.

But to make a true fashion statement you'll have to pull the latest and greatest cell phone out of your handbag.