I was scrolling down my For You page the other day and came across a chaotic “get ready with me” video. The fit in question was cute, but some choices were made: heeled flip flops paired with camo cargos, a visible thong, and a pastel cardigan set like the ones my mom used to buy her aunts when I was young. The first comment read, “I unironically like this??” and, dear reader, it sent me into a spiral. How did we get here? How did the habit of “ironically liking things” take over so many of our sartorial choices? Can we ironically like our way into everything?
Irony, after all, is how we ended up with some of the biggest trends du jour. Crocs and Birkenstocks were once considered ugly, even dorky shoes, but the former has received the Balenciaga treatment and the latter has been reimagined by Rick Owens, Jil Sander, and Proenza Schouler et al. Likewise, the lowrise jeans and neon colors of Y2K we once despised have made their return, as have ’80s puff sleeves and lamé everything.
Some of this is due to the absurdity of online culture–fashion as meme, one could say–but it’s not really a new thing. The adoption of once unthinkable garments goes at least as far back as Miuccia Prada’s pivotal spring 1996 “ugly chic” collection. As we now use irony to resurface past trends we had formerly sworn off, it’s time to place bets on what the internet may resurface next.
Read ahead for three trends we once loved, then left behind, that could be poised for another comeback.
Over-the-Knee Jorts
I remember the day I opened TikTok and saw that the topic du jour was the inseam length of men’s shorts. “Time to switch to the 5”s, king,” was a typical refrain. Menswear has leaned hard into short-shorts, ribbed tank tops, and camp collared shirts this summer.
But I sense a shift incoming. Bella Hadid and Megan Markle were recently spotted wearing wide, long shorts, and some of my more fashionable male friends (most of them queer) have started sporting jorts, usually cut-offs of already oversized thrifted jeans, and bermuda shorts as ironic reinterpretations of dorky dad and uber-masculine dude staples. We recently saw baggy, over-the-knee shorts at Martine Rose, Givenchy, Undercover, and JW Anderson. Feel free to hold on to your 5” inseams, boys, but it won’t belong before those 12”ers are back in the mainstream.
Peplums
When I was 15, every single quinceañera dress my friends bought had a peplum. From the runways of Victoria Beckham and Alexander McQueen to Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl to the racks of Forever 21, the nipped-waist/flared-hip shape had taken over.
The fact that you can spot peplums on a Hellenic statue of Athena, a Renaissance painting, and a Christian Dior New Look suit gives a sense of just how long they’ve been around for. At the moment, peplums are sort of uncool, a symbol of unrelatable upper class dressing or a too-recent reminder of the 2010s. But leave it to the TikTok kids to reclaim them–I’ve recently spotted two fit-check videos on my For You page featuring peplums. One by a girl who often dresses minimally and on-trend, and one by another who tends to go for the most maximalist combination of pieces possible. Not sure how I feel about this yet, but I have to report that they both made them work. As much as my friends say that they’d never wear a peplum again, all it will take is the right cool designer to make them change their minds.
Bandage Dresses
Hervé Léger’s bandage dresses had an—ahem—powerful hold on women in the 2000s. But the emergence in 2010 of Phoebe Philo-style minimalism and the circa 2015 rise of gender fluidity à la Gucci’s Alessandro Michele diminished their popularity. Then along came the celebrity stylist Law Roach (of Zendaya and Anya Taylor-Joy fame). Roach collaborated with the Hervé Léger brand on its resort 2023 collection, not too long after outfitting Tiffany Haddish in two dresses by the label in 2021.
The bandage dress look is tricky to pull off; the days of towering platform stilettos, orange spray tans, and voluminous Victoria Secret Angel hair seem to be behind us, but the dresses are once again gaining traction. We might have moved on from these beauty and style trends that by now look anachronistic at best, but who said the dresses can’t make a return?
So, can we ironically like our way into everything? The answer seems to be yes. After all, bad taste is subjective, and as I like to tell myself, allowing ourselves to change our minds is a sign of growth. Think of this as the fashion equivalent to the viral kombucha girl video. Plus, ever heard of it’s so bad it’s good? That applies to our outfits, too. We often go back to things that appealed to us in the past, so never say never, and maybe call your parents to see if they still have some of your old clothes… you might need them soon.
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