Nobody who knows me would ever say I have any great understanding of fashion. My dress sense is probably best described as bland, middle-of-the-road and safe. I avoid buying visible brands. I buy a lot of navy and black. I don’t knowingly follow trends. I refuse to pay over-the-top prices.
Fashion basically puzzles me. There are even aspects of it that I seriously cannot comprehend or even have a guess at understanding, such as the current craze of wearing ripped jeans.
However, there is one fashion trend that I believe I have gained some insight into – the untucked shirt. When I was growing up, you always tucked your shirt into your trousers. Otherwise, you were deemed scruffy. Nowadays, for both sexes, the untucked shirt is the norm. But why has the fashion changed? Why has this new practice of having your shirt out caught on? Simply, the shirt is used to mask the body’s form.
In women, shirts are worn long and untucked to cover their substantive bottoms.
In men, shirts are worn untucked to cover their over-sized, bulging stomachs.
For both sexes, these are areas of the body that they will be particularly self-conscious of. Anything that can hide or disguise their poor form would be readily seized upon.
Most fashionable trends come and go very quickly. It is one of the great ironies of fashion that, all too often, what starts out as individual rebellion becomes so popular that it no longer carries any personal statement. You become one of the crowd. The fact that these fashionable ideas have hit on a psychological need may explain their enduring success.
This may or may not be a top tip for identifying the next big thing in fashion –I would certainly be wary of taking my advice. However, greater assurance may be had from the foundation of such a fashionable trend, that the key to fashionable success is to find something that taps into a person’s psyche.
If it looks good and also satisfies a wearer’s need then this will massively increase its chances of doing well.
I’ve now got to try to find out what that next big thing is….
Oxthink 